# ec2.instance\_ids Invalid id **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 18, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-instance-ids-invalid-id/13716 "2013-10-18T12:38:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marc\_Peiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Marc\_Peiser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Marc_Peiser)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-instance-ids-invalid-id/13716/1 "2013-10-18T12:38:52Z")
Hi, I’m trying to terminate an ec2 instance but I’m getting the following error: PLAY [Terminate instance] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* GATHERING FACTS \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [127.0.0.1] TASK: [Terminate instances that were previously launched] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* failed: [127.0.0.1] =\> {“failed”: true, “parsed”: false} invalid output was: Traceback (most recent call last): File “/home/smartallocator/.ansible/tmp/ansible-1382099110.85-99795266100410/ec2”, line 1587, in main() File “/home/smartallocator/.ansible/tmp/ansible-1382099110.85-99795266100410/ec2”, line 637, in main (changed, instance\_dict\_array, new\_instance\_ids) = terminate\_instances(module, ec2, instance\_ids) File “/home/smartallocator/.ansible/tmp/ansible-1382099110.85-99795266100410/ec2”, line 543, in terminate\_instances for res in ec2.get\_all\_instances(instance\_ids): File “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/boto/ec2/connection.py”, line 539, in get\_all\_instances filters=filters, dry\_run=dry\_run) File “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/boto/ec2/connection.py”, line 609, in get\_all\_reservations [(‘item’, Reservation)], verb=‘POST’) File “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/boto/connection.py”, line 1117, in get\_list raise self.ResponseError(response.status, response.reason, body) boto.exception.EC2ResponseError: EC2ResponseError: 400 Bad Request \ `InvalidInstanceID.Malformed`Invalid id: “[u’i-29333566’]”129f061b-da3e-4fa5-be80-9ad6493678f8 FATAL: all hosts have already failed – aborting My play looks as follows: - name: Terminate instance hosts: localhost connection: local tasks: - name: Terminate instances that were previously launched local\_action: module: ec2 state: ‘absent’ instance\_ids: “{{ ec2.instance\_ids }}” region: eu-west-1 The example in the docs does not have quotes around the {{ ec2.instance\_ids }} variable but if I omit the quotes then that errors too: ERROR: Syntax Error while loading YAML script, site.yml Note: The error may actually appear before this position: line 41, column 24 state: ‘absent’ instance\_ids: {{ ec2.instance\_ids }} ^ Any ideas? I’m running ansible 1.4 from source. Thanks, Marc ---
**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:** [October 18, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-instance-ids-invalid-id/13716/2 "2013-10-18T13:33:46Z")
it says you have a YAML syntax error, so this is not an Ansible thing per se. If you need to pass a reference you must still do it like this, and this is the only reason to ever do this. instance\_ids: ${some\_list} This will be going away in a future release once I bang on things a bit. As for the YAML Syntax error, there’s some code to provide suggestions in 1.4, but it seems it was thrown off by the underscore. Curious. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Peiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Marc\_Peiser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Marc_Peiser)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 9:03am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-instance-ids-invalid-id/13716/3 "2013-10-21T09:03:17Z")
Thanks Michael, that sorted my problem. Regards, Marc ---
**Author:** ![Amir\_Hajizamani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Amir\_Hajizamani](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Amir_Hajizamani)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-instance-ids-invalid-id/13716/4 "2014-02-05T14:19:03Z")
Hi Michael, Thanks for this, I also tripped up on this issue. I was about to prep and send a pull-request to update the docs for this, but wondered if there’s any point if this issue will be ironed out by the next release anyway? A ---
**Author:** ![adam2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@adam2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/adam2)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-instance-ids-invalid-id/13716/5 "2014-02-05T15:54:13Z")
I'm guessing, but why does this module use local\_action, instead of delegate\_to: localhost? Maybe something in ansible is doing a double encode/decode with the complex nested data when local\_action is in use. > Hi Michael, > > Thanks for this, I also tripped up on this issue. I was about to prep > and send a pull-request to update the docs for this, but wondered if > there's any point if this issue will be ironed out by the next release > anyway? > > A > >     it says you have a YAML syntax error, so this is not an Ansible >     thing per se. > >     If you need to pass a reference you must still do it like this, and >     this is the only reason to ever do this. > >     instance\_ids: ${some\_list} > >     This will be going away in a future release once I bang on things a bit. > >     As for the YAML Syntax error, there's some code to provide >     suggestions in 1.4, but it seems it was thrown off by the >     underscore. Curious. You aren't reading that right. He tried it twice, once with "", and once without. The time he tried it without, yaml was complaining about the {{. Count the leading spaces, and you'll get to column 24. At a guess, you are looking at some broken html rendering of the email, which is using a proportional font. When I went to reply to this, the error caret lined up correctly. His real problem is when he tried it with "", and is shown in the ansible-doc output. ---
**Author:** ![tannerjc](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/tannerjc/32/985_2.png) [@tannerjc](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tannerjc)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-instance-ids-invalid-id/13716/6 "2014-02-05T16:14:51Z")
"local\_action" and "delegate\_to: localhost" are very similar and work pretty much the same way, except for one big difference. local\_action also implies the connection method is local, where as "delegate\_to: localhost" could use ssh/paramiko to connect to your local machine if those parameters are set in the inventory or if using "-c smart/ssh/paramiko". If the connection is not local, you loose your EC2/AWS\* environment variables that were set in your shell session. You could of course declare those variables with env: or by setting the parameters for the modules, but most of our doc examples reference setting environment variables.