[BUG] sudo password session expiry can cause playbook to fail

[jbemmel]

I suspect this depends on a sudo session expiring in the middle of a playbook run, but today I had my Linux bonding script (ip netns exec delegated to localhost) fail with an error 'sudo requires a password'

ansible_become_password is not defined for Linux devices, but even if it was it wouldn't be "vagrant" for become delegated to localhost

https://www.omglinux.com/change-sudo-timeout-linux/ has suggestions on how to change the sudo session timeout;
Defaults timestamp_timeout=0 sets it to always require a password (so we could detect these issues)

We could either ask for the password interactively, or ask the user to set an environment variable

[ipspace]

When you figure out what's going on we might discuss whether to improve anything. Also, I don't think you can use ansible_become_password on the Ansible host.

Anyway, I expect one of two things from the users: either they know enough Linux to know what they're doing, or they follow the "use netlab on Ubuntu to install everything" recipe. That usually works ;) Trying to accommodate all sorts of Linux distros or "custom" setups is a recipe for a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.

[jbemmel]

My Linux setup is not customized, in particular sudo session timeout is set at default (15 minutes I believe)

The use of sudo when starting Containerlab typically triggers an interactive entering of the password. This starts the 15 minute timer. If I happen to start a new lab 1 minute before sudo session expiry, it will get past the Containerlab stage but may hit a wall during Ansible become processing

I suspect it's a simple setting to enable interactive asking for the sudo password in case of become delegated to localhost - but I need to test it out

[ipspace]

If you create a Ubuntu VM from a Vagrant box, there's no timeout on sudo sessions. I got the same setup after installing Ubuntu on my server from an ISO image. Maybe they changed the defaults later?

Anyway, apart from fixing some obvious omission on our part, I don't think it's our job to figure out how Ansible playbooks should deal with sudo setups.