"Win_Command" module not working to connect localhost to run Powershell script from ansible which is installed in windows10

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1

Hello Experts,

I’m new to Ansible and PowerShell.

I have installed cygwin in my windows 10 Operating system and installed ansible and its related packages as per below mail.

https://geekflare.com/ansible-installation-windows/

Here are the environment details

Ansible version: 2.8.4
python version : 3.7.7 (default, Apr 10 2020, 07:59:19) [GCC 9.3.0]

Powershell Version: 5.1.17763.1007

on above successful setup, i tried to run my below sample ansible script with hosts as “localhost”

  • hosts: localhost

tasks:

  • name: “run whoami”

win_command: whoami

register: whoami_out

  • debug: var=whoami_out.stdout_lines

but, i am ending up with the below error

  1. [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match ‘all’

PLAY [localhost] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [run whoami] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {“changed”: false, “module_stderr”: “/home/Pavan.Kammara/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1586957425.671443-215768864612631/AnsiballZ_win_command.ps1 : The term \r\n’/home/Pavan.Kammara/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1586957425.671443-215768864612631/AnsiballZ_win_command.ps1’ is not \r\nrecognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if \r\na path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.\r\nAt line:1 char:1\r\n+ /home/Pavan.Kammara/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1586957425.671443-215768 …\r\n+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r\n + CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (/home/Pavan.Kam…win_command.ps1:String) , CommandNotFoundException\r\n + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException\r\n \r\n”, “module_stdout”: “”, “msg”: “MODULE FAILURE\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error”, “rc”: 1}

PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0

and i tried the 2nd approach by creating my windows 10 machine ip address in etc/ansible/ansible.cfg and referred the same in asnible playbook as below

  • hosts: all
    tasks:
  • name: “run whoami”
    win_command: whoami
    register: whoami_out
  • debug: var=whoami_out.stdout_lines

this time also ended up with the different error, PFB

PLAY [all] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [192...]: UNREACHABLE! => {“changed”: false, “msg”: "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host 192...** port 22: Connection refused", “unreachable”: true}

PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
192...* : ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=1 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignore

Kindly help me, is it something the environment set up issue. Im completely clueless why it is not working as im new to this technology.

Thanks in advance!

2

You cannot run Windows modules over localhost, they are designed to run through a connection plugin like winrm, psrp, or ssh. Also I would highly advise not running Ansible through cygwin, it may work in some places but will then fall flat in others. If you are on Windows 10 then WSL is a lot better in terms of compatibility but nothing will trump a VM running Linux. You also avoid issue like this where you try to run Windows stuff on localhost when Ansible isn’t designed for that.

3

Hello Jordan,

Thank you very much for your reply. that is very much informative.

could you please guide how do i can setup the basic environment to play around ansible with powershell.

i need to develop a scripts, which needs to communicate each other (Powershell script ↔ Ansible) to achieve some functionality.

Thank you again!!

4

Localhost is your ansible server and it doesn’t work with windown module, you need to specify the client group name