# Error: unable to find user root error

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** vmware, ansible-navigator, aap, community-general, ee\
**Created:** [July 21, 2025, 10:59am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964 "2025-07-21T10:59:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bmohanraj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@bmohanraj](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bmohanraj)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 10:59am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964/1 "2025-07-21T10:59:57Z")

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**Getting unable to find root user error with communit-ee image in AAP**.

- I am using community.vmware module to automate vm create and delete in vxrails.
- Below command works fine from my local linux machine.
- ansible-navigator run vm.yml --execution-environment-image [Package community-ee-base · GitHub](http://ghcr.io/ansible-community/community-ee-base:latest) --mode stdout --pull-policy missing
- but getting below error when try to run the same from AAP.

```auto
- Error: unable to find user root: no matching entries in passwd file

```

How to fix this issue.

Thanks,  
Mohan

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**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964/2 "2025-07-21T15:25:21Z")

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I have no `community-ee` or AAP experience but baseed on the error message I would suggest you check if there a `root` user in `/etc/passwd` on the server in question?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bmohanraj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@bmohanraj](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bmohanraj)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964/3 "2025-07-21T15:43:53Z")

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yes I could find the root user present in the /etc/passwd

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964/4 "2025-07-21T15:53:18Z")

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If there a `root` user in `/etc/passwd` on both the target(s) and controller then I have no further suggestions, sorry.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bmohanraj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@bmohanraj](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bmohanraj)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964/5 "2025-07-21T16:32:33Z")

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This role run on the localhost, so there is no inventory I used.  
controller means the EE container or controller host?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mariolenz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/mariolenz/32/108_2.png) [@mariolenz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mariolenz)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964/6 "2025-07-21T17:28:29Z")

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I’m not using AAP or EEs, but:

> [@bmohanraj](#):
>
> `- Error: unable to find user root: no matching entries in passwd file`

looks weird to me. I can’t remember having seen this error with `community.vmware` before, and I’ve seen a lot. Actually, the modules in the collection don’t care about /etc/passwd because they’re talking to the vSphere (vCenter or ESXi) API. So I guess it has something to do with AAP and / or EEs. Although there _might_ be an issue in case you’re using guest customization. On the other hand, in that case it should also fail if you try to run this manually. Which is not the case, as far as I understand. So ATM looking at the configuration of AAP or the EE is my best bet.

Maybe it would help to provide some more information, like your playbook and where it fails. Or at least the task that fails.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bmohanraj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@bmohanraj](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bmohanraj)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-unable-to-find-user-root-error/43964/7 "2025-07-21T17:52:18Z")

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thats the only error in the job output, it does not even start run my playbook.