diff --git a/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-cluster.yml b/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-cluster.yml
index e3c695352..9f3692abc 100644
--- a/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-cluster.yml
+++ b/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-cluster.yml
@@ -534,9 +534,7 @@
     listen: "remove data"
 
   - name: remove data
-    file:
-     path: /var/lib/ceph
-     state: absent
+    command: rm -rf /var/lib/ceph/*
     listen: "remove data"
 
   tasks:
diff --git a/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-docker-cluster.yml b/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-docker-cluster.yml
index 6e4057986..b52c491df 100644
--- a/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-docker-cluster.yml
+++ b/infrastructure-playbooks/purge-docker-cluster.yml
@@ -651,9 +651,11 @@
       state: absent
     with_items:
       - /etc/ceph
-      - /var/lib/ceph
       - /var/log/ceph
 
+  - name: remove data
+    command: rm -rf /var/lib/ceph/*
+
 
 - name: purge fetch directory