Installing multiple packages in Ansible

To my surprise I didn’t find the simplest solution in all the answers, so here it is. Referring to the question title Installing multiple packages in Ansible this is (using the yum module):

- name: Install MongoDB
  yum:
    name:
      - mongodb-org-server
      - mongodb-org-mongos
      - mongodb-org-shell
      - mongodb-org-tools 
    state: latest
    update_cache: true

Or with the apt module:

- name: Install MongoDB
  apt:
    pkg:
      - mongodb-org-server
      - mongodb-org-mongos
      - mongodb-org-shell
      - mongodb-org-tools 
    state: latest
    update_cache: true

Both modules support inline lists!

The second part of your question is how to integrate specific version numbers into the package lists. No problem – simply remove the state: latest (since using specific version numbers together with state: latest would raise errors) and add the version numbers to the package names using a preceding = like this:

- name: Install MongoDB
  yum:
    name:
      - mongodb-org-server=1:3.6.3-0centos1.1
      - mongodb-org-mongos=1:3.6.3-0centos1.1
      - mongodb-org-shell=1:3.6.3-0centos1.1
      - mongodb-org-tools=1:3.6.3-0centos1.1 
    update_cache: true

You could also optimize further and template the version numbers. In this case don’t forget to add quotation marks 🙂