Jenkins ERROR: script returned exit code 4 - jenkins

Question

I got a simple Groovy script to install agents on my servers using Ansible.
After I run the pipeline I get error about
ERROR: script returned exit code 4
Finished: FAILURE
The error happens because I have two instances not running (I don't want them running) and I get connection time out from them.
Is there a way to get Jenkins to ignore such errors?

Answer 1

A not-so-ideal solution would be to just state ignore_unreachable: yes at the top of you playbook.
This is no ideal because you risk missing on unreachable hosts you do care about.
A possibly better solution would be to gracefully end those unreachable hosts in a meta task based on a list of host(s) you don't need up and running.
For example:
- hosts: localhost, ok-if-down
gather_facts: no
pre_tasks:
- ping:
ignore_unreachable: yes
register: ping
- meta: end_host
when:
- inventory_hostname in _possibly_unreachable_hosts
- ping is unreachable
vars:
_possibly_unreachable_hosts:
- ok-if-down
## add more host(s) name in this list, here
tasks:
## here goes your current tasks
When run, the exit code of this playbook would be 0:
$ ansible-playbook play.yml; echo "Return code is $?"
PLAY [localhost, ok-if-down] **************************************************
TASK [ping] *******************************************************************
fatal: [ok-if-down]: UNREACHABLE! => changed=false
msg: 'Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: Could not resolve hostname ok-if-down: Name does not resolve'
skip_reason: Host ok-if-down is unreachable
unreachable: true
ok: [localhost]
TASK [meta] *******************************************************************
skipping: [localhost]
TASK [meta] *******************************************************************
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
ok-if-down : ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=1 failed=0 skipped=1 rescued=0 ignored=0
Return code is 0