diff --git a/tasks/galera_upgrade_pre.yml b/tasks/galera_upgrade_pre.yml
index 5d02600e..48b55ba2 100644
--- a/tasks/galera_upgrade_pre.yml
+++ b/tasks/galera_upgrade_pre.yml
@@ -79,11 +79,7 @@
     name: "{{ item }}"
     state: absent
   with_items:
-    - "mariadb-galera-server*"
-    - "mariadb-server*"
-    - MariaDB-Galera-server
-    - MariaDB-server
-    - mysql-common
+    - "{{ galera_server_upgrade_packages_remove }}"
   tags:
     - galera-upgrade
     - galera-apt-packages
diff --git a/vars/redhat-7.yml b/vars/redhat-7.yml
index cbd76e34..212aafbd 100644
--- a/vars/redhat-7.yml
+++ b/vars/redhat-7.yml
@@ -39,6 +39,11 @@ galera_server_mariadb_distro_packages:
   - rsync
   - socat
 
+# The packages to uninstall during an upgrade from a previous version
+galera_server_upgrade_packages_remove:
+  - MariaDB-Galera-server
+  - MariaDB-server
+
 _galera_repo_url: "http://yum.mariadb.org/10.1/centos/7/x86_64"
 galera_repo:
   name: MariaDB
diff --git a/vars/ubuntu-16.04.yml b/vars/ubuntu-16.04.yml
index 33c35213..019d5e99 100644
--- a/vars/ubuntu-16.04.yml
+++ b/vars/ubuntu-16.04.yml
@@ -58,6 +58,11 @@ galera_server_mariadb_distro_packages:
   - rsync
   - socat
 
+# The packages to uninstall during an upgrade from a previous version
+galera_server_upgrade_packages_remove:
+  - mariadb-server
+  - mysql-common
+
 galera_debconf_items:
   - question: "mysql-server/root_password"
     name: "{{ galera_mariadb_server_package }}"