Installation

Error in upgrading forwarder using ansible

gowthammahes
Path Finder

Hi All,

We are trying to upgrade the splunk universal forwarder from version 8.1.0 to 9.0.3 using ansible scripts. But we are getting error when the script tries to start the forwarder. Herewith attached error and ansible playbook.

Ansible playbook:

- name: Splunk Upgrade | Copy tgz to target
copy:
src: /pub/splunk/splunkpackages/{{ splunk_package }}
dest: /tmp/{{ splunk_package }}

- name: Splunk Upgrade | Check for SYSV scripts
stat:
path: /etc/rc.d/init.d/splunk
register: splunk_sysv

- name: Splunk Upgrade | Stop Splunk
shell: |
{{ splunk_home }}/bin/splunk stop
tar -cvf /opt/splunk_config_backup.tar {{ splunk_home }}/etc/

- name: Splunk Upgrade | Clean up SYSV scripts
shell: |
rm /etc/rc.d/init.d/splunk
/opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk disable boot-start
when: splunk_sysv.stat.exists
ignore_errors: yes

- name: Splunk Upgrade | Upgrade Forwarder and restart ==> in this task it getting failed
shell: |
cd /opt
tar -xzvf /tmp/{{ splunk_package }}
chown -R splunk:splunk /opt/splunkforwarder
{{ splunk_home }}/bin/splunk start --accept-license --answer-yes --no-prompt
register: splunk_upgrade

- name: Splunk Upgrade | Convert SYSV to Systemd
shell: |
{{ splunk_home }}/bin/splunk stop
chown -R splunk:splunk /opt/splunkforwarder
/opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk enable boot-start -user splunk
when: splunk_sysv.stat.exists

- name: Splunk Upgrade | start and enable splunk
service:
name: SplunkForwarder.service
enabled: true
state: started

- name: Splunk Upgrade | Cleanup tgz
file:
state: absent
path: /tmp/{{ splunk_package }}

 

Error in splunk forwarder log:

gowthammahes_0-1690459358986.pnggowthammahes_0-1690459358986.png

 

Labels (3)
0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Data Management Digest – August 2026

MichelleCorpora_1-1788182384472.png Welcome to the August 2026 edition of Data Management Digest! August was a ...

Your Feedback. Our Roadmap. Visit the PX Feedback Booth at .conf26

You use Splunk every day, come and help shape what's next.  Save Your Seat: Product-Focused Sessions at ...

Agentic SOC Triage: Investigating Splunk ES Notables with MCP Server and a Local LLM

The Problem: Too Many Alerts, Too Little Context Security operations teams running Splunk Enterprise Security ...