Ansible: service module does not stop a process sometimes

Question

I originally had:

service:
  name: kannel
  state: restarted

but sometimes, for a unknown reason, it does not restart one of the processes in the service "smsbox", so I have to use shell module:

- name: restart kannel
  shell: |
    service kannel stop
    pkill -9 smsbox
    service kannel start

Is this the best that I can do? Is there a way to ensure all processes stopped and restarted with the service module of Ansible or the service command?

Answer 1

We have seen a similar behaviour when systemd reports the service Active and exited at the same time

service <service name> status
  ...
  Active: active (exited)
  ...

If the restart was done in the playbook or a role, you can set the actions of the restart in two steps

- name: Stop the service
  ansible.builtin.service:
    name: kannel
    state: stopped

- name: Start the service
  ansible.builtin.service:
    name: kannel
    state: started

If this action was executed as a handler, the first task will need to notify the second task:

handlers:
  - name: Restart service
    ansible.builtin.service:
      name: kannel
      state: stopped
    notify:
      - Start service

  - name: Start service
    ansible.builtin.service:
      name: kannel
      state: started