groups_vars not working [inventory]

Hello,
im trying to using a groups vars out side of inventory, but not working

my file struct:

work this form:

eco-sql-dev.ini

`

[win-mssql]
lab-sql1.DOMAIN.cl

[win-mssql:vars]

ansible_user=svc-ansible-dev@DOMAIN.CL
ansible_password=PASS
ansible_port=5986
ansible_connection=winrm
ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation=ignore
ansible_winrm_transport=kerberos
ansible_winrm_service=HOST

`

not work this form

eco-sql-dev.ini

`

[win-mssql]
lab-sql1.DOMAIN.cl

`

groups_vars/win-mssql.ini

`

ansible_user=svc-ansible-dev@DOMAIN.CL
ansible_password=PASS
ansible_port=5986
ansible_connection=winrm
ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation=ignore
ansible_winrm_transport=kerberos
ansible_winrm_service=HOST

`

command to test

`
ansible all -i /etc/ansible/_inventories/staging/eco-SQL-dev.ini -m win_ping -vvvv

`

my ansible version is 2.4.2 [CEntos 7]

group_vars are only supported using YAML or JSON files, not ini.

ok,
im change vars to yaml and not work, that’s error:

ERROR! failed to combine variables, expected dicts but got a ‘dict’ and a ‘AnsibleUnicode’:
{}

also change “=” for “:” in a groups vars

So that message indicates you are trying to merge a string "iamstring"
with a dictionary {key: value}, which means you are using
hash_behaviour=merge and conflicting types for the same variable

ok,
im confused, but the vars defined in groups_vars not defined in inventary.
also chanche hash_behaviour=replace and tru the same error.

The problem is solved.
The problem is in my ansible y have upgrade version and work!!!