# Getting the ID of an AMI created with Ansible **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [September 11, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185 "2014-09-11T19:00:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peter\_Palmieri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85e7bf/32.png) [@Peter\_Palmieri](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Peter_Palmieri)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/1 "2014-09-11T19:00:51Z")
I’m building an EC2 instance with Ansible, then creating an AMI from the instance. I’m sure I’m missing something here, but how do I get the ID of the newly created AMI? I’ve tried: ```auto tasks: - name: create an ami in us-east-1 ec2_ami: wait=yes aws_access_key={{ ec2_access_key }} aws_secret_key={{ ec2_secret_key }} instance_id={{ item }} region={{ region1 }} name=data-mgmt-qa-006 with_items: hostvars[inventory_hostname]['ansible_ec2_instance_id'] register: ec2_ami_info - debug: var=item with_items: ec2_ami_info.image_id ``` and: ```auto tasks: - name: create an ami in us-east-1 ec2_ami: wait=yes aws_access_key={{ ec2_access_key }} aws_secret_key={{ ec2_secret_key }} instance_id={{ item }} region={{ region1 }} name=data-mgmt-qa-006 with_items: hostvars[inventory_hostname]['ansible_ec2_instance_id'] register: instance - debug: var=item with_items: instance.image_id ``` The latter ‘register’ is copied from the docs, but I’m not able to get the right with\_items obviously. The AMI is being created fine. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/2 "2014-09-12T01:52:48Z")
You should be able to just do: - debug: var=instance.image\_id Which should print out the image’s ID. If not, could you share what it does show? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Palmieri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85e7bf/32.png) [@Peter\_Palmieri](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Peter_Palmieri)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/3 "2014-09-12T18:43:30Z")
Thanks for helping, it’s much appreciated. I now have: tasks: - name: create an ami in us-east-1 ec2\_ami: wait=yes aws\_access\_key={{ ec2\_access\_key }} aws\_secret\_key={{ ec2\_secret\_key }} instance\_id={{ item }} region={{ region1 }} name=some-name with\_items: hostvars[inventory\_hostname][‘ansible\_ec2\_instance\_id’] register: instance - debug: var=instance.image\_id Which returns: TASK: [create an ami in us-east-1] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* changed: [54.198.217.217] =\> (item=i-7c77c197) TASK: [debug var=instance.image\_id] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [54.198.217.217] =\> { “instance.image\_id”: “{{ instance.image\_id }}” } instead of the actual image id. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/4 "2014-09-12T19:22:40Z")
Can you please share the output of: - debug: var=instance Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Palmieri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85e7bf/32.png) [@Peter\_Palmieri](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Peter_Palmieri)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/5 "2014-09-12T19:54:54Z")
That shows: TASK: [debug var=instance] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [54.90.128.104] =\> { “instance”: { “changed”: true, “msg”: “All items completed”, “results”: [ { “changed”: true, “image\_id”: “ami-be14b9d6”, “invocation”: { “module\_args”: “wait=yes aws\_access\_key=\*\*\*\* aws\_secret\_key=\*\*\*\* instance\_id=i-393284d2 region=us-east-1 name=blah”, “module\_name”: “ec2\_ami” }, “item”: “i-393284d2”, “msg”: “AMI creation operation complete”, “state”: “available” } ] } } ---
**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:** [September 12, 2014, 8:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/6 "2014-09-12T20:04:49Z")
In that case, looks like you want: instance.results[0].image\_id ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Palmieri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85e7bf/32.png) [@Peter\_Palmieri](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Peter_Palmieri)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/7 "2014-09-12T20:21:41Z")
Thank you very much, that did it. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Palmieri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85e7bf/32.png) [@Peter\_Palmieri](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Peter_Palmieri)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/8 "2014-09-12T21:36:20Z")
How can I reference this in an ini file module? I’m trying to write the value of the ami id to a file, to be consumed by another process. This didn’t work: - ini\_file: dest=ami.ini section=qa option=ami value={{ var=instance.results[0].image\_id }} I got: TASK: [ini\_file dest=ami.ini section=qa option=ami value={{ var=instance.results[0].image\_id }}] \*\*\* failed: [54.166.40.120] =\> {“failed”: true} msg: this module requires key=value arguments ([‘dest=ami.ini’, ‘section=qa’, ‘option=ami’, ‘value={#’, ‘var=instance.results[0].image\_id’, ‘#}’]) ---
**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:** [September 12, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/9 "2014-09-12T21:52:30Z")
Take out the var= {{ instance.results[0].image\_id }} ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Palmieri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85e7bf/32.png) [@Peter\_Palmieri](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Peter_Palmieri)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/10 "2014-09-12T22:10:56Z")
Sorry, I should have got that one on my own. Thank you again for your help. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Palmieri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85e7bf/32.png) [@Peter\_Palmieri](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Peter_Palmieri)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/11 "2014-09-12T22:13:05Z")
Meant to add, Ansible is a huge boon to our infrastructure efforts. Thanks so much to the Ansible team for creating this tool. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-the-id-of-an-ami-created-with-ansible/16185/12 "2014-09-12T23:45:37Z")
Saying this collectively for hundreds of people here who have helped with things, and the rest of the team - you are welcome!!!