diff --git a/playbooks/roles/letsencrypt-install-txt-record/templates/zone.db.j2 b/playbooks/roles/letsencrypt-install-txt-record/templates/zone.db.j2
index a888051fda..168e711636 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/letsencrypt-install-txt-record/templates/zone.db.j2
+++ b/playbooks/roles/letsencrypt-install-txt-record/templates/zone.db.j2
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 $ORIGIN acme.opendev.org.
 $TTL 1m
 @               IN      SOA     adns1.opendev.org. hostmaster.opendev.org. (
-                        {{ ansible_date_time.epoch }}  ; serial number unixtime
+                        {{ lookup('pipe', 'date +%s') }}  ; serial number unixtime
                         1h          ; refresh (secondary checks for updates)
                         10m         ; retry   (secondary retries failed axfr)
                         10d         ; expire  (secondary ends serving old data)