# How to debug authentication failure **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [April 12, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405 "2012-04-12T20:22:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dan8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/258eb7/32.png) [@Dan8](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dan8)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405/1 "2012-04-12T20:22:31Z")
Debugging help? ansible all -k -m ping SSH password: xsdsyb01 | FAILED =\> FAILED: Authentication failed. However I can ssh easily to the server and the key is fine, see no password promt e93204@dhcp66238:~$ ssh xsdsyb01 Last login: Thu Apr 12 15:12:07 2012 from dhcp66105.swaco (-bash) e93204@xsdsyb01 ~\> Also- when hosts contains loopback, everything seems to work... e93204@dhcp66238:~$ echo "127.0.0.1" \> ~/ansible\_hosts e93204@dhcp66238:~$ export ANSIBLE\_HOSTS=~/ansible\_hosts e93204@dhcp66238:~$ ansible all -m ping --ask-pass SSH password: 127.0.0.1 | success \>\> {     "ping": "pong" } ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405/2 "2012-04-12T20:26:10Z")
If you don’t have a password prompt when logging in normally, you don’t have a need to use -k, and it will just use your keys. -k (AKA --askpass) uses SSH by password. -a and -s were taken, -k doesn’t stand for --key or anything like that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Seth\_Vidal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Seth\_Vidal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Seth_Vidal)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405/3 "2012-04-12T20:36:51Z")
> Debugging help? > > ansible all -k -m ping > SSH password: > xsdsyb01 | FAILED =\> FAILED: Authentication failed. ^^^^ here you're logging in as root. > However I can ssh easily to the server and the key is fine, see no > password promt > e93204@dhcp66238:~$ ssh xsdsyb01 > Last login: Thu Apr 12 15:12:07 2012 from dhcp66105.swaco > > (-bash) e93204@xsdsyb01 ~\> ^^^ here you're logging in as a user. try: ssh root@xsdsyb01 and see what works or doesn't work. > Also- when hosts contains loopback, everything seems to work... > e93204@dhcp66238:~$ echo "127.0.0.1" \> ~/ansible\_hosts > e93204@dhcp66238:~$ export ANSIBLE\_HOSTS=~/ansible\_hosts > e93204@dhcp66238:~$ ansible all -m ping --ask-pass > SSH password: > 127.0.0.1 | success \>\> { >     "ping": "pong" > } that's a special case for localhost/127.0.0.1 only - and I believe that is being added for explicit-request only, now. Sfromm can comment on that -sv ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405/4 "2012-04-12T20:39:33Z")
Good catch Seth. To clarify, the default login for /usr/bin/ansible is root unless you specify “-u username”. In playbooks, this is simply “user: username” instead. ---
**Author:** ![Stephen\_Fromm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Stephen\_Fromm](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Stephen_Fromm)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405/5 "2012-04-12T20:44:49Z")
Seth’s correct. Right now, ansible will implicitly use LocalConnection for localhost. There are some patches queued up for review that change this to an explicit option. This will be true for the CLI and for playbooks. sf ---
**Author:** ![Dan8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/258eb7/32.png) [@Dan8](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dan8)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405/6 "2012-04-12T23:35:57Z")
That's exactly what I needed! Works now. I misunderstood the "root permissions are not required to use it" on the gettingstarted page, which preceded literal examples. Also I believe the line on that pge:     cat "127.0.0.1" \> ~/ansible\_hosts might be clearer with     echo "127.0.0.1" \> ~/ansible\_hosts Thanks again, ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405/7 "2012-04-12T23:51:58Z")
yeah I’m going to fix that one tonight, ticket’s open. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 11:36am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-authentication-failure/11405/8 "2012-06-15T11:36:21Z")
Yeah, I’ll file a ticket on [https://github.com/ansible/ansible.github.com](https://github.com/ansible/ansible.github.com) so we don’t forget.