Cannot perform yum update on my RHV manager (ansible conflict)

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) 4.3
  • Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) 4.4
  • ovirt-engine-4.3.11.4-0.1.el7.noarch
  • ovirt-hosted-engine-setup-2.3.13-2.el7ev.noarch
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (acting as a RHV host)

Issue

  • After running engine-setup and upgrading RHV from 4.3.9 to 4.3.11, I cannot do a complete yum update because the ansible requirement is locked to 2.9.13 while the one in the required repository is 2.9.14:
# yum update 
Loaded plugins: enabled_repos_upload, package_upload, product-id, search-disabled-repos, subscription-manager,
              : tracer_upload, versionlock
rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms                                                                 | 2.3 kB  00:00:00     
rhel-7-server-rh-common-rpms                                                                   | 2.1 kB  00:00:00     
rhel-7-server-rhv-4-manager-tools-rpms                                                         | 2.3 kB  00:00:00     
rhel-7-server-rhv-4.3-manager-rpms                                                             | 2.4 kB  00:00:00     
rhel-7-server-rpms                                                                             | 2.0 kB  00:00:00     
rhel-7-server-supplementary-rpms                                                               | 2.0 kB  00:00:00     
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:2.9.13-1.el7ae will be updated
--> Processing Dependency: ansible = 2.9.13 for package: ovirt-engine-4.3.11.4-0.1.el7.noarch
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:2.9.14-1.el7ae will be an update
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ovirt-engine-4.3.11.4-0.1.el7.noarch (@rhel-7-server-rhv-4.3-manager-rpms)
           Requires: ansible = 2.9.13
           Removing: ansible-2.9.13-1.el7ae.noarch (@rhel-7-server-ansible-2-rpms)
               ansible = 2.9.13-1.el7ae
           Updated By: ansible-2.9.14-1.el7ae.noarch (rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms)
               ansible = 2.9.14-1.el7ae
  • When trying to update my RHEL based hypervisor, I get a similar ansible dependency issue (with ovirt-hosted-engine-setup

Resolution

RHEL8 (RHV 4.4)
Starting RHV 4.4.5, Ansible is shipped via RHV channels (This content is not included.BZ#1917409) and ansible-2.9-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms channel should be removed for RHV components.

The workaround before RHV 4.4.5 was to add the following to /etc/yum.conf:

best=False

This will allow the system to be updated even if some packages cannot be updated to the best candidate (latest available version).

RHEL7 (RHV 4.3)

  • Update your manager (or RHEL host hypervisor) so that ansible is at version 2.9.13. You can do this by disabling the package that is too new. Add to /etc/yum.conf:
exclude=ansible-2.9.1[4-9] ansible-2.9.[2-9][0-9]*

If the newer version of ansible is already installed, you can downgrade it like so:

yum downgrade ansible-2.9.13-1.el7ae.noarch

Once the system is updated and ansible is at the correct version (ansible-2.9.13), we can use version lock to prevent it trying to update:

yum versionlock ansible

Alternatively, we can disable the ansible repository completely:

subscription-manager repos --disable=rhel-7-server-ansible-2*rpms

For both cases, the exclude line can now be removed from /etc/yum.conf.

Root Cause

The newest version of ansible is not tested with the current ovirt-engine release. Future versions of RHV will implement this setting by default ('best=False' in /etc/yum.conf), however this feature is only available on RHEL8.

Diagnostic Steps

#  rpm -q ovirt-engine
ovirt-engine-4.3.11.4-0.1.el7.noarch
# rpm -qR ovirt-engine |grep ansible
ansible = 2.9.13                                                                <= ansible version required
ovirt-ansible-roles >= 1.1.6
#  yum list --showduplicates ansible
Loaded plugins: product-id, search-disabled-repos, subscription-manager, versionlock
Installed Packages
ansible.noarch                    2.9.13-1.el7ae                    @rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms
Available Packages
ansible.noarch                    2.9.0-2.el7                       rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.1-1.el7                       rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.2-1.el7ae                     rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.4-1.el7ae                     rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.5-1.el7ae                     rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.6-1.el7ae                     rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.7-1.el7ae                     rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.9-1.el7ae                     rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.10-1.el7ae                    rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.11-1.el7ae                   rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms 
ansible.noarch                    2.9.13-1.el7ae                    rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms  <= required version
ansible.noarch                    2.9.14-1.el7ae                    rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms  <= later available versions
ansible.noarch                    2.9.15-1.el7ae                    rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms  <=
ansible.noarch                    2.9.16-1.el7ae                    rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms  <=
ansible.noarch                    2.9.17-1.el7ae                    rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms  <=
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