Bug 1377874

Summary: Use retry_files_save_path in ansible install guide
Product: OpenShift Container Platform Reporter: Peter Larsen <plarsen>
Component: DocumentationAssignee: Vikram Goyal <vigoyal>
Status: CLOSED EOL QA Contact: Vikram Goyal <vigoyal>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact: Vikram Goyal <vigoyal>
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 3.2.1CC: aos-bugs, jokerman, mmccomas
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Last Closed: 2019-08-10 06:40:32 UTC Type: Bug
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Description Peter Larsen 2016-09-20 21:11:08 UTC 
Document URL: https://docs.openshift.com/enterprise/3.2/install_config/install/advanced_install.html#configuring-ansible

Section Number and Name: 
All - or intro

Describe the issue: 
When running ansible-playbook, a .retry file is placed in the same directory as the run-book, unless retry_files_save_path or retry_files_enabled=false. The latter option disables the capability to retry/resume an installation so that doesn't sound like a good option to use. 

If running the installer as a non-root user, like ec2-user on AWS, and having setup the inventory file to use sudo, the playbook will fail as it attempts to write a file to the directory owned and writable only by root. 

The quick-installer disables this feature for this exact reason, but it's still an issue.

The guide should include a section that explains this process as a non-root user, and explain a best practice for installation - ie. when and when not to use root as the install user.

Suggestions for improvement: 

Add a section that describes a typical ansible.cfg file setup to be used with the install. Or have the ansible.cfg file default from install time to set the retry_files_save_path to ~/.ansible-retry - the current value is commented out and not active. 

There should under all circumstances be a section that explains when and when not to run ansible-playbook as root, and how the installation process may be slightly different depending on the choice. 

Additional information: