Ubuntu 20.04: usermod: user hornet is currently used by process 3271

[jeliasson]

Running the installation script on a Ubuntu 20.04 server gave this error;

[...]

TASK [hornet : get release tag] ****************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {"ansible_facts": {"hornet_tag": "1.1.3"}, "changed": false}

TASK [hornet : clone hornet repository] ********************************************************************************
changed: [localhost] => {"after": "1d93f0b7615d45a273889e357ee6b59121768556", "before": null, "changed": true}

TASK [hornet : add user to run hornet as] ******************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "usermod: user hornet is currently used by process 32713\n", "name": "hornet", "rc": 8}

NO MORE HOSTS LEFT *****************************************************************************************************

PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=44   changed=19   unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=32   rescued=0    ignored=0

ERROR! The playbook exited with failure(s). A log has been save here '/var/log/hornet-playbook-202201252144.log'

Running the command as root yields the same error.

This machine has two accounts before running the installation script, namely ops on id 1000 and ansible on id 9999 (this machine is in fact managed by Ansible). I do not believe these are a result of the ansible-playbook, but I might be wrong.

Ideas?

[nuriel77]

Looks like you've somehow ended up already having user hornet on your system not created by the hornet-playbook.
Did you run any other installers previously?

Check process ID 32713 as shown in the error line.

[jeliasson]

Did you run any other installers previously?

Not that I know of, but I'll re-create the server later in the week to see if there is something pre-installation that is/was conflicting.

[jeliasson]

@nuriel77 A semi-fresh installation seems to have done the trick. I'll reopen the issue if I see it again. Thanks for a nice playbook!

Btw, any thought on making the playbook runnable from another Ansible node? In my case, a command-and-control node. Thanks!