Ansible: How can I update the system CentOS with Ansible

Question

I am trying to update the CentOS systems with ansible. Unfortunately I am not able to do that.

I already tried:

- name: install updates   yum: update_cache=yes   when: ansible_os_family == "RedHat 

Isn't working.

---

- name: install updates   yum: name=* state=latest   when: ansible_os_family == "RedHat 

The last task works but is it true, that the task updates the system?

Answer 1

The first task you're telling the system to only update the yum cache.

On the second you are effectively upgrading all packages to the latest version by using state=latest but you should also use update_cache=yes on the same task to be sure you're refreshing the cache with its latest package information.

The yum module documentation provides exactly this example:

- name: upgrade all packages   yum: name=* state=latest 

After the execution of the task, the terminal should display a message in yellow meaning the status of the task is changed.