Use native Ansible modules in the OpenVPN role to seed the serial and

database files.

roles/vpn/tasks/openvpn.yml

             dest={{ openvpn_path }}/openssl-server-certificate.cnf
 
 - name: Seed a blank database file that will be used when generating the Server's certificate
-  command: touch {{ openvpn_path }}/index.txt
-           creates={{ openvpn_path }}/index.txt
+  file: path={{ openvpn_path }}/index.txt
+        state=touch
 
 - name: Seed a serial file that will be used when generating the Server's certificate
-  shell: echo 01 > {{ openvpn_path }}/serial
-         creates={{ openvpn_path }}/serial
+  copy: content="01"
+        dest={{ openvpn_path }}/serial
 
 - name: Generate CSR for the Server
   command: openssl req -batch -extensions server -new -key server.key -out server.csr -config {{ openvpn_path }}/openssl-server-certificate.cnf