diff --git a/roles/kubernetes/preinstall/defaults/main.yml b/roles/kubernetes/preinstall/defaults/main.yml
index 4199d4c7f1106936f8a13cf90942088a55716f88..295f101789d728fc1ae3ee96963acc13ee7838e4 100644
--- a/roles/kubernetes/preinstall/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/kubernetes/preinstall/defaults/main.yml
@@ -4,8 +4,7 @@ run_gitinfos: false
 # Set to true to allow pre-checks to fail and continue deployment
 ignore_assert_errors: false
 
-epel_rpm_download_url: "https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm"
-epel_enabled: true
+epel_enabled: false
 
 common_required_pkgs:
   - python-httplib2
diff --git a/roles/kubernetes/preinstall/tasks/main.yml b/roles/kubernetes/preinstall/tasks/main.yml
index 0a01466ea14a28bcfbc3e6f9a78443658650226c..52dfd261370481bea80bdc0f05820f709425d8e3 100644
--- a/roles/kubernetes/preinstall/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/kubernetes/preinstall/tasks/main.yml
@@ -172,18 +172,13 @@
     - bootstrap-os
 
 - name: Install epel-release on RedHat/CentOS
-  shell: rpm -qa | grep epel-release || rpm -ivh {{ epel_rpm_download_url }}
-  register: epel_task_result
-  until: epel_task_result|succeeded
-  retries: 4
-  delay: "{{ retry_stagger | random + 3 }}"
-  changed_when: False
+  yum:
+    name: epel-release
+    state: present
   when:
     - ansible_distribution in ["CentOS","RedHat"]
     - not is_atomic
-    - epel_rpm_download_url != ''
     - epel_enabled|bool
-  check_mode: no
   tags:
     - bootstrap-os