# Losing the SSH connection - server UNREACHABLE

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** ssh\
**Created:** [October 1, 2023, 7:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230 "2023-10-01T19:17:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gorby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f04885/32.png) [@Gorby](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Gorby)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 7:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230/1 "2023-10-01T19:17:38Z")

</div>

Hi,  
I’m new to Ansibel and i have been following “Learn Linux TV” youtube channel and his Ansibel episodes.

My problem is that i lose the connection when i run commands without specify the path to ¨/.ssj/ansibel and inventory.

**Error description**  
It works to ping if i include my ssh file and inventory file:  
`ansible all --key-file ~/.ssh/ansible -i inventory -m ping`

Then i created an ansible.cfg file and added inventory and private-key-file  
`ansible all -m ping`  
Both works.

The problem is that after a while, when i run the same command (`ansible all -m ping`), i receive below error message:

> ansible all -m ping  
> 192.168.1.70 | UNREACHABLE! =\> {  
> “changed”: false,  
> “msg”: “Failed to connect to the host via ssh: [goran@192.168.1.70](mailto:goran@192.168.1.70): Permission denied (publickey,password).”,  
> “unreachable”: true  
> }  
> 192.168.1.72 | UNREACHABLE! =\> {  
> “changed”: false,  
> “msg”: “Failed to connect to the host via ssh: [goran@192.168.1.72](mailto:goran@192.168.1.72): Permission denied (publickey,password).”,  
> “unreachable”: true  
> }

I can solve this problem if i run `ansible all --key-file ~/.ssh/ansible -i inventory -m ping` again.  
After that i can run ansible all -m ping and other ansible commands (no path to ssh) with no errors.  
It also works to run a playbook (but after a have run ansible all --key-file ~/.ssh/ansible -i inventory -m ping)

So it seems that i lost the path to my local ssh-file after a while.  
I have search but not found why i lose the settings to ssh.

Does anyone know why i get this result and how to solve it?

Thanks in advance.

## **My settings**

```auto
Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)|
Release: 11
Codename: bullseye

ansible [core 2.12.10]
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/goran/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/goran/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.9.2 (default, Feb 28 2021, 17:03:44) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110]
  jinja version = 2.11.3
  libyaml = True

ansible-playbook [core 2.12.10]
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/goran/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/goran/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-playbook
  python version = 3.9.2 (default, Feb 28 2021, 17:03:44) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110]
  jinja version = 2.11.3
  libyaml = True
...

...

Ansibel project path:
/home/goran/git-projects/ansible/ansible_tutorial

**ansible.cfg**
defaults]
inventory = inventory
private-key-file =~ /.ssh/ansible

**inventory**
192.168.1.70
192.168.1.72 

**install_apache.yml**
---
- name: Install Apache
  hosts: all
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Install Apache package
      apt:
        name: apache2
        state: present
...
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![auckland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/958977/32.png) [@auckland](https://forum.ansible.com/u/auckland)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 10:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230/2 "2023-10-01T22:20:01Z")

</div>

> [@Gorby](#):
>
> `private-key-file =~ /.ssh/ansible`

are you meant to have that space between tilde and slash in your ansible.cfg?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gorby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f04885/32.png) [@Gorby](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Gorby)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230/3 "2023-10-01T22:25:31Z")

</div>

I uninstalled Ansible and remove all settings under /etc/ansible and thereafter install Ansible again.

According to ansible --version

it seems that ansible should use my ansible.cfg.  
Ansible should be using “my” ansible.cfg, but is not.

` config file = /home/goran/git-projects/ansible/ansible_tutorial/ansible.cfg`  
I don’t understand why it isn’t use my ansible.cfg?

```auto
$ ansible --version
ansible [core 2.12.10]
  config file = /home/goran/git-projects/ansible/ansible_tutorial/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/goran/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/goran/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.9.2 (default, Feb 28 2021, 17:03:44) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110]
  jinja version = 2.11.3
  libyaml = True

ansible-playbook [core 2.12.10]
  config file = /home/goran/git-projects/ansible/ansible_tutorial/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/goran/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/goran/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-playbook
  python version = 3.9.2 (default, Feb 28 2021, 17:03:44) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110]
  jinja version = 2.11.3
  libyaml = True

```

> Citat

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![auckland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/958977/32.png) [@auckland](https://forum.ansible.com/u/auckland)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 10:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230/4 "2023-10-01T22:31:09Z")

</div>

you’ve changed the topic now. I was curious to know what happens when you try to run a play with a correct private-key-file path in your ansible.cfg e.g., private-key-file = ~/.ssh/ansible

rather than =~ /.ssh/ansible  
which has an extra space in it that breaks the path

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gorby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f04885/32.png) [@Gorby](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Gorby)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 10:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230/5 "2023-10-01T22:37:24Z")

</div>

Hi auckland,  
I just found this space.  
And removed it but ut still not work…

Is there a way to investigate which .ssh-file being used?

Because it works fine if i add it in my call: `ansible all --key-file ~/.ssh/ansible -i inventory -m ping` ?  
And after i run this command, it works fine to run: ansible all -m ping

…  
ansible.cfg  
defaults]  
inventory = inventory  
private-key-file = ~/.ssh/ansible  
…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![auckland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/958977/32.png) [@auckland](https://forum.ansible.com/u/auckland)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 10:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230/6 "2023-10-01T22:46:04Z")

</div>

mmm I’m a bit of a layman myself, the documentation seems pretty straight forward to me. regarding troubleshooting, sounds like you’ve done some troubleshooting yourself by manually specifying the file and confirming it’s ok… I genuinely thought the space you had was going to fix the problem you’re facing.

[Ansible Configuration Settings — Ansible Documentation](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/config.html#default-private-key-file)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ptn](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/ptn/32/481_2.png) [@ptn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ptn)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2023, 6:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/losing-the-ssh-connection-server-unreachable/1230/7 "2023-10-03T18:20:37Z")

</div>

Hi,

> `config file = /home/goran/git-projects/ansible/ansible_tutorial/ansible.cfg`  
> I don’t understand why it isn’t use my ansible.cfg?

By “my ansible.cfg”, I think you mean the one you create on /etc/ansible/ ? If so, a config file located in the current directory [will have an higher priority](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/config.html#the-configuration-file).

So first ensure you’re using the correct config file (the one you defined key file path), and with correct syntax (space between ‘~’ and / as mentioned by @auckland , and also a missing ‘[’ for `defaults` section, though it might be a paste issue), or just put ~/.ssh/ansible content in ~/.ssh/config (default OpenSSH-client config file) file so these paramaters will be automatically used by Ansible. You can check which config file you’re using either with `ansible --version` command, as you noticed, or with `ansible-config dump | grep CONFIG_FILE`.  
Personaly, I like to define config file path in `ANSIBLE_CONFIG` envvar (exported from ~/.bashrc), mostly because this config file is versioned and shared among my team and you can’t predict repo clone path for your teammates.

If you still encounter the issue, run your command again with `ANSIBLE_DEBUG=1` envvar or `-vvvv` flag and post the output here.