# Prevent single failure killing playbook

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/prevent-single-failure-killing-playbook/36109>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [December 14, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/prevent-single-failure-killing-playbook/36109 "2021-12-14T16:47:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Thomas\_Zarowski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Thomas\_Zarowski](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Thomas_Zarowski)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/prevent-single-failure-killing-playbook/36109/1 "2021-12-14T16:47:50Z")

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Hi All,

I am currently running a playbook of several tasks, with serial:1 specified.  
If any of the tasks fail on host 1, I would like to still try them on host 2 and host 3 etc. Perhaps host 1 is just too busy at the time to execute the tasks, it seems annoying to have the whole playbook fail, particularly if running it overnight.

It feels there should be a way to accomplish this, any ideas?

Thanks,  
Tom

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**Author:** ![Omar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f0a364/32.png) [@Omar](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Omar)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 11:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/prevent-single-failure-killing-playbook/36109/2 "2021-12-15T23:11:47Z")

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Hi,

I haven’t tried it my self but I think [max\_fail\_percentage](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_error_handling.html#setting-a-maximum-failure-percentage) is what you are looking for.

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**Author:** ![Thomas\_Zarowski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Thomas\_Zarowski](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Thomas_Zarowski)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/prevent-single-failure-killing-playbook/36109/3 "2021-12-20T14:25:35Z")

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Hi Omar,

Thanks for the suggestion - I tried this and was unable to get it to work. It seems correct if the value of serial is more than one, as it operates on a “per-batch” level as opposed to a “per-machine” level.

Thanks,  
Tom