diff --git a/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-cluster.yml b/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-cluster.yml
index 8fd30dfda..1637d7edc 100644
--- a/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-cluster.yml
+++ b/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-cluster.yml
@@ -436,7 +436,7 @@
       raw_device=$(echo "{{ item }}" | egrep -o '/dev/([hsv]d[a-z]{1,2}|cciss/c[0-9]d[0-9]p|nvme[0-9]n[0-9]p){1,2}')
       partition_nb=$(echo "{{ item }}" | egrep -o '[0-9]{1,2}$')
       sgdisk --delete $partition_nb $raw_device
-    with_items: "{{ ceph_journal_partition_to_erase_path.stdout_lines }}"
+    with_items: "{{ ceph_journal_partition_to_erase_path.stdout_lines | default([]) }}"
     when:
       - ceph_journal_partlabels.rc == 0
       - raw_multi_journal is defined