# Create an ec2 instance failed with ec2: error: unrecognized arguments **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** aws\ **Created:** [February 20, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-an-ec2-instance-failed-with-ec2-error-unrecognized-arguments/17583 "2015-02-20T21:52:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xin\_Yi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/b782af/32.png) [@Xin\_Yi](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Xin_Yi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-an-ec2-instance-failed-with-ec2-error-unrecognized-arguments/17583/1 "2015-02-20T21:52:23Z")
I am a newbie to the ansible world. I followed your blog, [https://djaodjin.com/blog/deploying-on-ec2-with-ansible.blog.html](https://djaodjin.com/blog/deploying-on-ec2-with-ansible.blog.html), to create a security group and an ec2 instance. The security group is created successfully, but creating ec2 instance is failed by ec2: error: unrecognized arguments: /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-14244… I did set up aws credentials and asnsible variables properly as below # AWS Credentials export AWS\_ACCESS\_KEY\_ID=xxx export AWS\_SECRET\_ACCESS\_KEY=xxx # EC2 Environment Variables export ANSIBLE\_HOSTS=/etc/ansible/ec2.py export EC2\_INI\_PATH=/etc/ansible/ec2.ini The files and output are showed as follow. Any ideas for this issue? Thanks for your Help! ```auto $ cat group_vars/all ``` # Variables listed here are applicable to all host groups key\_name: sobrr-staging.pem aws\_region: cn-north-1 ami\_id: ami-9e0c9ea7 instance\_type: m1.small ```auto $ cat basic-create.yml ``` # Basic provisioning example - name: Create AWS resources hosts: localhost connection: local gather\_facts: False tasks: - name: Create security group ec2\_group: name: my-security-group description: “A Security group” region: “{{aws\_region}}” rules: - proto: tcp type: ssh from\_port: 22 to\_port: 22 cidr\_ip: [0.0.0.0/0](http://0.0.0.0/0) rules\_egress: - proto: all type: all cidr\_ip: [0.0.0.0/0](http://0.0.0.0/0) register: basic\_firewall - name: debug basic\_firewall debug: ‘msg=“{{ basic\_firewall }}”’ - name: create an EC2 instance local\_action: module: ec2 key\_name: “{{key\_name}}” region: “{{aws\_region}}” group\_id: “{{basic\_firewall.group\_id}}” instance\_type: “{{instance\_type}}” image: “{{ami\_id}}” count: 1 wait: yes register: basic\_ec2 - name: debug instance start debug: ‘msg=“{{ basic\_ec2 }}”’ OUTPUT ansible-playbook -i /etc/ansible/hosts -vvvv basic-create.yml /usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/Crypto/Util/number.py:57: PowmInsecureWarning: Not using mpz\_powm\_sec. You should rebuild using libgmp \>= 5 to avoid timing attack vulnerability. \_warn(“Not using mpz\_powm\_sec. You should rebuild using libgmp \>= 5 to avoid timing attack vulnerability.”, PowmInsecureWarning) PLAY [Create AWS resources] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK: [Create security group] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* region=cn-north-1 description=A Security group name=my-security-group u’LANG=en\_US.UTF-8 LC\_CTYPE=en\_US.UTF-8 /usr/bin/python /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.15-98406246607462/ec2\_group; rm -rf /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.15-98406246607462/ \>/dev/null 2\>&1’] ok: [localhost] =\> {“changed”: false, “group\_id”: “sg-63fae101”} TASK: [debug basic\_firewall] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [localhost] =\> { “msg”: “{‘invocation’: {‘module\_name’: u’ec2\_group’, ‘module\_args’: ‘’}, ‘changed’: False, ‘group\_id’: ‘sg-63fae101’}” } TASK: [create an EC2 instance] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* \<127.0.0.1\> instance\_type=m1.small image=ami-9e0c9ea7 group\_id=sg-63fae101 region=cn-north-1 key\_name=sobrr-staging.pem \<127.0.0.1\> \<127.0.0.1\> \<127.0.0.1\> \<127.0.0.1\> u’LANG=en\_US.UTF-8 LC\_CTYPE=en\_US.UTF-8 /usr/bin/env python /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.54-184834253412898/ec2 /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.54-184834253412898/arguments; rm -rf /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.54-184834253412898/ \>/dev/null 2\>&1’] failed: [localhost → 127.0.0.1] =\> {“failed”: true, “parsed”: false} usage: ec2 [-h] [–list] [–host HOST] [–refresh-cache] ec2: error: unrecognized arguments: /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.54-184834253412898/arguments FATAL: all hosts have already failed – aborting PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* to retry, use: --limit @/home/ec2-user/basic-create.retry localhost : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 ---
**Author:** ![vaida.dan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@vaida.dan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/vaida.dan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-an-ec2-instance-failed-with-ec2-error-unrecognized-arguments/17583/2 "2015-02-21T19:21:00Z")
For spinning up instances in AWS you don’t need to tell ansible to use the dynamic inventory script. That is something you might want to use later on. Try unsetting that environment variable. Also, when running the playbook, you are telling it to use the inventory file _/etc/ansible/hosts._ Mind showing us what you have in there?