Solving the Ansible error 'This module requires the OpenShift Python client'

If you are using MacOS to develop Operators based on Ansible or simply running Ansible playbooks straight from your Mac, you might encounter this error:

This module requires the OpenShift Python client.

When coping with this error message, two items need to be checked:

• The openshift python module needs to be installed using the pip command bundled with your Ansible.
• If you are not using the implicit localhost, your inventory needs to be updated.

Install the openshift python module

As a MacOS user, you most likely installed Ansible using brew. When doing so, Ansible comes bundled with everything needed for its execution: python, all python modules, etc. There is a caveat with this approach: the bundled python interpreter does not load the python modules that are installed system-wide.

This means that if you installed the openshift python module using pip install openshift, it will not be picked up by Ansible.

The openshift python module needs to be installed using the pip command bundled with your Ansible.

First, discover which version of Ansible you are running:

$ ansible --version
ansible 2.7.10
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/Users/nmasse/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.7.10/libexec/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.7.3 (default, Mar 27 2019, 09:23:39) [Clang 10.0.0 (clang-1000.11.45.5)]

Then, you can install the openshift module using the pip command bundled with your Ansible:

/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.7.10/libexec/bin/pip install openshift

Of course, in the previous command you will have to replace 2.7.10 with your version of Ansible!

If that does not solve the problem, continue with the next item: check your inventory.

Check your inventory

When Ansible runs a task locally (using connection: local for instance), there are two python interpreter loaded:

• One for the Ansible process that reads, parses and execute your playbook.
• One for each task that is run.

When running a task locally, there is a caveat with the Ansible implicit localhost.

If your inventory contains a localhost entry, it disables the implicit localhost entry and you need to set the python interpreter explicitly.

Hopefully, the fix is easy. In your inventory, replace your localhost entries with this one:

localhost ansible_connection=local ansible_python_interpreter="{{ansible_playbook_python}}"

Happy Ansible hacking!