package TASK ... 'should be run under the root user'

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1

  • I have this TASK in a playbook which should install a bunch of packages on my (rhel8) target rrequired for postgresql

  • I am shooting my playbok as a user with root priviledges via sudo

  • In earlier TASKS of the playbook I become a ‘postgres’ user, but would expect this to be ephemeral (so I become the intital user as soon a TASK is finished)

still I am getting an (inexplicable to me) error upon running this playbook, which seems to indicate I am not a root-capable user when trying to install those packages.

can anybody help me out with this?

2

  * I have this TASK in a playbook <https://pastebin.com/h83HqMn0&gt; which should install a bunch of packages on my (rhel8) target rrequired for postgresql
*
    I am shooting my playbok as a user with root priviledges via sudo

Please show the code that you are using for that user in your playbook.

*
    In earlier TASKS of the playbook I become a 'postgres' user, but would expect this to be ephemeral (so I become the intital user as soon a TASK is finished)

If that is part of the task, it should be fine.

Regards

         Racke
3

it is the paste https://pastebin.com/h83HqMn0. However … here you go

4

>

* I have this TASK in a playbook <https://pastebin.com/h83HqMn0&gt; which should install a bunch of packages on my (rhel8) target rrequired for postgresql
*
I am shooting my playbok as a user with root priviledges via sudo

Please show the code that you are using for that user in your playbook.

it is the paste https://pastebin.com/h83HqMn0. However ... here you go

Sorry, I wanted to see the head of the playbook respective the place in inventory where you set up the
become: variables.

##############################################################
- name: check installed system packages for postgres
package:
name:
- psmisc
- strace
- gdb
- nagios-plugins-mysql
- nagios-plugins-pgsql
- nagios-plugins-http
- openssl
- pam
- readline
- libselinux
- systemd-libs
- zlib
state: present
ignore_errors: yes
become: yes
# become_user: [root_user]
##############################################################

(zealous_mode: yes)

Why do you use ignore_errors: yes here?

Regards
          Racke

5

actually I figured out in the meantime that aparently my trouble lies exactly there:
I have a defaults.yaml that injects a bunch of variables into the playbook.
In that defaults.yml there is a variable referencing to user ‘postgres’ as ansible_become_user

ansible_become_user: postgres

So I assume I’ll have to figure out how to utilize different become users in a single playbook. I tried or overrule the defaults entry temporarily with …

become: yes
become_user: [root_user]

… inside the TASK, but that apparently was not interpreted in the way I wanted

6

>

* I have this TASK in a playbook <https://pastebin.com/h83HqMn0 <https://pastebin.com/h83HqMn0&gt;&gt; which should install a bunch of packages on my (rhel8) target rrequired for postgresql
*
I am shooting my playbok as a user with root priviledges via sudo

Please show the code that you are using for that user in your playbook.

it is the paste https://pastebin.com/h83HqMn0 <https://pastebin.com/h83HqMn0&gt;\. However ... here you go

Sorry, I wanted to see the head of the playbook respective the place in inventory where you set up the
become: variables.

actually I figured out in the meantime that aparently my trouble lies exactly there:
I have a defaults.yaml that injects a bunch of variables into the playbook.
In that defaults.yml there is a variable referencing to user 'postgres' as ansible_become_user

ansible_become_user: postgres

So I assume I'll have to figure out how to utilize different become users in a single playbook. I tried or overrule the defaults entry temporarily with ...

become: yes
become_user: [root_user]

... inside the TASK, but that apparently was not interpreted in the way I wanted

The default for the become_user should be root and you can override it in your tasks.

It can be tricky, so here an example how I do it:

- name: Ensure PostgreSQL database is initialized (RedHat, Suse)
command: "{{ postgresql_initdb_path }} -D {{ postgresql_data_dir }}"
become: true
become_user: "{{ postgresql_user }}"
vars:
ansible_ssh_pipelining: true
when:
- postgresql_data_version_dir.stat.exists == false
- ansible_os_family in ['Alpine', 'RedHat', 'Suse']

Regards

          Racke