How to reproduce, troubleshoot, and fix the “not a valid attribute for a Play” error.
September 20, 2021
Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting and specifically about the “not a valid attribute for a Play” error.
I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.
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demo
The best way of talking about Ansible troubleshooting is to jump in a live demo to show you practically the not a valid attribute for a Play error and how to solve it!
error code
- invalid_play_attribute_error.yml
---
- name: file module demo
hosts: all
vars:
myfile: "~/example.txt"
task:
- name: Creating an empty
ansible.builtin.file:
path: "{{ myfile }}"
state: touch
error execution
- output
$ ansible-playbook -i demo/inventory troubleshooting/invalid_play_attribute_fix.yml
ERROR! 'task' is not a valid attribute for a Play
The error appears to be in 'ansible-pilot/troubleshooting/invalid_play_attribute_error.yml': line 2, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
- -
- name: file module demo
^ here
fix code
- invalid_play_attribute_fix.yml
---
- name: file module demo
hosts: all
vars:
myfile: "~/example.txt"
tasks:
- name: Creating an empty
ansible.builtin.file:
path: "{{ myfile }}"
state: touch
fix execution
- output
$ ansible-playbook -i demo/inventory troubleshooting/invalid_play_attribute_fix.yml
PLAY [file module demo] *********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] **********************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [Creating an empty file] ***************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com]
PLAY RECAP **********************************************************************************
demo.example.com : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
code with ❤️ in GitHub
Recap
Now you know better how to troubleshoot the not a valid attribute for a Play error Error.
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ISSUE TYPE
- Bug Report
- Documentation Report
COMPONENT NAME
include_tasks
ANSIBLE VERSION
The error appears on both ansible-2.3 and 2.5
sudo rpm -Uvh ./rpm-build/ansible-*.noarch.rpm
Preparing... ################################# [100%]
Updating / installing...
1:ansible-2.5.0-100.git201711240634################################# [ 50%]
Cleaning up / removing...
2:ansible-2.3.1.0-1.fc25 ################################# [100%]
CONFIGURATION
OS / ENVIRONMENT
Fedora 25
SUMMARY
A sample playbook [1] from docs returns an error: ERROR! 'include_tasks' is not a valid attribute for a Play.
[1] https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/30466/files#diff-1a5a2a1237daf780d2ef2061e1b42545R97
I’m not sure whether it’s a documentation bug only or smth else. I searched for include_tasks: in this git repo. The found sample playbooks are similar, I didn’t try to run them though.
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
I created two files main.yml and execute_batch.yml as at the bottom of [2], just added in main.yml:
hosts: localhost
connection: local
become: yes
become_method: sudo
and executed: sudo ansible-playbook main.yml. The error was mentioned earlier.
[2] https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/docs/docsite/rst/playbooks_async.rst
EXPECTED RESULTS
If to update main.yml given at the bottom of [2] as following, evrth works fine:
<...>
- 4
- 5
durations: "{{ item }}"
tasks:
- include_tasks: execute_batch.yml
with_items:
- "{{ sleep_durations | batch(2) | list }}"
Result:
TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************************************
ok: [127.0.0.1]
TASK [include_tasks] ***********************************************************************************
included: /home/igulina/git_projects/compose-tests/execute_batch.yml for 127.0.0.1
included: /home/igulina/git_projects/compose-tests/execute_batch.yml for 127.0.0.1
included: /home/igulina/git_projects/compose-tests/execute_batch.yml for 127.0.0.1
TASK [Async sleeping for batched_items] ****************************************************************
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item=1)
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item=2)
TASK [Check sync status] *******************************************************************************
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, '_ansible_item_result': True, u'async_item': 1, '_ansible_item_label': 1, u'ansible_job_id': u'898592897896.7697', u'started': 1, 'changed': True, 'failed': False, u'finished': 0, u'results_file': u'/root/.ansible_async/898592897896.7697', '_ansible_ignore_errors': None, '_ansible_no_log': False})
FAILED - RETRYING: Check sync status (30 retries left).
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, '_ansible_item_result': True, u'async_item': 2, '_ansible_item_label': 2, u'ansible_job_id': u'132655700235.7728', u'started': 1, 'changed': True, 'failed': False, u'finished': 0, u'results_file': u'/root/.ansible_async/132655700235.7728', '_ansible_ignore_errors': None, '_ansible_no_log': False})
TASK [Async sleeping for batched_items] ****************************************************************
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item=3)
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item=4)
TASK [Check sync status] *******************************************************************************
FAILED - RETRYING: Check sync status (30 retries left).
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, '_ansible_item_result': True, u'async_item': 3, '_ansible_item_label': 3, u'ansible_job_id': u'907788887794.7868', u'started': 1, 'changed': True, 'failed': False, u'finished': 0, u'results_file': u'/root/.ansible_async/907788887794.7868', '_ansible_ignore_errors': None, '_ansible_no_log': False})
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, '_ansible_item_result': True, u'async_item': 4, '_ansible_item_label': 4, u'ansible_job_id': u'267599673068.7898', u'started': 1, 'changed': True, 'failed': False, u'finished': 0, u'results_file': u'/root/.ansible_async/267599673068.7898', '_ansible_ignore_errors': None, '_ansible_no_log': False})
TASK [Async sleeping for batched_items] ****************************************************************
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item=5)
TASK [Check sync status] *******************************************************************************
FAILED - RETRYING: Check sync status (30 retries left).
changed: [127.0.0.1] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, '_ansible_item_result': True, u'async_item': 5, '_ansible_item_label': 5, u'ansible_job_id': u'672139654132.8010', u'started': 1, 'changed': True, 'failed': False, u'finished': 0, u'results_file': u'/root/.ansible_async/672139654132.8010', '_ansible_ignore_errors': None, '_ansible_no_log': False})
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************************************
127.0.0.1 : ok=10 changed=6 unreachable=0 failed=0
ACTUAL RESULTS
ERROR! 'include_tasks' is not a valid attribute for a Play
The error appears to have been in 'la/la/la/main.yaml': line 1, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
- name: Run items asynchronously in batch of two items
^ here
I am still very much learning ansible so bear with me, but I am getting very frustrated as I keep running into the same issue over and over again and can’t seem to figure out/learn what I am doing wrong. vscode ansible addon seems to think it’s valid yaml, online yaml linters seem to see it as correct yaml syntax wise, but whenever I try and execute it all goes to shit.
I keep getting the following error messages and can’t determine whether it is my understanding of the /etc/ansible/hosts file as I am using it in the INI way and not the yaml format. Or if it the syntax of the way I am referencing my hosts within my playbook. I get the same error message when I use — name: as well, please see below.
ansible-playbook 2.7.9
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = [u'/home/my name/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible
executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-playbook
python version = 2.7.15rc1 (default, Nov 12 2018, 14:31:15) [GCC 7.3.0]
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
/etc/ansible/hosts did not meet host_list requirements, check plugin documentation if this is unexpected
/etc/ansible/hosts did not meet script requirements, check plugin documentation if this is unexpected
Parsed /etc/ansible/hosts inventory source with ini plugin
ERROR! 'task' is not a valid attribute for a Play
The error appears to have been in '/etc/ansible/scripts/simpletest.yaml': line 2, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
---
- hosts: localhost
^ here
and as said before happens here as well.
ansible-playbook 2.7.9
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = [u'/home/my name/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible
executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-playbook
python version = 2.7.15rc1 (default, Nov 12 2018, 14:31:15) [GCC 7.3.0]
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
/etc/ansible/hosts did not meet host_list requirements, check plugin documentation if this is unexpected
/etc/ansible/hosts did not meet script requirements, check plugin documentation if this is unexpected
Parsed /etc/ansible/hosts inventory source with ini plugin
ERROR! 'debug' is not a valid attribute for a Play
The error appears to have been in '/etc/ansible/scripts/emailconfigtest.yaml': line 13, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
- name: Information Discovery on Cisco IOS Device
^ here
This leads me to believe it’s a syntax issue but I can’t imagine what it could be.