Ansible provisioner unable to SSH when run by Packer, but runs successfully when run manually using the same args as Packer.

[eric-gunn]

Overview of the Issue

Ansible provisioner fails when run by Packer, runs successfully on its own. Same environment, same hosts, same inventory, same vars.

Reproduction Steps

1. Run packer build -on-error ask -force -var-file kali-repo/packer/2021.1.json kali-repo/packer/kali-base.json
2. run the exact ansible-playbook command Packer specifies in the output. It'll run without fail:

Packer version

1.7.2

Simplified Packer Buildfile

Provisiner setup:

...
"provisioners": [
    {
      "type": "ansible",
      "user": "kali",
      "use_proxy": false,
      "keep_inventory_file": true,
      "playbook_file": "kali-repo/ansible/base-playbook.yml",
      "extra_arguments": [
        "--extra-vars",
        "\"ansible_user=kali ansible_password=kali ansible_sudo_pass=kali ansible_become_method=sudo ansible_become_user=root ansible_host={{ build `Host` }} ansible_port=22 ansible_ssh_common_args='-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no' ansible_password=kali\""
      ],
      "ansible_env_vars": [
        "ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING=False"
      ]
    }
  ],
...

Operating system and Environment details

64 bit Alpine Linux container

Log Fragments and crash.log files

Packer:

==> vsphere-clone: Provisioning with Ansible...
    vsphere-clone: Not using Proxy adapter for Ansible run:
    vsphere-clone:      Using ssh keys from Packer communicator...
==> vsphere-clone: Executing Ansible: ansible-playbook -e packer_build_name="vsphere-clone" -e packer_builder_type=vsphere-clone -e packer_http_addr=10.80.0.18:0 --ssh-extra-args '-o IdentitiesOnly=yes' --extra-vars "ansible_user=kali ansible_password=kali ansible_sudo_pass=kali ansible_become_method=sudo ansible_become_user=root ansible_host=172.16.50.19 ansible_port=22 ansible_ssh_common_args='-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no' ansible_password=kali" -e ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/tmp/ansible-key061932775 -i /tmp/packer-provisioner-ansible235206426 /tmp/build/put/kali-repo/ansible/base-playbook.yml
    vsphere-clone:
    vsphere-clone: PLAY [configure Kali base] *****************************************************
    vsphere-clone:
    vsphere-clone: TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************
    vsphere-clone: fatal: [default]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: Warning: Permanently added '172.16.50.19' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.\r\nLoad key \"/tmp/ansible-key061932775\": invalid format\r\nkali@172.16.50.19: Permission denied (publickey,password).", "unreachable": true}
    vsphere-clone:      to retry, use: --limit @/tmp/build/put/kali-repo/ansible/base-playbook.retry
    vsphere-clone:
    vsphere-clone: PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
    vsphere-clone: default                    : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=1    failed=0
    vsphere-clone:
==> vsphere-clone: Error executing Ansible: Non-zero exit status: exit status 4

Ansible:

ansible-playbook -e packer_build_name="vsphere-clone" -e packer_builder_type=vsphere-clone -e packer_http_addr=10.80.0.18:0 --ssh-extra-args '-o IdentitiesOnly=yes' --extra-vars "ansible_user=kali ansible_password=kali ansible_sudo_pass=kali ansible_bec
ome_method=sudo ansible_become_user=root ansible_host=172.16.50.19 ansible_port=22 ansible_ssh_common_args='-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no' ansible_password=kali" -e ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/tmp/ansible-key061932775 -i /tmp/packer-provisioner-ansible235206426 /tmp/bui
ld/put/kali-repo/ansible/base-playbook.yml

PLAY [configure Kali base] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
 [WARNING]: Module invocation had junk after the JSON data: AttributeError("module 'platform' has no attribute 'dist'") KeyError('ansible_os_family')

ok: [default]

TASK [Pause for 1 minute] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Pausing for 5 seconds
(ctrl+C then 'C' = continue early, ctrl+C then 'A' = abort)
ok: [default]

TASK [Install xrdp] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [default]

[SwampDragons]

Reading over the issues right now, this is probably a duplicate of #6