# Cisco old ios set interface description (no | section filter)

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-old-ios-set-interface-description-no-section-filter/3687>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** ios\
**Created:** [February 6, 2024, 7:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-old-ios-set-interface-description-no-section-filter/3687 "2024-02-06T07:25:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lurker](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lurker)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 7:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-old-ios-set-interface-description-no-section-filter/3687/1 "2024-02-06T07:25:16Z")

</div>

ansible --version  
ansible [core 2.15.3]

```auto

failed: [SwitchName] (item={'name': 'Gi3/0/1', 'description': 'sample description'}) => {"ansible_loop_var": "item", "changed": false, "item": {"description": "sample description", "name": "Gi3/0/1"}, "msg": "show running-config | section ^interface\r\nshow running-config | section ^interface\r\n ^\r\n% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.\r\n\r\nSwitchName#"}

```

```auto
      cisco.ios.ios_interfaces:
        config:
          - name: "{{ item.name }}"
            description: "{{ item.description }}"
      with_items: "{{ interface }}"

```

old cisco ios dont support “| section”  
The cisco.ios.ios\_l2\_interfaces module has been fixed, but the interface description cannot be set in it. [use show run instead of section pipeline ios\_l2\_interface by trishnaguha · Pull Request #39658 · ansible/ansible · GitHub](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/39658)

I understand that I can use cisco.ios.ios\_config or cisco.ios.ios\_command but this does not seem to me the best way.  
How to correctly set the interface description in the general case for Cisco iOS?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![roverflow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/roverflow/32/1674_2.png) [@roverflow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/roverflow)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 12:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-old-ios-set-interface-description-no-section-filter/3687/2 "2024-02-06T12:53:30Z")

</div>

Hi @Lurker, our official support is for for Cisco IOS versions 17.x. Please note that we don’t officially support older IOS versions, which might be the cause of the issue you’re experiencing. For addressing this, utilizing the ios\_command or ios\_config modules might be the way to go.