diff --git a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/tasks/prepare_libvirt.yml b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/tasks/prepare_libvirt.yml
index 9364c7a54..32caef41e 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/tasks/prepare_libvirt.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/tasks/prepare_libvirt.yml
@@ -127,9 +127,8 @@
   file:
     state: directory
     path: "{{ test_vm_logdir }}"
-
-- name: Add read/execute perms for the whole directory path
-  shell: f="{{ test_vm_logdir }}" ; while [[ $f != "/" ]]; do chmod 0755 $f; f=$(dirname $f); done;
+    recurse: yes
+    mode: "0755"
 
 - name: install virtualbmc
   pip: