diff --git a/ansible/roles/cheaha.node/tasks/main.yml b/ansible/roles/cheaha.node/tasks/main.yml
index e30ca993c96baa4c8f885cd5b0b2b356387881d7..eef74d213f47287159009d09f7ce7edf7dac0141 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/cheaha.node/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/cheaha.node/tasks/main.yml
@@ -63,6 +63,16 @@
     - group
     - netgroup
     - automount 
+- name: Create base directories
+  ansible.builtin.file:
+    path: "{{ item.dir }}"
+    state: directory
+    mode: "{{ item.mode }}"
+  loop:
+    - { dir: /local, mode: '0777' }
+    - { dir: /scratch, mode: '0755' }
+    - { dir: /share, mode: '0755' }
+    - { dir: /data/rc/apps, mode: '0755' } # this is only required for the symlink to be happy
 - name: Set up NFS GPFS mount point(s)
   ansible.posix.mount:
     path: "{{ item.path }}"
@@ -114,16 +124,6 @@
     - munge
     - slurmd
     - nslcd
-- name: Create base directories
-  ansible.builtin.file:
-    path: "{{ item.dir }}"
-    state: directory
-    mode: "{{ item.mode }}"
-  loop:
-    - { dir: /local, mode: '0777' }
-    - { dir: /scratch, mode: '0755' }
-    - { dir: /share, mode: '0755' }
-    - { dir: /data/rc/apps, mode: '0755' } # this is only required for the symlink to be happy
 - name: Create symbolic links
   ansible.builtin.file:
     src: "{{ item.src }}"