Why does my Ansible playbook fail when using copy module even when I have enough space on the target

Issue

When executing a task within a playbook to transfer a large file to a target, the file is "staged" on the target in a location specified by remote_tmp. However, the remote_tmp location is not ideal because it is small and cannot accomodate the file.

This failure will be similar to the following the first time:

 [WARNING]: sftp transfer mechanism failed on [192.168.1.2]. Use
ANSIBLE_DEBUG=1 to see detailed information

 [WARNING]: scp transfer mechanism failed on [192.168.1.2]. Use
ANSIBLE_DEBUG=1 to see detailed information

fatal: [192.168.1.2]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "SSH Error: data could not be sent to remote host \"192.168.1.2\". Make sure this host can be reached over ssh", "unreachable": true}

But if the same task is attempted again (without freeing up any space) the message will indicate that there is no space left:

fatal: [192.168.1.2]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1537286773.26-148814310001979’: No space left on device\n", "unreachable": true}