# ec2\_snapshot question: how to run only when needed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 23, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593 "2014-10-23T18:37:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ted\_Zlatanov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@Ted\_Zlatanov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ted_Zlatanov)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593/1 "2014-10-23T18:37:06Z")
I'd like to snapshot EC2 volumes only when needed. I couldn't find an easy solution that didn't require calling out to boto or other tools. If it exists, please ignore the following 🙂 I wanted to ask here before opening a feature or pull request. It could look like this: - local\_action:     module: ec2\_snapshot     region: "{{ region }}"     instance\_id: "{{ id }}"     device\_name: "{{ device }}"     snapshot\_tags:         SnapshotCreator: ansible         Host: "{{ server }}"         Device: "{{ device }}"     # new feature, using the snapshot\_tags to determine current state     # currently it's "always"     state: present|absent|always Does this make sense? Currently it's not available but could be implemented in a backwards compatible way if the default state was "always." Thanks Ted ---
**Author:** ![Ted\_Zlatanov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@Ted\_Zlatanov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ted_Zlatanov)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593/2 "2014-10-23T19:03:22Z")
Alternate suggestion for this new behavior: copy the ec2 module's count options. It would add these options to ec2\_snapshot.py: ...   exact\_count:     version\_added: "1.8"     description:       - An integer value which indicates how many snapshots that match the 'count\_tag' parameter should be present. Snapshots are either created or terminated based on this value.     required: false     default: null     aliases:   count\_tag:     version\_added: "1.8"     description:       - Used with 'exact\_count' to determine how many snapshots based on a specific tag criteria should be present.     required: false     default: null     aliases: So when `exact_count` is omitted, things work like they do now, but if it's specified, an `enforce_count()` function will be called. Ted ---
**Author:** ![Ted\_Zlatanov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@Ted\_Zlatanov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ted_Zlatanov)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593/3 "2014-10-23T20:28:16Z")
... Final suggestion 🙂 boto has a nice `trim_snapshots()` method [1] that could simply be called inline, given appropriate parameters from the ec2\_snapshot module. I could use that too, but it seems much less flexible than the ec2 module's exact\_count/count\_tag approach. Thanks! Ted [1] [http://boto.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ref/ec2.html#boto.ec2.connection.EC2Connection.trim\_snapshots](http://boto.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ref/ec2.html#boto.ec2.connection.EC2Connection.trim_snapshots) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593/4 "2014-10-24T13:32:30Z")
Hi Ted, We’d be happy to consider a pull request to ansible/ansible-modules-core (We would like to avoid cluttering up the tracker with feature requests as usually folks are unlikely to scratch itches of others) ansible-devel list is the right forum to discuss what form this maybe should take. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ted\_Zlatanov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@Ted\_Zlatanov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ted_Zlatanov)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593/5 "2014-10-24T15:25:19Z")
> We'd be happy to consider a pull request to ansible/ansible-modules-core All right, as soon as I know what direction you prefer 🙂 > (We would like to avoid cluttering up the tracker with feature requests as > usually folks are unlikely to scratch itches of others) That's fine, I already started developing one version, using exact\_count/count\_tag. I just don't want to go too far and get the PR rejected. > ansible-devel list is the right forum to discuss what form this maybe > should take. All right, following up there. I hope the original thread is clear from what I quoted. My personal preference is to implement exact\_count/count\_tag like the ec2 module does, but hooking into the boto module's `trim_snapshots()` method is really effortless. ...ph, and maybe even then `trim_snapshots()` could be used through a new ec2\_snapshot\_trim module. But that seems really trivial, since it's just a call to python in the shell: - shell:     cmd: python -c 'import boto; import json; ec2\_conn = boto.connect\_ec2(); ec2\_conn.trim\_snapshots(8, 7, 4, True)' Let me know... Thanks Ted ---
**Author:** ![Ted\_Zlatanov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@Ted\_Zlatanov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ted_Zlatanov)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593/6 "2014-11-03T14:52:24Z")
Ping? Ted ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2014, 3:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593/7 "2014-11-03T15:00:33Z")
I don’t really have this specific use case, so it’s hard for me to weigh in. I’d see what others have to say that do have this particular question, and maybe it’s a new param or a new module, or maybe it’s a custom module that you use, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Hagai\_Kariti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4491bb/32.png) [@Hagai\_Kariti](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Hagai_Kariti)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ec2-snapshot-question-how-to-run-only-when-needed/16593/8 "2014-11-03T16:52:22Z")
I had this problem too. I didn't solve the cleaning up of old snapshots issue, but I added a feature to ec2\_snapshot to only ceate a new snapshot if the last one is older than X minutes. My changes are in this PR if you're interested: [https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core/pull/76](https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core/pull/76)