Handle Yum/DNF Failures in Ansible — Troubleshooting and Best Practices

Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...

- name: Wait for yum lock to be released
  ansible.builtin.wait_for:
    path: /var/run/yum.pid
    state: absent
    timeout: 300

- name: Install package
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: httpd
    state: present

- name: Kill stale yum processes
  ansible.builtin.shell: |
    if [ -f /var/run/yum.pid ]; then
      kill -9 $(cat /var/run/yum.pid) 2>/dev/null || true
      rm -f /var/run/yum.pid
    fi
  changed_when: false

- name: Install package
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: httpd
    state: present

Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: base/7/x86_64

- name: Clean yum cache
  ansible.builtin.command: yum clean all
  changed_when: true

- name: Rebuild yum cache
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: "*"
    state: latest
    update_cache: true
  when: false  # Just update cache
  ignore_errors: true

# Better approach — use the update_cache parameter
- name: Install with fresh cache
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: httpd
    state: present
    update_cache: true

Error: Package: httpd-2.4.6-97.el7.x86_64 requires: httpd-tools = 2.4.6-97.el7

- name: Install package allowing dependency resolution
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: httpd
    state: present
    skip_broken: true

# Or force install with all dependencies
- name: Install with dependencies
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name:
      - httpd
      - httpd-tools
      - mod_ssl
    state: present

Public key for package.rpm is not installed

- name: Import RPM GPG key
  ansible.builtin.rpm_key:
    key: https://packages.example.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-example
    state: present

- name: Install package
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: example-package
    state: present
    disable_gpg_check: false  # Keep GPG enabled in production

Error: Insufficient disk space

- name: Check disk space before installing
  ansible.builtin.assert:
    that:
      - ansible_mounts | selectattr('mount', 'equalto', '/') | map(attribute='size_available') | first > 1073741824
    fail_msg: "Less than 1 GB free on /. Cannot install packages."
    success_msg: "Sufficient disk space available."

- name: Clean old packages to free space
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    autoremove: true

- name: Clean yum cache
  ansible.builtin.command: yum clean all
  changed_when: true

- name: Install package with retry
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: httpd
    state: present
  register: yum_result
  retries: 3
  delay: 10
  until: yum_result is not failed

- name: Package installation with fallback
  block:
    - name: Install from primary repo
      ansible.builtin.yum:
        name: mypackage
        state: present

  rescue:
    - name: Clean cache and retry
      ansible.builtin.command: yum clean all
      changed_when: true

    - name: Retry installation
      ansible.builtin.yum:
        name: mypackage
        state: present
        update_cache: true

- name: Install package
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: httpd
    state: present
  register: install_result
  ignore_errors: true

- name: Handle failure
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "Installation failed: {{ install_result.msg }}"
  when: install_result is failed

- name: Fail with helpful message
  ansible.builtin.fail:
    msg: |
      Package installation failed. Check:
      1. Repository connectivity: yum repolist
      2. Disk space: df -h
      3. Lock files: ls /var/run/yum.pid
  when: install_result is failed

- name: Install package (works on all RHEL family)
  ansible.builtin.package:
    name: httpd
    state: present

# Test without making changes
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --check --diff

- name: Install with check mode awareness
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: httpd
    state: present
  check_mode: "{{ ansible_check_mode }}"

- name: Update all packages
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: "*"
    state: latest
  register: yum_update

- name: Check if reboot is needed
  ansible.builtin.command: needs-restarting -r
  register: reboot_check
  failed_when: false
  changed_when: reboot_check.rc == 1

- name: Reboot if kernel was updated
  ansible.builtin.reboot:
    reboot_timeout: 600
    msg: "Rebooting for kernel update"
  when: reboot_check.rc == 1

- name: Gather yum diagnostic info
  ansible.builtin.shell: |
    echo "=== Repo List ==="
    yum repolist -v
    echo "=== Disk Space ==="
    df -h
    echo "=== Lock Files ==="
    ls -la /var/run/yum.pid 2>/dev/null || echo "No lock file"
    echo "=== Recent Yum Log ==="
    tail -20 /var/log/yum.log
  register: yum_diag
  changed_when: false

- name: Show diagnostics
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    var: yum_diag.stdout_lines