I encountered this error when deploying the Hosted Engine via Cockpit:
[ INFO ] TASK [ovirt.engine-setup : Run engine-setup with answerfile]
[ ERROR ] fatal: [localhost -> engine.ovirt.trashnet.xyz]: FAILED! =>
{"changed": true, "cmd": ["engine-setup",
"--accept-defaults",
"--config-append=/root/ovirt-engine-answers"], "delta":
"0:00:01.396490",
"end": "2020-05-22 18:32:41.965984", "msg": "non-zero
return code", "rc":
1, "start": "2020-05-22 18:32:40.569494", "stderr":
"", "stderr_lines": [],
"stdout": "[ INFO ] Stage: Initializing\n[ ERROR ] Failed to execute stage
'Initializing': '%' must be followed by '%' or '(', found:
'%JUUj'\n[ INFO
] Stage: Clean up\n Log file is located at
/var/log/ovirt-engine/setup/ovirt-engine-setup-20200522183241-c7d1kh.log\n[
ERROR ] Failed to execute stage 'Clean up': 'NoneType' object has no
attribute 'cleanup'\n[ INFO ] Generating answer file
'/var/lib/ovirt-engine/setup/answers/20200522183241-setup.conf'\n[ INFO ]
Stage: Pre-termination\n[ INFO ] Stage: Termination\n[ ERROR ] Execution of
setup failed", "stdout_lines": ["[ INFO ] Stage: Initializing",
"[ ERROR ]
Failed to execute stage 'Initializing': '%' must be followed by
'%' or '(',
found: '%JUUj'", "[ INFO ] Stage: Clean up", " Log file is
located at
/var/log/ovirt-engine/setup/ovirt-engine-setup-20200522183241-c7d1kh.log",
"[ ERROR ] Failed to execute stage 'Clean up': 'NoneType' object has
no
attribute 'cleanup'", "[ INFO ] Generating answer file
'/var/lib/ovirt-engine/setup/answers/20200522183241-setup.conf'", "[
INFO ]
Stage: Pre-termination", "[ INFO ] Stage: Termination", "[ ERROR ]
Execution of setup failed"]}
The important bit is this: Failed to execute stage 'Initializing': '%'
must
be followed by '%' or '(', found: '%JUUj'"
Hey! Those are the last few characters of the admin password. Note that I
don't mean the root password to the VM, but the one for the "admin" user of
the web interface. I added some debug lines to the Ansible play to see the
answerfile that was being generated.
OVESETUP_CONFIG/adminPassword=str:&6&yGfcWf#b%JUUj
Apparently engine-setup can no longer handle an answerfile with a "%"
character in it. This same password worked in 4.3.
Once I changed the admin password, installation progressed normally.