Getting SSH server unreachable error when executing ansible scripts

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1

Hi Team, I’m running an Ansible playbook with Python 3.8.23 and Ansible 2.9.27 to maintain compatibility with some existing scripts. When executing the playbook, I’m encountering the following SSH error:

fatal: [host-alias.domain.example.com]: UNREACHABLE! => {
“changed”: false,
“msg”: “Failed to connect to the host via ssh: OpenSSH_9.6p1 Ubuntu-3ubuntu3.12, OpenSSL 3.0.13 30 Jan 2024\r
debug1: Reading configuration data /home/user/.ssh/config\r
debug1: /home/user/.ssh/config line 10: Applying options for domain.example.com\r
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config\r
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 21: include /etc/ssh/ssh_config.d/*.conf matched no files\r
debug1: expanded UserKnownHostsFile ‘~/.ssh/known_hosts2’ → ‘/home/user/.ssh/known_hosts2’\r
debug1: expanded UserKnownHostsFile ‘~/.ssh/known_hosts’ → ‘/home/user/.ssh/known_hosts’\r
debug1: identity file /home/user/.ssh/id_privx type -1\r
debug1: identity file /home/user/.ssh/id_privx-cert type -1\r
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_9.6p1 Ubuntu-3ubuntu3.12\r
debug1: Connection timed out during banner exchange\r
kex_exchange_identification: Connection to UNKNOWN port 65535 timed out\r”,
“unreachable”: true
}

  • Manual SSH works fine using privx-cmd.exe
  • The same server is reachable via `ping’
  • SSH config points to privx-cmd proxy command.
  • Problem occurs only during ansible playbook execution

How can I resolve the SSH UNREACHABLE error when using Ansible with PrivX proxy-based SSH while manual SSH works fine?

Any pointers or experiences appreciated. Thanks.

2

full output of the the task with -vvv would help, it will show the actual ssh command ansible is running and you can probably see what the issue is there.