Ansible playbook handlers not starting the service through notify statement

Question

I don't understand or see what I am doing wrong but it seems like I can't get my ansible playbook to start rng-tools service on an ubuntu server.

environment:
    remote server (configured): Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
    server with playbook: Debian GNU/Linux 7.6 (wheezy)
    > apt-cache policy ansible
    ansible:
      Installed: 1.7-0.git201406241728~unstable
      Candidate: 1.7-0.git201406241728~unstable
      Version table:
      *** 1.7-0.git201406241728~unstable 0
            100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

My folder structure is like the following:

tasks/main.yml
tasks/packages.yml that is included from the main.yml file
handlers/main.yml
files/rng-tools    

I am installing the package rng-tools using my playbook and it is installed after the execution.

- name: install common packages
  apt: name={{ item }}  state=present
  with_items:
    - gnupg
    - rng-tools
    - reprepro
    - dpkg-sig
    - nginx

Yes I am installing multiples packages but they are all installed correctly.

Once it is installed I copy the /etc/default/rng-tools file over using:

- name: copy urandom default conf file
  copy: src="rng-tools" dest="/etc/default/rng-tools"
  notify: start rng-tools 

You can notice that I wrote the notify: restart rng-tools there to get the service started.

My handlers/main.yml file looks like:

---
# Handler for rng-tools
- name: start rng-tools
  service: name=rng-tools state=started

- name: restart rng-tools
  service: name=rng-tools state=restarted

- name: stop rng-tools
  service: name=rng-tools state=stopped

- name: reload rng-tools
  service: name=rng-tools state=reloaded

The log of the running playbook produces the following:

TASK: [debian-repository | install common packages] ***************************
ok: [debian.home.dr] => (item=gnupg,rng-tools,reprepro,dpkg-sig,nginx) => {"changed": false, "item": "gnupg,rng-tools,reprepro,dpkg-sig,nginx"}

TASK: [debian-repository | copy urandom default conf file] ********************
ok: [debian.home.dr] => {"changed": false, "dest": "/etc/default/rng-tools", "gid": 0, "group": "root", "md5sum": "45ed1b1ee174494442296fdd262f3b09", "mode": "0644", "owner": "root", "path": "/etc/default/rng-tools", "size": 815, "state": "file", "uid": 0}

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
debian.home.dr             : ok=12   changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0

The problem is that the service is never started and I check this with

sudo ps aux | grep rng
root 29392  0.0  0.0  11740   884 pts/1    S+   22:45   0:00 grep rng

While when I do sudo service rng-tools start it starts plus I can see the process runing fine.

~:sudo service rng-tools start
Starting Hardware RNG entropy gatherer daemon: rngd.
~:sudo ps aux | grep rng
root     29431  0.0  0.0   8964   336 ?        Ss   22:47   0:00 /usr/sbin/rngd -r /dev/urandom
root 29433  0.0  0.0  11740   880 pts/1    S+   22:47   0:00 grep rng

I tried many thing like commenting all the handlers except one. If I put a command type after the file is copied over and that the command starts the service the service runs, so it doesn't seems to be a permission issue, but somehow I can't figure it out. Plus using the handlers/main.yml is in the best practice guide so I believed I am doing it right.

Do you have any idea why I can't get it started using the playbook?

Answer 1

changed:false is the key to unrolling that mystery:

TASK: [debian-repository | copy urandom default conf file] ********************
ok: [debian.home.dr] => {"changed": false, "dest": "/etc/default/rng-tools", "gid": 0, "group": "root", "md5sum": "45ed1b1ee174494442296fdd262f3b09", "mode": "0644", "owner": "root", "path": "/etc/default/rng-tools", "size": 815, "state": "file", "uid": 0}

The "notify: started" is only invoked if the file copy occurs.