Install error (Linux, AWS)

[Makary]

Describe the bug
When trying to set it up according to the instructions, it crashes at step

fatal: [forem]: FAILED! =>
  msg: |-
    The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: list object has no element 0

    The error appears to be in '/home/makarygo/selfhost/playbooks/providers/aws.yml': line 48, column 5, but may
    be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

    The offending line appears to be:


      - name: Set forem_vpc_id fact
        ^ here

To Reproduce
ansible-playbook -i inventory/forem/setup.yml playbooks/providers/aws.yml

OS (please complete the following information):

• Linux

Cloud Provider (please complete the following information):

• AWS

[Joe Doss]

Task step looks for a default VPC https://github.com/forem/selfhost/blob/main/playbooks/providers/aws.yml#L41-L50. If you deleted the default one it will be blank and fail.

You can comment lines 41 to 50:

- amazon.aws.ec2_vpc_net_info:
      filters:
        "isDefault": "true"
      region: "{{ fcos_aws_region }}"
      profile: "{{ fcos_aws_profile }}"
    register: forem_vpc_info

  - name: Set forem_vpc_id fact
    ansible.builtin.set_fact:
      forem_vpc_id: "{{ forem_vpc_info['vpcs'][0]['vpc_id'] }}"

and then just pass in the VPC ID (replace vpc-1212233445566 in the example below with your AWS VPC ID) from your account in the region you are using via an extra var:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/forem/setup.yml playbooks/providers/aws.yml -e forem_vpc_id=vpc-1212233445566

or use a region that still has a default VPC present.

[Makary]

It seemed to help, after changing region in /playbook/providers/aws.yml
Only now it crashes at another step:

TASK [Launch Forem instance for <redacted>] **********************************************************************
fatal: [forem]: FAILED! =>
  msg: |-
    The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: No first item, sequence was empty.

    The error appears to be in '/home/makarygo/selfhost/playbooks/providers/aws.yml': line 170, column 5, but may
    be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

    The offending line appears to be:


      - name: "Launch Forem instance for {{ app_domain }}"
        ^ here
    We could be wrong, but this one looks like it might be an issue with
    missing quotes. Always quote template expression brackets when they
    start a value. For instance:

        with_items:
          - {{ foo }}

    Should be written as:

        with_items:
          - "{{ foo }}"

[Joe Doss]

I think it is having issues because vpc_subnet_id: "{{ forem_subnet_info.subnets | map(attribute='id') | list | first }}" expects a list of subnets.

- name: Gather info about VPC subnets
    amazon.aws.ec2_vpc_subnet_info:
      filters:
        vpc-id: "{{ forem_vpc_id }}"
        availability-zone: "{{ fcos_aws_region }}a"
      region: "{{ fcos_aws_region }}"
      profile: "{{ fcos_aws_profile }}"
    register: forem_subnet_info

Should get that info but if your VPC that you are using doesn't have any subnets that most likely is a problem.

Debugging your AWS account is a bit beyond our scope here so I would see if you have a default VPC on this account in this region and if not, recreate it https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/deleted-default-vpc/ and just use the default one if you can't figure out what is going on with your subnets on your current AWS VPC.

[Makary]

Yeah, I used this AWS account log time ago for deployment of different project, I will try to deploy with other provider. Thanks for assistance and sorry for stupid questions, just never worked with Ansible before.

[Joe Doss]

No worries and no problem @MakaryGo. I think if you just tried a different region in AWS and make sure you have a default VPC you will be off the to the races.

[Joe Doss]

Hey @MakaryGo I am going to close this request for now. If you want, you can post on https://forem.dev any issues you are having with your VPC on your AWS account and maybe the community can offer more advice.