# ansible 1.8 (devel 4c86bd3ca6) not reading group\_vars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** windows\ **Created:** [October 21, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573 "2014-10-21T19:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/1 "2014-10-21T19:56:08Z")
Following the documentation at [http://docs.ansible.com/intro\_windows.html](http://docs.ansible.com/intro_windows.html). I setup an inventory file and group windows. I setup a group\_vars for for windows. $ cat customer/windows-testing [windows] [appserv.int.domain.com](http://appserv.int.domain.com) $ cat group\_vars/windows.yml ansible\_ssh\_user: Administrator ansible\_ssh\_pass: “Password” ansible\_ssh\_port: 5986 ansible\_connection: winrm $ whoami basictheprogram $ ansible windows -i customers/windows-testing -m win\_ping -vvvv \<[appserv.int.domain.com](http://appserv.int.domain.com)\> ESTABLISH CONNECTION FOR USER: basictheprogram on PORT 22 TO [appserv.int.domain.com](http://appserv.int.domain.com) [appserv.int.domain.com](http://appserv.int.domain.com) | FAILED =\> FAILED: Authentication failed. I don’t understand why ansible is attempting to ssh (port 22) as basictheprogram (me) installed of winrm to port 5986 as Administrator. $ ansible --version ansible 1.8 (devel 4c86bd3ca6) last updated 2014/10/21 12:09:14 (GMT -500) lib/ansible/modules/core: (detached HEAD cb69744bce) last updated 2014/10/07 14:28:03 (GMT -500) lib/ansible/modules/extras: (detached HEAD 8a4f07eecd) last updated 2014/10/07 14:28:06 (GMT -500) v2/ansible/modules/core: (detached HEAD cb69744bce) last updated 2014/10/07 14:28:11 (GMT -500) v2/ansible/modules/extras: (detached HEAD 8a4f07eecd) last updated 2014/10/07 14:28:15 (GMT -500) configured module search path = None ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Wozniak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Michael\_Wozniak](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Wozniak)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/2 "2014-10-22T20:51:15Z")
I think your group\_vars files should not have .yml extensions ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/3 "2014-10-22T20:55:42Z")
​Given those paths:​ $ customer/windows-testing > $ group\_vars/windows.yml ​Your group vars (current dir) are one level above your inventory​ ​(within customer dir) So they are not found.. ​ ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/4 "2014-10-22T20:56:48Z")
​That is not a problem, could even be .yaml or .json​ lib/ansible/constants.py:# check all of these extensions when looking for yaml files for things like lib/ansible/constants.py:YAML\_FILENAME\_EXTENSIONS = [ "", ".yml", ".yaml", ".json" ] ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Wozniak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Michael\_Wozniak](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Wozniak)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/5 "2014-10-22T20:58:59Z")
ah, ok. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Joseph\_Tam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/fbc32d/32.png) [@Joseph\_Tam](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joseph_Tam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 12:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/6 "2015-04-08T12:45:41Z")
I just experienced the same issue. ansible doesn’t seem to read group\_vars, but ansible-playbook does. so my group\_vars values are not used. was this ever solved? thanks ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 1:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/7 "2015-04-08T13:04:09Z")
i would find that really strange as they both call the same inventory code that is responsible for reading them. ---
**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 1:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/8 "2015-04-08T13:20:58Z")
I guess one difference could be location? group\_vars can also live at the same level as the playbook, as opposed to alongside the inventory. Without a playbook, I don’t think playbook level group\_vars would be loaded. ---
**Author:** ![j.r.hawkesworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@j.r.hawkesworth](https://forum.ansible.com/u/j.r.hawkesworth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 1:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/9 "2015-04-10T13:13:31Z")
Looking at some of my group\_vars files, they have the yaml header i.e. they start with ---
**Author:** ![j.r.hawkesworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@j.r.hawkesworth](https://forum.ansible.com/u/j.r.hawkesworth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/10 "2015-04-10T13:14:40Z")
Reading that again, it might not be too clear what I mean. so instead of $ cat group\_vars/windows.yml ansible\_ssh\_user: Administrator ansible\_ssh\_pass: “Password” ansible\_ssh\_port: 5986 ansible\_connection: winrm $ cat group\_vars/windows.yml ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-1-8-devel-4c86bd3ca6-not-reading-group-vars/16573/11 "2015-04-10T13:40:09Z")
It is optional, the header --- and footer .... are needed when you want to have more than one yaml document per file.