diff --git a/tasks/kerberos.yml b/tasks/kerberos.yml
index 09feaa4..075ed8e 100644
--- a/tasks/kerberos.yml
+++ b/tasks/kerberos.yml
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
       {{
         (
           samba_provision_output.stdout
-          | regex_findall('(/[^\\s,"\']*krb5\\.conf)')
-          | map('regex_replace', "['\",]", '')   # remove quotes and commas from matches
+          | regex_findall('(/[^\\s,"\']*/private/krb5\\.conf)')
+          | map('regex_replace', "['\",]", '')
           | list
           | default([])
         )
@@ -16,10 +16,29 @@
       }}
   when: samba_provision_output.stdout is defined
 
-- name: print krb5.conf path
-  ansible.builtin.debug:
-    msg: "Krb5.conf path: {{ krb5_conf_path }}"
 
+- name: Show extracted krb5.conf path
+  ansible.builtin.debug:
+    msg: "Extracted krb5.conf path: {{ krb5_conf_path | default('N/A') }}"
+
+- name: Check if krb5.conf exists on disk
+  ansible.builtin.stat:
+    path: "{{ krb5_conf_path }}"
+  register: krb5_conf_stat
+  when: krb5_conf_path != ''
+
+- name: Validate krb5.conf presence
+  ansible.builtin.fail:
+    msg: "Kerberos configuration file was not found at {{ krb5_conf_path }}. Provision may have failed."
+  when:
+    - krb5_conf_path != ''
+    - not krb5_conf_stat.stat.exists | default(false)
+
+- name: Confirm Kerberos configuration found
+  ansible.builtin.debug:
+    msg: "Kerberos configuration verified: {{ krb5_conf_path }}"
+  when: krb5_conf_stat.stat.exists | default(false)
+  
 - name: Copy krb5.conf to /etc/krb5.conf
   ansible.builtin.copy:
     src: '{{ krb5_conf_path }}'