# ansible not reading group\_vars/windows.yml

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-not-reading-group-vars-windows-yml/23646>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Tags:** windows\
**Created:** [February 6, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-not-reading-group-vars-windows-yml/23646 "2017-02-06T14:05:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pixel\_fairy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6f9a4e/32.png) [@pixel\_fairy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/pixel_fairy)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-not-reading-group-vars-windows-yml/23646/1 "2017-02-06T14:05:09Z")

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seems ansible is not reading group\_vars/windows.yml  
tried renaming to group\_vars/windows same result

`  
$ ansible --version  
ansible 2.2.1.0

$ ansible windows --list-hosts  
hosts (1):  
ex-domain1

$ cat group\_vars/windows.yml  
ansible\_user: Administrator  
ansible\_port: 5986  
ansible\_connection: winrm  
ansible\_winrm\_server\_cert\_validation: ignore

$ ansible windows -m debug -a msg=“{{ansible\_user}}”  
ex-domain1 | SUCCESS =\> {  
“msg”: “root”  
}

$ cat ansible.cfg  
[defaults]  
inventory = ./inventory  
remote\_user = root  
roles\_path = ./roles  
`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Matt\_Davis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Matt\_Davis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Matt_Davis)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-not-reading-group-vars-windows-yml/23646/2 "2017-02-06T22:36:33Z")

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Hrm, running this exact stuff works fine for me on 2.2.1 (from source).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pixel\_fairy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6f9a4e/32.png) [@pixel\_fairy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/pixel_fairy)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-not-reading-group-vars-windows-yml/23646/3 "2017-02-06T22:41:46Z")

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my control machine is ubuntu 16.04, ansible and winrm installed with pip. whats yours? ill try from source.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Matt\_Davis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Matt\_Davis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Matt_Davis)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 10:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-not-reading-group-vars-windows-yml/23646/4 "2017-02-06T22:50:13Z")

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Fedora 25, but shouldn’t matter unless somebody horribly broke something in packaging…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Matt\_Davis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Matt\_Davis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Matt_Davis)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 10:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-not-reading-group-vars-windows-yml/23646/5 "2017-02-06T22:50:26Z")

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(especially since you installed from pip)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pixel\_fairy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6f9a4e/32.png) [@pixel\_fairy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/pixel_fairy)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 11:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-not-reading-group-vars-windows-yml/23646/6 "2017-02-06T23:48:22Z")

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group\_vars was in the playbooks directory. moved it to inventory and it worked. group\_vars/all  
worked fine from the playbooks directory.