diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/warn_systemd_glob.yml b/changelogs/fragments/warn_systemd_glob.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3d079feaa9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/warn_systemd_glob.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+    - warn user when attempting to use service with globs in systemd module.
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/system/systemd.py b/lib/ansible/modules/system/systemd.py
index 10c9e42f253..820c804bc2e 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/system/systemd.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/system/systemd.py
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ notes:
     - Since 2.4, one of the following options is required 'state', 'enabled', 'masked', 'daemon_reload', ('daemon_reexec' since 2.8),
       and all except 'daemon_reload' (and 'daemon_reexec' since 2.8) also require 'name'.
     - Before 2.4 you always required 'name'.
+    - Globs are not supported in name, i.e ``postgres*.service``.
 requirements:
     - A system managed by systemd.
 '''
@@ -339,6 +340,11 @@ def main():
         mutually_exclusive=[['scope', 'user']],
     )
 
+    unit = module.params['name']
+    for globpattern in (r"*", r"?", r"["):
+        if globpattern in unit:
+            module.fail_json(msg="This module does not currently support using glob patterns, found '%s' in service name: %s" % (globpattern, unit))
+
     systemctl = module.get_bin_path('systemctl', True)
 
     if os.getenv('XDG_RUNTIME_DIR') is None:
@@ -364,7 +370,6 @@ def main():
     if module.params['force']:
         systemctl += " --force"
 
-    unit = module.params['name']
     rc = 0
     out = err = ''
     result = dict(