diff --git a/ansible/cluster.yml b/ansible/cluster.yml
index 9d4eaa32978546479d45d8e6e1371896713a6513..a4240f65e0bc8183c19054e8e2bdcc19d9580434 100644
--- a/ansible/cluster.yml
+++ b/ansible/cluster.yml
@@ -9,5 +9,5 @@
     - { name: 'slurm_client', tags: 'slurm_client', when: enable_slurm_client }
     - { name: 'ssh_host_keys', tags: 'ssh_host_keys' }
     - { name: 'ssh_proxy_config', tags: 'ssh_proxy_config', when: enable_ssh_proxy_config }
-    - { name: 'ssl_cert', tags: 'ssl_cert' }
+    - { name: 'ssl_cert', tags: 'ssl_cert', when: enable_ssl_certs }
     - { name: 'rsyslog_config', tags: 'rsyslog_config', when: enable_rsyslog_config }
diff --git a/ansible/group_vars/all b/ansible/group_vars/all
index f68ae57ab7059c813130a0b2d2083a4f4e62545a..f7b65c070a69233d69c5becbef66450819781ee7 100644
--- a/ansible/group_vars/all
+++ b/ansible/group_vars/all
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@
   rsyslog_target: "*.* @master:514"
 
 # ssl certs
+  enable_ssl_certs: false
   ssl_cert_s3_bucket: ""
   ssl_cert_key_location: "/etc/pki/tls/private"
   ssl_cert_file_location: "/etc/pki/tls/certs"