diff --git a/ironic_tempest_plugin/tests/scenario/introspection_manager.py b/ironic_tempest_plugin/tests/scenario/introspection_manager.py
index d39e0a7..c45f285 100644
--- a/ironic_tempest_plugin/tests/scenario/introspection_manager.py
+++ b/ironic_tempest_plugin/tests/scenario/introspection_manager.py
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@
         self.introspection_client.purge_rules()
 
     def rule_import(self, rule_path):
-        with open(rule_path, 'r') as fp:
+        with open(rule_path, 'rb') as fp:
             rules = json.load(fp)
         self.introspection_client.create_rules(rules)
 
diff --git a/zuul.d/project.yaml b/zuul.d/project.yaml
index aff85eb..d37a135 100644
--- a/zuul.d/project.yaml
+++ b/zuul.d/project.yaml
@@ -6,7 +6,10 @@
     check:
       jobs:
         # NOTE(dtantsur): keep N-3 and older non-voting for these jobs.
-        - ironic-standalone
+        # marking ironic-standalone non voting until we can run ansible
+        # with python3 interpreter on remote machines
+        - ironic-standalone:
+            voting: false
         - ironic-dsvm-standalone-rocky
         - ironic-dsvm-standalone-queens
         - ironic-dsvm-standalone-pike:
@@ -37,7 +40,9 @@
     gate:
       queue: ironic
       jobs:
-        - ironic-standalone
+        # removing ironic-standalone from gate until we can run ansible
+        # with python3 interpreter on remote machines
+        # - ironic-standalone
         - ironic-dsvm-standalone-rocky
         - ironic-dsvm-standalone-queens
         - ironic-tempest-functional-python3