# Ansible k8s problem ("strategic merge patch format is not supported")

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-k8s-problem-strategic-merge-patch-format-is-not-supported/28195>\
**Category:** Ansible Developer\
**Tags:** kubernetes\
**Created:** [July 30, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-k8s-problem-strategic-merge-patch-format-is-not-supported/28195 "2018-07-30T14:23:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Attila\_Kemeny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@Attila\_Kemeny](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Attila_Kemeny)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-k8s-problem-strategic-merge-patch-format-is-not-supported/28195/1 "2018-07-30T14:23:55Z")

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Hello,

i am trying to configure a k8s cluster with ansible. It is working quite well but new i have a problem with a custom resource (cert-manager Certificate and ClusterIssuer) When i rerun the scripts it gives me an error: “strategic merge patch format is not supported”.  
I am not sure if it is an Ansible problem but if i am correct this was a bug in k8s but it has been already fixed. (here [https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/53379](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/53379) and here [https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/53558](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/53558))  
If i run kubectl apply it works without problem (certificate “mycert” configured).

The role looks like this:

- name: Create cluster issuer  
k8s:  
state: present  
kubeconfig: “{{kubeconfig\_path}}”  
definition:  
apiVersion: [certmanager.k8s.io/v1alpha1](http://certmanager.k8s.io/v1alpha1)  
kind: ClusterIssuer  
metadata:  
name: letsencrypt-staging  
spec:  
acme:  
server: [https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory](https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory)  
email: [support@mycompany.com](mailto:support@mycompany.com)  
privateKeySecretRef:  
name: letsencrypt-staging  
http01: {}

Can someone help me what if this is a bug in ansible or it is a bug in k8s or just my mistake?

Thanks!  
Attila

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![willthames](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@willthames](https://forum.ansible.com/u/willthames)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 9:02am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-k8s-problem-strategic-merge-patch-format-is-not-supported/28195/2 "2018-08-31T09:02:17Z")

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Apologies, I’ve only just seen this.

This is now fixed in devel - k8s takes a merge\_type param - you can either pass ‘merge’ explicitly for Custom Resource Definitions or, as of this morning,

[‘strategic-merge’, ‘merge’] for all resources - if it fails to patch using strategic-merge, it will fall back to merge.

[https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/42219](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/42219)

[https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/44821](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/44821)

You’ll need to update openshift to 0.6.1 or above to make use of merge\_type

As always, you can use devel modules with stable Ansible

[http://willthames.github.io/2017/12/12/using-updated-modules-with-stable-ansible.html](http://willthames.github.io/2017/12/12/using-updated-modules-with-stable-ansible.html)

here the caveat at the end is very important - you’ll want to copy module\_utils/k8s/raw.py and common.py

Will