# Tasks in rescue don't work if host is unreachable

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/tasks-in-rescue-dont-work-if-host-is-unreachable/24009>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [March 18, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/tasks-in-rescue-dont-work-if-host-is-unreachable/24009 "2017-03-18T21:10:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kaufmann.ecom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c67d28/32.png) [@kaufmann.ecom](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kaufmann.ecom)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/tasks-in-rescue-dont-work-if-host-is-unreachable/24009/1 "2017-03-18T21:10:28Z")

</div>

Hello everyone,

For error handling I’m trying to use “block - rescue”. I looked im internet and found out that rescue doesn’t have any effekt if tasks in block failed because of unreachable host. Does anyone any workaround or idea how to manage it anyway?

Thank you very much!

Vlad

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Graham\_Dougan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@Graham\_Dougan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Graham_Dougan)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 9:10am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/tasks-in-rescue-dont-work-if-host-is-unreachable/24009/2 "2018-01-19T09:10:32Z")

</div>

Hi Vlad,

Struggling with the same issue, did you get anywhere with it?

Thanks,  
Graham

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Graham\_Dougan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@Graham\_Dougan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Graham_Dougan)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 9:12am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/tasks-in-rescue-dont-work-if-host-is-unreachable/24009/3 "2018-01-19T09:12:12Z")

</div>

Hi Vlad,

Struggling with the same issue, did you get anywhere with it?

Thanks,  
Graham

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![j.r.hawkesworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@j.r.hawkesworth](https://forum.ansible.com/u/j.r.hawkesworth)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 8:02am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/tasks-in-rescue-dont-work-if-host-is-unreachable/24009/4 "2018-01-23T08:02:10Z")

</div>

I suggest you delegate your rescue tasks to localhost - when things go wrong on remote hosts, the local host, where ansible is running, is the most likely thing to still be working. Documentation about delegation is here if you aren’t familiar with it: [http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbooks\_delegation.html](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbooks_delegation.html)

You may need to adjust what you rescue actually does because of this - perhaps send a mail or message to get a human involved.

Hope this helps,

Jon