Ansible using AWS interactions throws exception - amazon-web-services

Question

I was trying to run a playbook to automate AWS but i encountered this exception which I can't understand. I have the following playbook:
- name: Just for testing
hosts: windows-server
gather_facts: no
vars:
aws_a_key: accesskey
aws_s_key: secretkey
tasks:
- name: Ping
win_ping:
- name: Create a file to C:\Temp\test.conf
win_file:
path: C:\Temp\test.conf
state: touch
- name: Create another file to C:\Temp\test2.conf
win_file:
path: C:\Temp\test2.conf
state: touch
- name: Gather S3 facts
aws_s3_bucket_facts:
aws_access_key: "{{ aws_a_key }}"
aws_secret_key: "{{ aws_s_key }}"
region: eu-central-1
When I try to execute it I get the following error:
PLAY [Just for testing] *******************************************************************************************************
TASK [Ping] *******************************************************************************************************************
ok: [WIN-40NQ43PHHA5]
TASK [Create a file to C:\Temp\test.conf] *************************************************************************************
changed: [WIN-40NQ43PHHA5]
TASK [Create another file to C:\Temp\test2.conf] ******************************************************************************
changed: [WIN-40NQ43PHHA5]
TASK [Gather S3 facts] ********************************************************************************************************
fatal: [WIN-40NQ43PHHA5]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "module_stderr": "Exception calling \"Create\" with \"1\" argument(s): \"At line:4 char:21
+ def _ansiballz_main():
+ ~
An expression was expected after '('.
At line:12 char:27
+ except (AttributeError, OSError):
+ ~
Missing argument in parameter list.
At line:14 char:7
+ if scriptdir is not None:
+ ~
Missing '(' after 'if' in if statement.
At line:21 char:7
+ if sys.version_info < (3,):
+ ~
Missing '(' after 'if' in if statement.
At line:21 char:30
+ if sys.version_info < (3,):
+ ~
Missing expression after ','.
At line:21 char:25
+ if sys.version_info < (3,):
+ ~
The '<' operator is reserved for future use.
At line:23 char:32
+ MOD_DESC = ('.py', 'U', imp.PY_SOURCE)
+ ~
Missing expression after ','.
At line:23 char:33
+ MOD_DESC = ('.py', 'U', imp.PY_SOURCE)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unexpected token 'imp.PY_SOURCE' in expression or statement.
At line:23 char:32
+ MOD_DESC = ('.py', 'U', imp.PY_SOURCE)
+ ~
Missing closing ')' in expression.
At line:23 char:46
+ MOD_DESC = ('.py', 'U', imp.PY_SOURCE)
+ ~
Unexpected token ')' in expression or statement.
Not all parse errors were reported. Correct the reported errors and try again.
\"
At line:6 char:1
+ $exec_wrapper = [ScriptBlock]::Create($split_parts[0])
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParseException
The expression after '&' in a pipeline element produced an object that was not valid. It must result in a command
name, a script block, or a CommandInfo object.
At line:7 char:2
+ &$exec_wrapper
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : BadExpression
", "module_stdout": "", "msg": "MODULE FAILURE\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error", "rc": 1}
to retry, use: --limit #/Users/mpolgardi/ansible/test_playbook.retry
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************************
WIN-40NQ43PHHA5 : ok=3 changed=2 unreachable=0 failed=1
Can someone help me decode this error? I have no idea where to even look. Also is there a way for ansible to give me readable error messages?

Answer 1

According to the fine manual, use of aws_s3_bucket_facts requires python with both the boto and boto3 modules available to it.
What appears to be happening to you is that the windows machine is trying to execute that .py file as if it were PowerShell, and (of course) those two syntaxes are wholly incompatible.
Do you have ansible_python_interpreter set to a working binary? It is possible that switching gather_facts: to yes will surface any misconfiguration earlier, although I can't swear to it since I don't know if the winrm connection pre-empts fact gathering using just PowerShell, and wouldn't notice a bogus ansible_python_interpreter value.
While this isn't exactly what you asked, it's also quite a common behavior to use delegate_to: localhost and/or connection: local for those AWS-y tasks, since there is little to no value in having those tasks run on the target machine, given that the credentials are already present in the playbook (that is: it doesn't acquire credentials from anything on the target machine). That presumes, naturally, that you have a local python which has boto and boto3 installed in them, but that's presumably far more likely than convincing a random windows machine to work correctly.