diff --git a/ansible/playbooks/sap-hana-cluster.yaml b/ansible/playbooks/sap-hana-cluster.yaml
index f6e4101a..10f9600e 100644
--- a/ansible/playbooks/sap-hana-cluster.yaml
+++ b/ansible/playbooks/sap-hana-cluster.yaml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
     # is_primary is selected so that tasks that need to be issued one are honoured correctly
     is_primary: "{{ ansible_play_hosts[0] == inventory_hostname }}"
     primary_hostname: "{{ ansible_play_hosts[0] }}"
-    use_sbd: yes
+    sbd: "{{ use_sbd | default('true') }}"
     # Azure fencing specific vars
     subscription_id:
     resource_group:
diff --git a/ansible/playbooks/tasks/cluster-bootstrap.yaml b/ansible/playbooks/tasks/cluster-bootstrap.yaml
index 9e02f8f7..81120e92 100644
--- a/ansible/playbooks/tasks/cluster-bootstrap.yaml
+++ b/ansible/playbooks/tasks/cluster-bootstrap.yaml
@@ -218,11 +218,15 @@
     migration_threshold: "{{ (crm_rsc_options_show.stdout | regex_search('migration-threshold=([0-9]*)', '\\1'))[0] | default('false') }}"
     op_default_timeout: "{{ (crm_op_options_show.stdout | regex_search('timeout=([0-9]*)', '\\1'))[0] | default('false') }}"
 
+- name: Variable use_sbd
+  ansible.builtin.debug:
+    msg: "Cloud platform appears to be use_sbd:{{ use_sbd }} use_sbd bool:{{ use_sbd | bool }} use_sbd string:{{ use_sbd | string | lower  == 'false' }}"
+
 - name: Enable SBD [sbd]
   ansible.builtin.command: crm configure primitive rsc_iscsi_sbd stonith:external/sbd
   when:
     - sbd_stonith | string | lower  == 'false'
-    - use_sbd
+    - use_sbd | bool
     - is_primary
 
 - name: Set stonith-timeout [sdb]