Ansible set timezone on Ubuntu host

gistfile1.yml

- name: Group by Distribution
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - group_by: key=${ansible_distribution}

- name: Set Time Zone
  hosts: Ubuntu
  gather_facts: False
  tasks:
    - name: Set timezone variables
      copy: content='America/Los_Angeles'
            dest=/etc/timezone
            owner=root
            group=root
            mode=0644
            backup=yes
      notify:
        - update timezone
  handlers:
    - name: update timezone
      command: dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata

gistfile2.sh

vagrant@us:~$ ll /etc/ | grep timezone
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      20 May 16 06:27 timezone
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      20 May 16 06:22 timezone.2013-05-16@06:24~
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      20 May 16 06:24 timezone.2013-05-16@06:27~
vagrant@us:~$ cat /etc/timezone
America/Los_Angeles
vagrant@us:~$ cat /etc/timezone.2013-05-16@06:24~
America/Los_Angeles
vagrant@us:~$ cat /etc/timezone.2013-05-16@06:27~
America/Los_Angeles
vagrant@us:~$

thanks a lot :)

thanks! but I have slightly modified your code to avoid of getting 'changed' status every run.
i've used static file with timezone copy: src=timezone instead of copy: content='America/Los_Angeles'

Just use \n,

- name: Set timezone variables
  copy: content='Europe/Moscow\n'
        dest=/etc/timezone
        owner=root
        group=root
        mode=0644
        backup=yes

TASK: [test | Set timezone variables] ************************************** 
ok: [0.1.2.3]

For checking current timezone and making this idempotent, just use the ansible_date_time.tz built-in fact:

- name: Set timezone to UTC
  when: ansible_date_time.tz != 'UTC'
  command: timedatectl set-timezone UTC

Doesn't work on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) :( - any workaround?

EDIT: This works: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/+bug/1554806

This working on Ubuntu 14.04 (managed node), thank you!

@xanview this ansible galaxy role worked for me today on Xenial https://galaxy.ansible.com/adriagalin/timezone/