Installing a set of packages with Ansible The context I need to install a group of packages on multiple Linux servers. Ansible is the right tool for that. The host file: hosts [test_machines] test1.my_domain.com test2.my_domain.com [dev] dev1.my_domain.com dev2.my_domain.com [uat] uat1.my_domain.com uat2.my_domain.com [prod] prd1.my_domain.com prd2.my_domain.com The playbook : add_packages.yml - hosts: all vars_files: - data/all_my_packages.yml tasks: - name: Ensure a set of packages is installed. yum: name={{ item.name }} state={{ item.state }} with_items: '{{ packages }}' The datafile: data/all_my_packages.yml packages: - { name: 'glibc.i686', state: 'present' } - { name: 'glibc.x86_64', state: 'present' ...