# XML parse error when trying to connect to Juniper Junos device over Netconf

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/xml-parse-error-when-trying-to-connect-to-juniper-junos-device-over-netconf/6702>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** juniper, playbook, collections\
**Created:** [June 21, 2024, 9:07am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/xml-parse-error-when-trying-to-connect-to-juniper-junos-device-over-netconf/6702 "2024-06-21T09:07:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickl-ff](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/nickl-ff/32/3936_2.png) [@nickl-ff](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nickl-ff)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2024, 9:07am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/xml-parse-error-when-trying-to-connect-to-juniper-junos-device-over-netconf/6702/1 "2024-06-21T09:07:16Z")

</div>

Hi all, hope I’m in the right place for this question.

I’m trying to use Ansible to update the config on Juniper devices on our network. I’m starting with a small script to fetch the current running config, just as a sanity check to make sure my Ansible install is working correctly.

I’m fairly sure my playbook and inventory are correct - the connection is succeeding, but then it’s breaking down from there. When I try to run the playbook, I get the following error from Ansible, and the playbook fails:

```txt
nick.lockhart@netops-01:/srv/ansible$ ansible-playbook -u lab -k -i inventory playbooks/junos-get-info.yaml
SSH password:

PLAY [Get interface info to file] *******************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [get interface information] ********************************************************************************************************************************************
An exception occurred during task execution. To see the full traceback, use -vvv. The error was: ansible.module_utils.connection.ConnectionError: b"name 'RPCError' is not defined"
[WARNING]: Platform linux on host lab-pe-02is using the discovered Python interpreter at /usr/bin/python3, but future installation of another Python interpreter could
change the meaning of that path. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.10/reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery.html for more information.
fatal: [lab-pe-02]: FAILED! => {"ansible_facts": {"discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python3"}, "changed": false, "module_stderr": "[attached below]", "module_stdout": "", "msg": "MODULE FAILURE\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error", "rc": 1}

PLAY RECAP ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
lab-pe-02 : ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0

nick.lockhart@netops-01:/srv/ansible$

```

and I’ve printed the `stderr` to make it more readable:

```txt
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload_sdq4f5bz/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload.zip/ansible_collections/ansible/netcommon/plugins/module_utils/network/common/netconf.py", line 91, in parse_rpc_error
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 1342, in XML
    parser.feed(text)
xml.etree.ElementTree.ParseError: syntax error: line 1, column 0

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/nick.lockhart/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-21323x9h_bhk7/ansible-tmp-1718959778.907722-21326-77614718989736/AnsiballZ_junos_rpc.py", line 102, in <module>
    _ansiballz_main()
  File "/home/nick.lockhart/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-21323x9h_bhk7/ansible-tmp-1718959778.907722-21326-77614718989736/AnsiballZ_junos_rpc.py", line 94, in _ansiballz_main
    invoke_module(zipped_mod, temp_path, ANSIBALLZ_PARAMS)
  File "/home/nick.lockhart/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-21323x9h_bhk7/ansible-tmp-1718959778.907722-21326-77614718989736/AnsiballZ_junos_rpc.py", line 40, in invoke_module
    runpy.run_module(mod_name='ansible_collections.junipernetworks.junos.plugins.modules.junos_rpc', init_globals=None, run_name=' __main__', alter_sys=True)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 224, in run_module
    return _run_module_code(code, init_globals, run_name, mod_spec)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 96, in _run_module_code
    _run_code(code, mod_globals, init_globals,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "/tmp/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload_sdq4f5bz/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload.zip/ansible_collections/junipernetworks/junos/plugins/modules/junos_rpc.py", line 177, in <module>
  File "/tmp/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload_sdq4f5bz/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload.zip/ansible_collections/junipernetworks/junos/plugins/modules/junos_rpc.py", line 158, in main
  File "/tmp/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload_sdq4f5bz/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload.zip/ansible_collections/ansible/netcommon/plugins/module_utils/network/common/netconf.py", line 58, in exec_rpc
  File "/tmp/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload_sdq4f5bz/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload.zip/ansible_collections/ansible/netcommon/plugins/module_utils/network/common/netconf.py", line 80, in __rpc__
  File "/tmp/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload_sdq4f5bz/ansible_junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc_payload.zip/ansible_collections/ansible/netcommon/plugins/module_utils/network/common/netconf.py", line 126, in parse_rpc_error
ansible.module_utils.connection.ConnectionError: b"name 'RPCError' is not defined"

```

Getting an XML parse error is not what I’d expect - just to check, I manually SSH’d to the Netconf port, and as far as I can tell, it’s returning valid XML:

```auto
nick.lockhart@netops-01:/srv/ansible$ ssh -p 830 lab@[redacted]
(lab@[redacted]) Password:
<!-- No zombies were killed during the creation of this user interface -->
<!-- user lab, class super-user -->
<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
  <capabilities>
<!-- ... -->

```

Have I missed something in my playbook or inventory?

I’ve attached my files below for reference.

Inventory:

```yml
lab:
  hosts:
    lab-pe-02:
      ansible_port: 830
      ansible_host: # redacted - hostname here is correct
      ansible_network_os: junipernetworks.junos.junos
      ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.netconf

```

Playbook:

```yml
---
  - name: Get interface info to file
    hosts: all
# roles:
# - junipernetworks.junos.role
    gather_facts: no
    connection: local

    tasks:
    - name: get interface information
      junipernetworks.junos.junos_rpc:
        rpc: get-interface-information
        args:
          interface-name: ae1
        output: xml
      register: config_output

    - name: Write output to file
      copy:
        content: "{{ config_output | to_nice_json }}"
        dest: "{{ playbook_dir }}/output/test-1.json"

```

And the output of `ansible --version`:

```txt
ansible 2.10.8
  config file = None
  configured module search path = ['/home/nick.lockhart/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.10.12 (main, Nov 20 2023, 15:14:05) [GCC 11.4.0]

```

I think I’ve attached everything I need to here - if further details on my setup or environment are needed, please let me know and I’ll add it as soon as I can.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - I’ve not really used Ansible before… 😅

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickl-ff](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/nickl-ff/32/3936_2.png) [@nickl-ff](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nickl-ff)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 9:22am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/xml-parse-error-when-trying-to-connect-to-juniper-junos-device-over-netconf/6702/2 "2024-06-24T09:22:49Z")

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Hi again, took a break over the weekend, came back this morning and did some poking at this issue.

Turns out this was my fault, not Ansible’s. The XML error was a red herring - the real issue was `RPCError is not defined`. I didn’t have `ncclient` installed, so an import statement in the `netconf` module was failing, which caused the entire task to fall over. 🤦

If you’re running into this issue, make sure you’ve got `ncclient` installed as a system module. On Ubuntu and Debian, this is `python3-ncclient`.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 9:23am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/xml-parse-error-when-trying-to-connect-to-juniper-junos-device-over-netconf/6702/3 "2024-07-24T09:23:38Z")

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