amazon.aws.aws_ec2 inventory – EC2 inventory source

Note

This inventory plugin is part of the amazon.aws collection (version 8.2.1).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws. You need further requirements to be able to use this inventory plugin, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: amazon.aws.aws_ec2.

Synopsis

  • Get inventory hosts from Amazon Web Services EC2.

  • The inventory file is a YAML configuration file and must end with aws_ec2.{yml|yaml}. Example: my_inventory.aws_ec2.yml.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local controller node that executes this inventory.

  • python >= 3.6

  • boto3 >= 1.26.0

  • botocore >= 1.29.0

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

access_key

aliases: aws_access_key_id, aws_access_key, ec2_access_key

string

AWS access key ID.

See the AWS documentation for more information about access tokens https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-sec-cred-types.html#access-keys-and-secret-access-keys.

The aws_access_key and profile options are mutually exclusive.

The aws_access_key_id alias was added in release 5.1.0 for consistency with the AWS botocore SDK.

The ec2_access_key alias has been deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2024-12-01.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID

  • Environment variable: AWS_ACCESS_KEY

  • Environment variable: EC2_ACCESS_KEY

    Removed in: major release after 2024-12-01

    Why: EC2 in the name implied it was limited to EC2 resources. However, it is used for all connections.

    Alternative: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID

allow_duplicated_hosts

boolean

added in amazon.aws 5.0.0

By default, the first name that matches an entry of the hostnames list is returned.

Turn this flag on if you don’t mind having duplicated entries in the inventory and you want to get all the hostnames that match.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

assume_role_arn

aliases: iam_role_arn

string

The ARN of the IAM role to assume to perform the lookup.

You should still provide AWS credentials with enough privilege to perform the AssumeRole action.

cache

boolean

Toggle to enable/disable the caching of the inventory’s source data, requires a cache plugin setup to work.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

Configuration:

cache_connection

string

Cache connection data or path, read cache plugin documentation for specifics.

Configuration:

cache_plugin

string

Cache plugin to use for the inventory’s source data.

Default: "memory"

Configuration:

cache_prefix

string

Prefix to use for cache plugin files/tables

Default: "ansible_inventory_"

Configuration:

cache_timeout

integer

Cache duration in seconds

Default: 3600

Configuration:

compose

dictionary

Create vars from jinja2 expressions.

Default: {}

endpoint_url

aliases: aws_endpoint_url, endpoint

string

URL to connect to instead of the default AWS endpoints. While this can be used to connection to other AWS-compatible services the amazon.aws and community.aws collections are only tested against AWS.

The endpoint alias has been deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2024-12-01.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: AWS_URL

  • Environment variable: EC2_URL

    Removed in: major release after 2024-12-01

    Why: EC2 in the name implied it was limited to EC2 resources. However, it is used for all connections.

    Alternative: AWS_URL

exclude_filters

list / elements=dictionary

added in amazon.aws 1.5.0

A list of filters. Any instances matching one of the filters are excluded from the result.

The filters from exclude_filters take priority over the include_filters and filters keys

Available filters are listed here http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/describe-instances.html#options.

Every entry in this list triggers a search query. As such, from a performance point of view, it’s better to keep the list as short as possible.

Default: []

filters

dictionary

A dictionary of filter value pairs.

Available filters are listed here http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/describe-instances.html#options.

Default: {}

groups

dictionary

Add hosts to group based on Jinja2 conditionals.

Default: {}

hostnames

list / elements=any

A list in order of precedence for hostname variables.

The elements of the list can be a dict with the keys mentioned below or a string.

Can be one of the options specified in http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/describe-instances.html#options.

If value provided does not exist in the above options, it will be used as a literal string.

To use tags as hostnames use the syntax tag:Name=Value to use the hostname Name_Value, or tag:Name to use the value of the Name tag.

Default: []

name

string / required

Name of the host.

prefix

string

Prefix to prepend to name. Same options as name.

If prefix is specified, final hostname will be prefix + separator + name.

Default: ""

separator

string

Value to separate prefix and name when prefix is specified.

Default: "_"

hostvars_prefix

string

added in amazon.aws 3.1.0

The prefix for host variables names coming from AWS.

hostvars_suffix

string

added in amazon.aws 3.1.0

The suffix for host variables names coming from AWS.

include_extra_api_calls

boolean

Add two additional API calls for every instance to include ‘persistent’ and ‘events’ host variables.

Spot instances may be persistent and instances may have associated events.

The include_extra_api_calls option had been deprecated and will be removed in release 6.0.0.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

include_filters

list / elements=dictionary

added in amazon.aws 1.5.0

A list of filters. Any instances matching at least one of the filters are included in the result.

Available filters are listed here http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/describe-instances.html#options.

Every entry in this list triggers a search query. As such, from a performance point of view, it’s better to keep the list as short as possible.

Default: []

keyed_groups

list / elements=dictionary

Add hosts to group based on the values of a variable.

Default: []

default_value

string

added in ansible-core 2.12

The default value when the host variable’s value is an empty string.

This option is mutually exclusive with keyed_groups[].trailing_separator.

key

string

The key from input dictionary used to generate groups

parent_group

string

parent group for keyed group

prefix

string

A keyed group name will start with this prefix

Default: ""

separator

string

separator used to build the keyed group name

Default: "_"

trailing_separator

boolean

added in ansible-core 2.12

Set this option to False to omit the keyed_groups[].separator after the host variable when the value is an empty string.

This option is mutually exclusive with keyed_groups[].default_value.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

leading_separator

boolean

added in ansible-core 2.11

Use in conjunction with keyed_groups.

By default, a keyed group that does not have a prefix or a separator provided will have a name that starts with an underscore.

This is because the default prefix is “” and the default separator is “_”.

Set this option to False to omit the leading underscore (or other separator) if no prefix is given.

If the group name is derived from a mapping the separator is still used to concatenate the items.

To not use a separator in the group name at all, set the separator for the keyed group to an empty string instead.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

profile

aliases: aws_profile, boto_profile

string

A named AWS profile to use for authentication.

See the AWS documentation for more information about named profiles https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-profiles.html.

The profile option is mutually exclusive with the aws_access_key, aws_secret_key and security_token options.

The boto_profile alias has been deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2024-12-01.

Configuration:

region

aliases: aws_region, ec2_region

string

The AWS region to use.

See the Amazon AWS documentation for more information http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html#ec2_region.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: AWS_REGION

  • Environment variable: EC2_REGION

    Removed in: major release after 2024-12-01

    Why: EC2 in the name implied it was limited to EC2 resources, when it is used for all connections

    Alternative: AWS_REGION

regions

list / elements=string

A list of regions in which to describe EC2 instances.

If empty (the default) default this will include all regions, except possibly restricted ones like us-gov-west-1 and cn-north-1.

Default: []

secret_key

aliases: aws_secret_access_key, aws_secret_key, ec2_secret_key

string

AWS secret access key.

See the AWS documentation for more information about access tokens https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-sec-cred-types.html#access-keys-and-secret-access-keys.

The secret_key and profile options are mutually exclusive.

The aws_secret_access_key alias was added in release 5.1.0 for consistency with the AWS botocore SDK.

The ec2_secret_key alias has been deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2024-12-01.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

  • Environment variable: AWS_SECRET_KEY

  • Environment variable: EC2_SECRET_KEY

    Removed in: major release after 2024-12-01

    Why: EC2 in the name implied it was limited to EC2 resources. However, it is used for all connections.

    Alternative: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

session_token

aliases: aws_session_token, security_token, aws_security_token, access_token

string

AWS STS session token for use with temporary credentials.

See the AWS documentation for more information about access tokens https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-sec-cred-types.html#access-keys-and-secret-access-keys.

The security_token and profile options are mutually exclusive.

Aliases aws_session_token and session_token were added in release 3.2.0, with the parameter being renamed from security_token to session_token in release 6.0.0.

The security_token, aws_security_token, and access_token aliases have been deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2024-12-01.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: AWS_SESSION_TOKEN

  • Environment variable: AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN

    Removed in: major release after 2024-12-01

    Why: AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN was used for compatibility with the original boto SDK, support for which has been dropped

    Alternative: AWS_SESSION_TOKEN

  • Environment variable: EC2_SECURITY_TOKEN

    Removed in: major release after 2024-12-01

    Why: EC2 in the name implied it was limited to EC2 resources. However, it is used for all connections.

    Alternative: AWS_SESSION_TOKEN

strict

boolean

If yes make invalid entries a fatal error, otherwise skip and continue.

Since it is possible to use facts in the expressions they might not always be available and we ignore those errors by default.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

strict_permissions

boolean

By default if a 403 (Forbidden) error code is encountered this plugin will fail.

You can set this option to False in the inventory config file which will allow 403 errors to be gracefully skipped.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

use_contrib_script_compatible_ec2_tag_keys

boolean

added in amazon.aws 1.5.0

Expose the host tags with ec2_tag_TAGNAME keys like the old ec2.py inventory script.

The use of this feature is discouraged and we advise to migrate to the new ``tags`` structure.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

use_contrib_script_compatible_sanitization

boolean

By default this plugin is using a general group name sanitization to create safe and usable group names for use in Ansible. This option allows you to override that, in efforts to allow migration from the old inventory script and matches the sanitization of groups when the script’s ``replace_dash_in_groups`` option is set to ``False``. To replicate behavior of ``replace_dash_in_groups = True`` with constructed groups, you will need to replace hyphens with underscores via the regex_replace filter for those entries.

For this to work you should also turn off the TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS setting, otherwise the core engine will just use the standard sanitization on top.

This is not the default as such names break certain functionality as not all characters are valid Python identifiers which group names end up being used as.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

use_extra_vars

boolean

added in ansible-core 2.11

Merge extra vars into the available variables for composition (highest precedence).

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

Configuration:

use_ssm_inventory

boolean

added in amazon.aws 6.0.0

Enables fetching additional EC2 instance information from the AWS Systems Manager (SSM) inventory service into hostvars.

By leveraging the SSM inventory data, the use_ssm_inventory option provides additional details and attributes about the EC2 instances in your inventory. These details can include operating system information, installed software, network configurations, and custom inventory attributes defined in SSM.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

Notes

Note

  • If no credentials are provided and the control node has an associated IAM instance profile then the role will be used for authentication.

  • Caution: For modules, environment variables and configuration files are read from the Ansible ‘host’ context and not the ‘controller’ context. As such, files may need to be explicitly copied to the ‘host’. For lookup and connection plugins, environment variables and configuration files are read from the Ansible ‘controller’ context and not the ‘host’ context.

  • The AWS SDK (boto3) that Ansible uses may also read defaults for credentials and other settings, such as the region, from its configuration files in the Ansible ‘host’ context (typically ~/.aws/credentials). See https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/guide/credentials.html for more information.

Examples

# Minimal example using environment vars or instance role credentials
# Fetch all hosts in us-east-1, the hostname is the public DNS if it exists, otherwise the private IP address
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1

---

# Example using filters, ignoring permission errors, and specifying the hostname precedence
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
# The values for profile, access key, secret key and token can be hardcoded like:
profile: aws_profile
# or you could use Jinja as:
# profile: "{{ lookup('env', 'AWS_PROFILE') | default('aws_profile', true) }}"
# Populate inventory with instances in these regions
regions:
  - us-east-1
  - us-east-2
filters:
  ## All instances with their `Environment` tag set to `dev`
  # tag:Environment: dev

  # All dev and QA hosts
  tag:Environment:
    - dev
    - qa
  instance.group-id: sg-xxxxxxxx
# Ignores 403 errors rather than failing
strict_permissions: false
# Note: I(hostnames) sets the inventory_hostname. To modify ansible_host without modifying
# inventory_hostname use compose (see example below).
hostnames:
  - tag:Name=Tag1,Name=Tag2  # Return specific hosts only
  - tag:CustomDNSName
  - dns-name
  - name: 'tag:Name=Tag1,Name=Tag2'
  - name: 'private-ip-address'
    separator: '_'
    prefix: 'tag:Name'
  - name: 'test_literal' # Using literal values for hostname
    separator: '-'       # Hostname will be aws-test_literal
    prefix: 'aws'

# Returns all the hostnames for a given instance
allow_duplicated_hosts: false

---

# Example using constructed features to create groups and set ansible_host
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
  - us-west-1
# keyed_groups may be used to create custom groups
strict: false
keyed_groups:
  # Add e.g. x86_64 hosts to an arch_x86_64 group
  - prefix: arch
    key: 'architecture'
  # Add hosts to tag_Name_Value groups for each Name/Value tag pair
  - prefix: tag
    key: tags
  # Add hosts to e.g. instance_type_z3_tiny
  - prefix: instance_type
    key: instance_type
  # Create security_groups_sg_abcd1234 group for each SG
  - key: 'security_groups|json_query("[].group_id")'
    prefix: 'security_groups'
  # Create a group for each value of the Application tag
  - key: tags.Application
    separator: ''
  # Create a group per region e.g. aws_region_us_east_2
  - key: placement.region
    prefix: aws_region
  # Create a group (or groups) based on the value of a custom tag "Role" and add them to a metagroup called "project"
  - key: tags['Role']
    prefix: foo
    parent_group: "project"
# Set individual variables with compose
compose:
  # Use the private IP address to connect to the host
  # (note: this does not modify inventory_hostname, which is set via I(hostnames))
  ansible_host: private_ip_address

---

# Example using include_filters and exclude_filters to compose the inventory.
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
  - us-west-1
include_filters:
  - tag:Name:
      - 'my_second_tag'
  - tag:Name:
      - 'my_third_tag'
exclude_filters:
  - tag:Name:
      - 'my_first_tag'

---

# Example using groups to assign the running hosts to a group based on vpc_id
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
profile: aws_profile
# Populate inventory with instances in these regions
regions:
  - us-east-2
filters:
  # All instances with their state as `running`
  instance-state-name: running
keyed_groups:
  - prefix: tag
    key: tags
compose:
  ansible_host: public_dns_name
groups:
  libvpc: vpc_id == 'vpc-####'

---

# Define prefix and suffix for host variables coming from AWS.
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
hostvars_prefix: 'aws_'
hostvars_suffix: '_ec2'

Authors

  • Sloane Hertel (@s-hertel)

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.