Initial run of rsyslog playbook fails

[jo-krk]

Hi,

Initial run of rsyslog playbook fails against (target) freshly created Ubuntu 24.04 (server edition) with such error:

TASK [debops.debops.rsyslog : Create required system user] *******************************************************
task path: /home/ansible/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/debops/debops/roles/rsyslog/tasks/main.yml:52
fatal: [vm-test]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "usermod: user syslog is currently used by process 638\n", "name": "syslog", "rc": 8}

More verbose output:

fatal: [vm-test]: FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "invocation": {
        "module_args": {
            "append": true,
            "authorization": null,
            "comment": null,
            "create_home": false,
            "createhome": false,
            "expires": null,
            "force": false,
            "generate_ssh_key": null,
            "group": "syslog",
            "groups": [
                ""
            ],
            "hidden": null,
            "home": "/home/syslog",
            "local": null,
            "login_class": null,
            "move_home": false,
            "name": "syslog",
            "non_unique": false,
            "password": null,
            "password_expire_max": null,
            "password_expire_min": null,
            "password_expire_warn": null,
            "password_lock": null,
            "profile": null,
            "remove": false,
            "role": null,
            "seuser": null,
            "shell": "/bin/false",
            "skeleton": null,
            "ssh_key_bits": 0,
            "ssh_key_comment": "ansible-generated on vm-test",
            "ssh_key_file": null,
            "ssh_key_passphrase": null,
            "ssh_key_type": "rsa",
            "state": "present",
            "system": true,
            "uid": null,
            "umask": null,
            "update_password": "always"
        }
    },
    "msg": "usermod: user syslog is currently used by process 638\n",
    "name": "syslog",
    "rc": 8
}

Workaround is to stop syslog.socket temporary (which triggers rsyslog.service which starts PID 638 mentioned in usermod error message) via systemctl and then run rsyslog playbook which then succeeds and changes something via this particular task. After that, additional runs of rsyslog playbook succeed without any workarounds (there are no changes detected anymore during this task), so it's only initial run that is affected.

Thanks!

Ansible controller:

• Ubuntu 22.04 (server edition)
• ansible-core 2.16.6
• ansible 9.5.1
• Debops 3.1.0 (installed via ansible-galaxy)

Target VM (vm-test):

• Ubuntu 24.04 (server edition)