Chapter 15 Ansible and Docker: No module named 'requests'

[fex01]

Even after installing the docker Python library - and checking the requests module - I got the error message ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'requests'.

After getting a bit more familiar with the -vvv log output, it became obvious that the playbook was using the wrong Python interpreter.

Solution one: installing the docker Python library as root to make the library available for the playbook.

Solution two: explicitly stating the python interpreter - either in the inventory file:

[localhost]
ansible_python_interpreter="/usr/bin/python3"

or in the playbook itself:

  ---
  - hosts: localhost
    connection: local

    # playbook fails to find installed Python packages if interpreter is not set explicitly
    vars:
      ansible_python_interpreter: /usr/bin/python3

    tasks:
    ...

Just leaving this here in case that someone else is running into similar troubles.

This issue might potentially be caused by me using a VS Code DevContainer as Ansible host 🤔

In case that someone else wants to have the same experience - here is the devcontainer.json file:

// For format details, see https://aka.ms/devcontainer.json. For config options, see the
// README at: https://github.com/devcontainers/templates/tree/main/src/ubuntu
{
	"name": "Ansible",
	// Or use a Dockerfile or Docker Compose file. More info: https://containers.dev/guide/dockerfile
	"image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:jammy",

	// Features to add to the dev container. More info: https://containers.dev/features.
	"features": {
    // https://github.com/devcontainers/features/tree/main/src/git
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/git:1": {
			"ppa": true,
			"version": "latest"  // https://github.com/git/git/tags
		},
    // https://github.com/devcontainers-contrib/features/tree/main/src/ansible
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers-contrib/features/ansible:2": {
			"version": "latest"
		},
    // https://github.com/devcontainers/features/tree/main/src/docker-in-docker
    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker:2": {
      // fails for debian:bookworm, successful for debian:bullseye (arch=arm64)
      // fails for versions newer than 23.0.7 (arch=arm64)
      "version": "23.0.7", // https://docs.docker.com/engine/release-notes/24.0/
      "moby": true,
      "dockerDashComposeVersion": "v2",
      "azureDnsAutoDetection": false,
      "dockerDefaultAddressPool": "base=192.168.0.0/16,size=24",
      "installDockerBuildx": true
    },
    // https://github.com/devcontainers-contrib/features/tree/main/src/apt-get-packages
    "ghcr.io/devcontainers-contrib/features/apt-get-packages:1": {
      "packages": "vim,gnupg,software-properties-common,curl,jq,iputils-ping",
      "ppas": "",
      "clean_ppas": false,
      "preserve_apt_list": true,
      "force_ppas_on_non_ubuntu": false
    }
	},

	// Use 'forwardPorts' to make a list of ports inside the container available locally.
	// "forwardPorts": [],

	// Use 'postCreateCommand' to run commands after the container is created.
	// "postCreateCommand": "uname -a",

  // Configure tool-specific properties.
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      "settings": {
				"editor.minimap.enabled": false,
				"files.autoSave": "afterDelay",
				"git.enableSmartCommit": true,
      },
      "extensions": [
        "microsoft.vscode-black-formatter",
        "microsoft.vscode-docker",
        "Microsoft.vscode-python",
        "DonJayamanne.vscode-python-manager",
				"streetsidesoftware.vscode-spell-checker",
        "donjayamanne.githistory",
        "GitHub.copilot"
      ]
    }
  },

  // Configure mounts from host to container.
  "mounts": [
    // host SSH key so you can connect to Git repos
    "source=${localEnv:HOME}/.ssh,target=/home/vscode/.ssh,type=bind"
  ],

	// Uncomment to connect as root instead. More info: https://aka.ms/dev-containers-non-root.
	// "remoteUser": "root"

	"postStartCommand": "git config --global --add safe.directory ${containerWorkspaceFolder}"
}