Troubleshooting

See molecule for specific molecule troubleshooting.

Driver vagrant does not provide a schema

Vagrant driver does have a schema and will always generate a warning.

WARNING Driver vagrant does not provide a schema.

VERR_CFGM_NOT_ENOUGH_SPACE

Vagrant path length exceeded for Molecule test (see virtualization manager).

fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "cmd": [
        "/usr/bin/vagrant",
        "up",
        "--no-provision"
    ],
    "rc": 1
}

STDERR:

### YYYY-MM-DD 20:32:26 ###
### YYYY-MM-DD 20:32:26 ###
There was an error while executing `VBoxManage`, a CLI used by Vagrant
for controlling VirtualBox. The command and stderr is shown below.

Command: ["startvm", "b3415658-8f60-4026-8375-f6ec52014db5", "--type", "headless"]

Stderr: VBoxManage: error: Failed to construct device 'ichac97' instance #0 (VERR_CFGM_NOT_ENOUGH_SPACE)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component ConsoleWrap, interface IConsole

MSG:

Failed to start the VM(s): See log file '.../vagrant.err'

Molecule creates a VM name using

Molecule test name: my_test
Molecule image test name: test-case-vm
Image box name: inception-of-things-trixie
OS used: debian
Network: private_network
Random UUID hash: 36 characters

Use shorter component names:

VM instance name in molecule.yml.
Rename molecule test to shorter name.
Extreme cases may require cloning repo with a shorter root repository name.

my_role/molecule/my_test/molecule.yml

platforms:
  - name: 'test-case-vm'
    box: 'inception-of-things/trixie'
    interfaces:
      - network_name: 'private_network'

Failed to lock apt for exclusive operation

Use root to configure and test VM instance. All Molecule setup/teardown steps require root user. Always use become when creating Molecule tests or setup an ansible user after VM turnup to apply ansible tasks.

- name: 'Molecule testing step'
  hosts: 'all'
  gather_facts: false
  # Always **become** ssh.remote_user when creating Molecule tests or setup an
  # ansible user after VM turnup to apply ansible tasks.
  become: true

Flaky VM

A previous molecule test likely not cleaned up properly.

# Clean all VMs and re-run.
vagrant global-status
vagrant destroy {ID}
vagrant box list
vagrant box destroy {ID}

Check GUI for additional VMs if needed.

Permission denied (publickey,password)

Vagrant SSH keys should automatically be set in images. Manual images may have forgotten to install these keys.

TASK [Install packages] ********************************************************
included: {ROLE} for 10.2.2.39
fatal: [10.2.2.39]: UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "unreachable": true
}
MSG:
vagrant@10.2.2.39: Permission denied (publickey,password).

For Debian Images

User	password	vagrant public key
root	vagrant	✘
vagrant	vagrant	✔

Be sure to become root after connecting to run tests.

Confirm keys are set correctly in VM.

ls -l /home/vagrant/.ssh/id.*
> 0400 vagrant:vagrant id.*

# Install VM keys and re-create base image if needed.
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashicorp/vagrant/refs/heads/main/keys/vagrant.pub -O /home/vagrant/.ssh/authorized_keys

Enable debugging if issue continues.

converge.yml

0644 {USER}:{USER}

- ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: '{{ ansible_ssh_private_key_file }}'

ERROR! couldn't resolve module/action 'vagrant'

Molecule 25.2.0+ is a bad release that broke vagrant modules.

Resolved via auto configured environments

Update configured development environment.

Issue left for clarity.

molecule create
> WARNING  Driver vagrant does not provide a schema.
> INFO     default scenario test matrix: dependency, create, prepare, converge
> INFO     Performing prerun with role_name_check=0...
> INFO     Running default > dependency
> WARNING  Skipping, missing the requirements file.
> WARNING  Skipping, missing the requirements file.
> INFO     Running default > create
> ERROR! couldn't resolve module/action 'vagrant'. This often indicates a misspelling, missing collection, or incorrect module path.
>
> The error appears to be in '.../molecule_plugins/vagrant/playbooks/create.yml': line 8, column 7, but may
> be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
>
> The offending line appears to be:
>
>   tasks:
>     - name: Create molecule instance(s) # noqa fqcn[action]
>       ^ here

Install Molecule 25.1.0 as a temporary workaround.

Use auto configured environments

This is only a temporary solution until alternatives are found. Molecule developers quite frankly shit out a half-form glob, tosseed it over the fence, yelled fuck you, and walked away. Most consumers of Molecule have locked to 25.1 as the workarounds are ineffective or created a ton of unnecessary churn.

This is a serious breakage with an extreme lack of reponse from developers.

pip install --force-reinstall -v 'molecule==25.1.0'

Potential Resolutions