# Append newly-created security group to existing SG list in EC2 creation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [September 11, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/append-newly-created-security-group-to-existing-sg-list-in-ec2-creation/13460 "2013-09-11T23:14:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chris\_Shenton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chris\_Shenton](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Chris_Shenton)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/append-newly-created-security-group-to-existing-sg-list-in-ec2-creation/13460/1 "2013-09-11T23:14:53Z")
I have a set of (VPC) security group IDs, and I want to create a new (VPC) security group, then apply the existing an newly-created group to a new EC2 instance at creation time. I can create the SG, show its ID, but I cannot determine the syntax to append it to the list of already-defined SGs. vars: … ec2\_security\_ids: [‘sg-31d7155e’, ‘sg-f49c4d9b’, ‘sg-fa9c4d95’] tasks: - name: Create Security Group for HQTS marker interface (no rules, just right) local\_action: module: ec2\_group name: ‘{{hqts\_name}}’ region: ‘{{region}}’ vpc\_id: ‘{{vpc\_id}}’ register: hqts\_sg - name: Show SG ID local\_action: command echo {{ hqts\_sg.group\_id }} - name: Launch instance HQTS local\_action: module: ec2 keypair: ‘{{keypair}}’ group\_id: ‘{{ ec2\_security\_ids + [hqts\_sg.group\_id] }}’ instance\_type: m1.small image: ami-a25415cb region: ${region} vpc\_subnet\_id: ${vpc\_1b\_web.id} wait: yes register: hqts\_ec2 The SG is created and shown, but the group\_id appears to get turned into a string instead of a list and breaks the request: TASK: [Show SG ID] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* \<127.0.0.1\> REMOTE\_MODULE command echo sg-b1fb5ade changed: [127.0.0.1] =\> {“changed”: true, “cmd”: [“echo”, “sg-b1fb5ade”], “delta”: “0:00:00.002632”, “end”: “2013-09-11 18:57:30.033285”, “rc”: 0, “start”: “2013-09-11 18:57:30.030653”, “stderr”: “”, “stdout”: “sg-b1fb5ade”} TASK: [Launch instance HQTS] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* \<127.0.0.1\> REMOTE\_MODULE ec2 group\_id=‘[’“'”‘sg-31d7155e’“'”‘, ‘"’“‘sg-f49c4d9b’”’“', '”‘“‘sg-fa9c4d95’”’“‘, u’”‘“‘sg-b1fb5ade’”’"‘]’ instance\_tags=‘{“Name”: “hqts-dev”, “site”: “hqts.hq”, “op\_env”: “dev”, “Description”: “to7sandbox”, “Owner”: “shentonfreude”}’ region=us-east-1 keypair=wpizvs-cshenton instance\_type=m1.small vpc\_subnet\_id=subnet-a7cfd8cb image=ami-a25415cb failed: [127.0.0.1] =\> {“failed”: true, “parsed”: false} […] File “/Users/chris/Projects/wp/ansiprime/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto/ec2/connection.py”, line 2393, in get\_all\_security\_groups [(‘item’, SecurityGroup)], verb=‘POST’) File “/Users/chris/Projects/wp/ansiprime/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto/connection.py”, line 1076, in get\_list raise self.ResponseError(response.status, response.reason, body) boto.exception.EC2ResponseError: EC2ResponseError: 400 Bad Request \ `InvalidGroupId.Malformed`Invalid id: “[‘sg-31d7155e’, ‘sg-f49c4d9b’, ‘sg-fa9c4d95’, u’sg-b1fb5ade’]” (expecting “sg-…”)043eabdd-3b3e-45a3-b394-d16f914b2a7e Is there a way to do this inline, or set some variable to the SG list with the new SG appended, then reference it so it gets treated as a list instead of a string containing a list? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/append-newly-created-security-group-to-existing-sg-list-in-ec2-creation/13460/2 "2013-09-12T17:42:13Z")
The security groups module should take a comma seperated list. ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_Shenton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chris\_Shenton](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Chris_Shenton)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/append-newly-created-security-group-to-existing-sg-list-in-ec2-creation/13460/3 "2013-09-12T21:26:08Z")
Perhaps I’m being dense or unclear: the ‘ec2\_group’ module part runs fine. But what I’m having trouble with is referencing it and adding it to the ‘ec2’ module’s group\_id list – here: vars: ec2\_security\_ids: [‘sg-31d7155e’, ‘sg-f49c4d9b’, ‘sg-fa9c4d95’] module: ec2 group\_id: ‘{{ ec2\_security\_ids + [hqts\_sg.group\_id] }}’ Am I being stupid about the syntax for the list variable, and how to append the new SG ID to it? Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata1)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/append-newly-created-security-group-to-existing-sg-list-in-ec2-creation/13460/4 "2013-09-13T00:44:20Z")
Rather than using the group\_id field, could you use the group field instead and try this? ec2: group=“{{ “,”.join(ec2\_security\_names + [hqts\_sg.group\_name]) }}” It appears to be a bug in the code that you can’t do something similar with the group\_id field, so if you could also open a github issue for that we’d appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_Shenton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chris\_Shenton](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Chris_Shenton)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/append-newly-created-security-group-to-existing-sg-list-in-ec2-creation/13460/5 "2013-09-13T15:51:36Z")
> Rather than using the group\_id field, could you use the group field instead and try this? > > ec2: group=“{{ “,”.join(ec2\_security\_names + [hqts\_sg.group\_name]) }}” I’m in a VPC so don’t have access to the SG names, only their IDs. ☹ > It appears to be a bug in the code that you can’t do something similar with the group\_id field, so if you could also open a github issue for that we’d appreciate it. Will do, thanks. And thanks for tracking this down!