Odd error when attempting net_put via Ansible - networking

Question

Looking for assistance with an odd error I am troubleshooting with a playbook.
I have a working SSH session to a switch, but having difficulty with transferring files via SCP on Ansible. I can start a SCP session directly from the same server with no issues and can transfer a text file (the same one references below) but it does not seem to work in Ansible.
I enabled verbose logging via Ansible and this is what I am seeing in the logfile generated.
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/utils/jsonrpc.py", line 46, in handle_request
result = rpc_method(*args, **kwargs)
File "/root/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/ansible/netcommon/plugins/connection/network_cli.py", line 1282, in copy_file
self.ssh_type_conn.put_file(source, destination, proto=proto)
File "/root/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/ansible/netcommon/plugins/connection/libssh.py", line 498, in put_file
raise AnsibleError(
ansible.errors.AnsibleError: Error transferring file to flash:test.txt: Initializing SCP session of remote file [flash:test.txt] for w>
2022-10-06 11:58:35,671 p=535932 u=root n=ansible | fatal: [%remoteSwitch%]: FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"destination": "flash:test.txt",
"msg": "Exception received: Error transferring file to flash:test.txt: Initializing SCP session of remote file [flash:test.txt] fo>
}
Afraid Google is not helping me too much with this one. If it helps, this is on Ubuntu 22.04, with Ansible 2.10.8.
Play attempting to be ran is:
- hosts: %remoteSwitch%
vars:
- firmware_image_name: "test.txt"
tasks:
- name: Copying image to the switch... This can take time, please wait...
net_put:
src: "/etc/ansible/firmware_images/C2960X/{{ firmware_image_name }}"
dest: "flash:{{ firmware_image_name }}"
vars:
ansible_command_timeout: 20
protocol: scp

Answer 1

I ran into this same error. I was able to fix it by switching back to Paramiko SSH. This can be accomplished by either pip uninstall ansible-pylibssh (note, this very likely has other side-effects).
Alternatively, you can force Paramiko usage at the Ansible play level:
---
- name: Test putting a file onto Cisco IOS/IOS-XE device
hosts: cisco1
# ansible-pylibssh errors out here (force paramiko usage)
vars:
ansible_network_cli_ssh_type: paramiko
tasks:
- name: Copy file
ansible.netcommon.net_put:
src: my_file1.txt
dest : flash:/my_file1.txt
protocol: scp

Answer 2

It would be helpful to know what type of connection it is and what platform.
I see from the file that it is a Cisco IOS device. Do you have the following settings?
ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli
ansible_network_os: cisco.ios.ios
The following documentation mentions the need for paramiko. Will it work if you change the ssh_type to paramiko?
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/netcommon/net_put_module.html
ssh_type can be set as follows:
configuration:
INI entry:
[persistent_connection]
ssh_type = paramiko
Environment variable: ANSIBLE_NETWORK_CLI_SSH_TYPE
Variable: ansible_network_cli_ssh_type
Variable: ansible_network_cli_ssh_type