epel-release must be installed before packages provided by epel-release can be installed.

tasks/os-redhat.yml

@@ -3,13 +3,17 @@
 
 # installation packages:
 
+- name: need epel-release
+  yum:
+    lock_timeout: 30
+    name: [epel-release]
+
 - name: install packages
   yum:
     lock_timeout: 30
     name: '{{lookup("flattened", items)}}'
   vars:
     items:
-    - epel-release
     - '{{ []  if is_virt_guest else  ["chrony", "smartmontools"] }}'
     #- yum-cron
     - glibc-langpack-de