Ansible troubleshooting - not a valid attribute for a Play error
How to reproduce, troubleshoot, and fix the “not a valid attribute for a Play” error.


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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- Ansible by Examples: 200+ Automation Examples For Linux and Windows System Administrator and DevOps
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- Ansible For Linux by Examples: 100+ Automation Examples For Linux System Administrator and DevOps
- Ansible Linux Filesystem By Examples: 40+ Automation Examples on Linux File and Directory Operation for Modern IT Infrastructure
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- Ansible Tips and Tricks: 10+ Ansible Examples to Save Time and Automate More Tasks
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- Ansible For PostgreSQL by Examples: 10+ Examples To Automate Your PostgreSQL database
- Ansible For Amazon Web Services AWS By Examples: 10+ Examples To Automate Your AWS Modern Infrastructure
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
Recap
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