Why does Ansible show “ERROR! no action detected in task” error?

Question

Ansible shows an error:

ERROR! no action detected in task. This often indicates a misspelled module name, or incorrect module path.

Answer 1

Explanation of the error :

No tasks to execute means it can not do the action that was described in your playbook

Root cause:

• the installed version of Ansible doesn't support it

How to check :

• ansible --version

Solution:

• upgrade Ansible to a version which supports the feature you are trying to use

How to upgrade Ansible:

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/installation_guide/intro_installation.html#selecting-an-ansible-version-to-install

Quick instruction for Ubuntu :

sudo apt update
sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo apt-add-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt install ansible

P.S: followed this path and upgraded from version 2.0.2 to 2.9 After upgrade, same playbook worked like a charm