# Create EC2 instance by ansible with ec2: error: unrecognized arguments

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-ec2-instance-by-ansible-with-ec2-error-unrecognized-arguments/17582>\
**Category:** Ansible Developer\
**Tags:** aws\
**Created:** [February 20, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-ec2-instance-by-ansible-with-ec2-error-unrecognized-arguments/17582 "2015-02-20T20:00:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**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, 8:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-ec2-instance-by-ansible-with-ec2-error-unrecognized-arguments/17582/1 "2015-02-20T20:00:57Z")

</div>

I am newbie to the ansible and follows, [Deploying on EC2 with Ansible | DjaoDjin](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  
rules\_egress:

- proto: all  
type: all  
cidr\_ip: 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