Offline usage - ERROR! 'collections' is not a valid attribute for a RoleMetadata

[hearts1137]

Question
Pose question here.

Environment (please complete the following information):
ansible --version
ansible 2.4.2.0
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = [u'/home/user1/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
executable location = /bin/ansible
python version = 2.7.5 (default, Oct 6 2023, 09:53:10) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-44)]

Looking to add this to our offline network. Kind of an ansible newbie but have run and modified existing playbooks previously. We have a plain RHEL 7.9 server with 'some STIGS's applied. Would like to give these playbooks a go but off to a bad start. Pretty sure I'm missing a ton of dependencies.

Error is: ERROR! 'collections' is not a valid attribute for a RoleMetadata

Any help would be appreciated

[georgenalen]

Hey @hearts1137,
From the environment setup you posted (thanks for sending that) it looks like you are on a pretty old version of Ansible, 2.4. which came out around 2017. Can you confirm that is the version of the Ansible CLI or Ansible Core software you are using? If you are on version 2.4 of the Ansible CLI/Ansible Core would you be able to upgrade Ansible to a newer version (you'll probably have to move to python3 as well)?

The gist is in late 2.9 they introduced the concept of collections and I think around 2.10 they forced collections. So we had to adjust to make our roles into collection supported roles. There were some other changes along the way with how Ansible handles linting and other things that caused us to make additional changes as well that don't work with older versions. Which is why the minimum supported version for the roles is 2.12.

[hearts1137]

The ansible version 2.4.2.0 is the only one in our internal repo. How do you want me to check the Ansible CLI and Core version numbers? Sorry for the noob questions and thank you for the fast response.

`(base) [root@server1 ~]# yum info ansible.noarch
Loaded plugins: product-id, search-disabled-repos, subscription-manager

This system is not registered with an entitlement server. You can use subscription-manager to register.

Installed Packages
Name : ansible
Arch : noarch
Version : 2.4.2.0
Release : 2.el7
Size : 38 M
Repo : installed
From repo : rhui-REGION-rhel-server-extras
Summary : SSH-based configuration management, deployment, and task execution system
URL : http://ansible.com
License : GPLv3+
Description :
: Ansible is a radically simple model-driven configuration management,
: multi-node deployment, and remote task execution system. Ansible works
: over SSH and does not require any software or daemons to be installed
: on remote nodes. Extension modules can be written in any language and
: are transferred to managed machines automatically.

(base) [root@server1 ~]# python --version
Python 3.8.18
`

I would have to spin up a RHEL 7.9 connected to the internet and download ansible 2.12 and all the related dependencies and upload to my offline server. I have a RedHat developer account for personal use and can add a subscription to a VOM on my local laptop.

[hearts1137]

I'm reading that ansible 2.10 and later is not supported in RHEL7. I do have a rhel8 on my local network with redhat subscription access. Seems like RHEL8 has 2.15.3 in the repo

`[root@server2 ~]# yum info ansible.noarch
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:09 ago on Mon 25 Mar 2024 04:38:57 PM CDT.
Available Packages
Name : ansible
Version : 8.3.0
Release : 1.el8
Architecture : noarch
Size : 41 M
Source : ansible-8.3.0-1.el8.src.rpm
Repository : epel
Summary : Curated set of Ansible collections included in addition to ansible-core
URL : https://ansible.com
License : GPL-3.0-or-later AND Apache-2.0 AND BSD-2-Clause AND BSD-3-Clause AND MIT AND MPL-2.0 AND PSF-2.0
Description : Ansible is a radically simple model-driven configuration management,
: multi-node deployment, and remote task execution system. Ansible works
: over SSH and does not require any software or daemons to be installed
: on remote nodes. Extension modules can be written in any language and
: are transferred to managed machines automatically.
:
: This package provides a curated set of Ansible collections included in addition
: to ansible-core.

[root@server2 ~]# yum info ansible-core.x86_64
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:40 ago on Mon 25 Mar 2024 04:38:57 PM CDT.
Installed Packages
Name : ansible-core
Version : 2.15.3
Release : 1.el8
Architecture : x86_64
Size : 14 M
Source : ansible-core-2.15.3-1.el8.src.rpm
Repository : @System
From repo : rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms
Summary : SSH-based configuration management, deployment, and task execution system
URL : http://ansible.com
License : GPLv3+
Description : Ansible is a radically simple model-driven configuration management,
: multi-node deployment, and remote task execution system. Ansible works
: over SSH and does not require any software or daemons to be installed
: on remote nodes. Extension modules can be written in any language and
: are transferred to managed machines automatically.
`

Is it possible to get these playbooks running on RHEL7 or do I need RHEL8? Our systems that are air-gapped are all RHEL7.9.

[uk-bolly]

hi @hearts1137

Ideally, it would be good to have a rhel8 (9 preferably) control node for ansible within your airgapped environment, this will future proof you for some time and make life alot easier.

The playbooks should run on ansible 2.10, you will also need the jmespath library installed in order for the playbook to run.
Alternatively you could add a later version of python (3.8+) on your system and install a later ansible versions.

I hope that helps, please let us know if you have any further questions.

uk-bolly