Ansible fails with /bin/sh: 1: /usr/bin/python: no

Question

I'm running into an error I've never seen before. Here is the command and the error:

$ ansible-playbook create_api.yml

PLAY [straw] ******************************************************************

GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************
failed: [104.55.47.224] => {"failed": true, "parsed": false}
/bin/sh: 1: /usr/bin/python: not found


TASK: [typical | install required system packages] *****************************
FATAL: no hosts matched or all hosts have already failed -- aborting


PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
           to retry, use: --limit @/Users/john/create_api.retry

104.55.47.224               : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1

Here is the create_api.yml file:

---

- hosts: api
  remote_user: root
  roles:
    - api

And here is the hosts file:

[api]
104.55.47.224

I can remove the roles section and it won't make it to the first TASK, it will instead make it will only make it to the line /bin/sh: 1: /usr/bin/python: not found. What could be going on here?

---

NOTE: In case anyone is pinging the IP address and failing to get a response, you should know I've changed the IP address since pasting code.

EDIT python was installed locally, the problem was that it was not installed on the remote machine, which was running Ubuntu 15.04

Answer 1

@Miroslav, thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I used user_data in the ec2_instance module too and it works like a treat.

I.e.

- name: Creating single EC2 instance 
  ec2_instance:
    region: "{{ aws_region }}"
    key_name: "{{ aws_ec2_key_pair }}"
    name: "some-cool-name"
    instance_type: t1.micro
    image_id: ami-d38a4ab1
    security_group: sg-123456
    vpc_subnet_id: sn-678901234
    network:
        assign_public_ip: no
    volumes:
      - device_name: /dev/sda1
        ebs:
          volume_type: gp2
          volume_size: 15
    user_data: |
      #!/bin/bash
      #
      apt update
      apt install -y python-simplejson              
    termination_protection: yes
    wait: yes