http 403 forbidden on deployment - deployment

Question

We are facing http 403 forbidden when we are trying to create a file in the VM. We are using the following chef code to do the job.
X_FILES = %w{x-log4j.properties x-override.properties x-core.properties x.conf}
x_FILES.each do |file|
template "/etc/b2b/x/#{file}" do
mode 0644
source "#{file}.erb"
owner 'root'
action :create
notifies :restart, "service[a2a-x]"
only_if { File.exist?("/etc/a2a/x") }
helpers MongoUtil
helpers xUtil
end
end
We have multiple VMs and the error is not consistent. On restart of deployment job, the process is going fine.
The error log is as follows
[2015-10-01T01:40:03+05:30] INFO: Processing template[/etc/b2b/x/x-log4j.properties] action create (b2b::install_configure_x line 89)
[2015-10-01T01:40:04+05:30] INFO: HTTP Request Returned 403 Forbidden:
================================================================================
Error executing action `create` on resource 'template[/etc/b2b/x/x-log4j.properties]'
================================================================================
Net::HTTPServerException
------------------------
403 "Forbidden"
Resource Declaration:
---------------------
# In /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/b2b/recipes/install_configure_x.rb
89: template "/etc/b2b/x/#{file}" do
90: mode 0644
91: source "#{file}.erb"
92: owner 'root'
93: action :create
94: notifies :restart, "service[b2b-x]"
95: only_if { File.exist?("/etc/b2b/x") }
96: helpers MongoUtil
97: helpers TenantIdUtil
98: end
99: end
Compiled Resource:
------------------
# Declared in /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/b2b/recipes/install_configure_x.rb:89:in `block in from_file'
template("/etc/b2b/x/x-log4j.properties") do
provider Chef::Provider::Template
action [:create]
retries 0
retry_delay 2
guard_interpreter :default
path "/etc/b2b/x/x-log4j.properties"
backup 5
atomic_update true
source "x-log4j.properties.erb"
helper_modules [MongoUtil, TenantIdUtil]
cookbook_name "b2b"
recipe_name "install_configure_x"
mode 420
owner "root"
only_if { #code block }
end
Any help in this regard is greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

Answer 1

In case someone else comes across this, as I did, this is most likely due to the authentication token timing out due to a very long chef run.
Here's a page that details solutions to that problem:
https://discourse.chef.io/t/seeing-a-weird-403-error-while-running-recipe/6149/2