First playbook, keep getting an error on YAML - Name - ansible

Question

I'm a bit out of my wheelhouse here. Normally i code only in Powershell.
I was asked to use AWX/Ansible to automate the creation of user centric AD groups.
I did a lot of reading, figured out how to set up an inventory/project/template/survey/import hosts/credentials/ ... .
But what i can't seem to figure out, is this YAML.
According to most information i've found, it seems to be best to use an indentation of 2 spaces, no tabs.
So i did. But i keep getting the following error :
ERROR! We were unable to read either as JSON nor YAML, these are the errors we got from each:
JSON: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)
Syntax Error while loading YAML.
did not find expected key
The error appears to be in '.../CreateUserCentricGroups.yml': line 27, column 3, ...
The offending line appears to be:
- name: Setup variables
^ here
This is the YAML. It was bigger but i made it into the most basic i could think of, in order to find the error. Still, at the first action it fails.
---
- name: Create user centric AD-groups
hosts: "{{ domainName }}"
gather_facts: false
vars:
GroupNameUpper: "RCWR_UC_APP_{{ appName | upper }}"
groupDescription: "{{ appDescription }}"
domainDict:
"Labo": "DC=whatever"
domainDC: '{{domainDict[domainName | default("Labo")] | default("stop") }}' #Allow for future domains to be used.
companyDC: "whatever"
tasks:
- name: Do something with the variables, print full groupname.
debug:
msg: "{{ GroupNameUpper }}"
- name: Verify if the group already exists in AD #Error occurs here <-
register: lookupResult
win_shell: |
Try {
$user = Get-ADGroup {{ GroupNameUpper }}
echo "Group {{ GroupNameUpper }} already exists."
}
catch {
echo "Group {{ GroupNameUpper }} does not exist yet."
}
Try {
$user = Get-ADGroup "{{ GroupNameUpper }}_GrpMgmt"
echo "Group {{ GroupNameUpper }}_GrpMgmt already exists."
}
catch {
echo "Group {{ GroupNameUpper }}_GrpMgmt does not exist yet."
}
debug:
msg: "{{ lookupResult }}"
#gather_facts: false
- name: Inform that group already exists
debug:
msg: Group {{ GroupNameUpper }} already exists in {{ domainName }}.
meta: end_play #https://medium.com/opsops/finishing-playbook-on-condition-in-ansible-958b81d3476d THIS SHOULD STOP IF 1 OF THE 2 GROUPS EXIST.
when: "'already exists' in lookupResult.stdout"
- name: Create groups in AD
register: createOutput
win_shell: |
Try {
$SamAccountname = "{{ GroupNameUpper }}" -replace "_","" -replace "RCWRUC",""
New-ADUser -Name "{{ GroupNameUpper }}" -DisplayName "{{ GroupNameUpper }}" -SamAccountName $SamAccountName -Description "{{ groupDescription }}" -GroupCategory "Security" -GroupScope "DomainLocal" -Path "OU=Groups,{{ companyDC }},OU=Departments,{{ domainDC }},DC=com"
}
catch {
echo "Group {{ GroupNameUpper }} creation failed."
}
Try {
$SamAccountname = "{{ GroupNameUpper }}" -replace "_","" -replace "RCWRUC",""
New-ADUser -Name "{{ GroupNameUpper }}_GrpMgmt" -DisplayName "{{ GroupNameUpper }}_GrpMgmt" -SamAccountName $SamAccountName -Description "{{ groupDescription }}" -GroupCategory "Security" -GroupScope "DomainLocal" -Path "OU=Groups,{{ companyDC }},OU=Departments,{{ domainDC }},DC=com"
}
catch {
echo "Group {{ GroupNameUpper }}_GrpMgmt creation failed."
}
when: "'does not exist yet' in lookupResult.stdout"
failed_when: "('creation failed' in createOutput.stdout) or (createOutput.rc != 0)"
no_log: true
- name: Determine email address (Jenkins)
set_fact:
sendToEmailAddress: "{{ requestorMail }}"
when: requestorMail is defined
- name: Determine email address (non-Jenkins)
set_fact:
sendToEmailAddress: "{{ awx_user_email }}"
when: requestorMail is not defined
- name: Communicate result
delegate_to: localhost
mail:
subject: "Create AD-group {{ GroupNameUpper }}"
body: "Groups {{ GroupNameUpper }} have been created in {{ domainName }}"
host: "exchangeserver"
port: 25
to: "{{sendToEmailAddress}}"
from: "noreply#us.com"
secure: starttls
subtype: html
when: "'does not exist yet' in lookupResult.stdout"
no_log: true
...
What am i forgetting or doing wrong?
Thank you in advance for your time/help.

Answer 1

I don't get the exact error you listed, but your play is kind of play-shaped but not valid.
Your task is not a valid task, since it contains a play-level directive (gather_facts) and does not contain a valid action name.
Assuming you want these variables to apply to the entire play, this is a more valid (and more consistently formatted) reworking of the limited example you provided:
- name: Create user centric AD-groups
hosts: "{{ domainName }}"
gather_facts: false
vars:
GroupNameUpper: Prefix1_APP_{{ appName | upper }}
groupDescription: "{{ appDescription }}"
domainDict:
Labo: DC=whatever
domainDC: "{{ domainDict[domainName | default('Labo')] | default('stop') }}"
companyDC: Whatever
tasks:
- name: Do something with the variables
debug:
msg: "{{ domainDC }}"