How to Run Ansible Playbook using a public ssh key

Question

I'm trying to run my Ansible playbook on a remote server using a provided ssh key.

I have added the following configuration to my inventory file:

all:
  hosts:
    server1:
      ansible_host: [email protected]
      dest_dir: /root
      sample_tree: sample_tree.txt
      private_key_file: ../config/id_rsa_tf

I have referenced it in my playbook using the following:

- name: "Nightly Deploy"
  hosts: server1
  remote_user: sysuser
  tasks:
    - name: Copy test from local to remote
      tags:
        - copy
        - all
      copy:
        src: "test.tgz"
        dest: "{{ dest_dir }}/test.tgz"

I am running the playbook with the following command:

ansible-playbook --tags="copy" -v -i inventories/nightly-build.yaml playbooks/nightly-build.yaml

The error I'm getting is the following:

fatal: [server1]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to
connect to the host via ssh: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi- keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password).", "unreachable": true}

Is my private_key_file wrong in my inventory file or am I calling it wrong? and help would be great

might be a user issue as well. Are you passing the correct user, you can try passing it using -u. — Pacifist
– Pacifist, Commented Sep 13, 2019 at 7:56
Do I have to pass the user at run time, if I am specifying a remote_user in the playbook? — user3292394
– user3292394, Commented Sep 13, 2019 at 8:00
See ansibledaily.com/troubleshooting-ansible-connection-issues — Vladimir Botka
– Vladimir Botka, Commented Sep 13, 2019 at 8:11
Both comments really helped thanks. turns out, my issue was caused by not passing the host and passing the wrong var name in my inventory, it should be ansible_ssh_private_key_file — user3292394
– user3292394, Commented Sep 13, 2019 at 8:54

RiverHeart · Accepted Answer · 2024-11-28 15:20:38Z

17

This error usually occurs when there is no valid public and private key generated and setup.

Try any of the following approaches:

Create/edit your ansible.cfg file in your playbook directory and add a line for the full path of your private key to set it globally for all hosts in your playbook.

[defaults]
private_key_file = /Users/username/.ssh/private_key

Add the private key to your playbook using the following line:

vars:
  ansible_ssh_private_key_file: "/home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa"

You can also define the private key to use directly in command line:

ansible-playbook -vvvv --private-key=/Users/you/.ssh/your_key playbookname.yml

edited Nov 28, 2024 at 15:20

RiverHeart

1,14412 silver badges21 bronze badges

answered Sep 13, 2019 at 10:54

Tiya Jose

1,43915 silver badges25 bronze badges

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1 Comment

UnrivaledIr Over a year ago

in the [defaults] section privatekeyfile should be change to private_key_file

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