# How to use ec2.py with group\_vars etc?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ec2-py-with-group-vars-etc/30829>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Tags:** aws\
**Created:** [July 20, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ec2-py-with-group-vars-etc/30829 "2019-07-20T16:07:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ec2-py-with-group-vars-etc/30829/1 "2019-07-20T16:07:38Z")

</div>

Hi

I can see the benefits of using the ec2.py dynamic inventory script,  
but I run into some issues which I can't figure out how to fix.

1. The ec2.py requires the credentials to be available as environment  
variables. But my deployment only has them available inside a vaulted  
vars file (in host\_vars/localhost, so they can be used by a previous  
ansible role that creates infrastructure). How do people handle the  
storage of credentials?

2. Up to now my inventory looks pretty simple:

[proxy]  
proxy1 ansible\_host=10.20.1.16  
proxy2 ansible\_host=10.20.1.17

[web]  
web1 ansible\_host=10.20.1.24  
web2 ansible\_host=10.20.1.25

[vars:all]  
ansible\_user=admin ansible\_ssh\_common\_args='-o ProxyJump="admin@3.112.14.198"'

I've set things up so that the AWS instance names are the same as my  
old inventory (i.e. proxy1, proxy2, web1, web2).  
So, I can successfully ping instances by their name, for instance  
using this syntax:

(ansible-2.7.12) dick.visser@nuc8 scripts$ ansible -i ec2.py  
tag\_Name\_proxy\* -m ping  
10.20.1.16 | SUCCESS =\> {  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"changed": false,  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"ping": "pong"  
}  
10.20.1.17 | SUCCESS =\> {  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"changed": false,  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"ping": "pong"  
}

But how do I set up the groups now?  
Do i have to assign a "group" tag to the instance in AWS first with  
value 'web', 'proxy', etc?

Ideally I'd like to keep the 'simple' group name like web, proxy, etc.

thx!!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ec2-py-with-group-vars-etc/30829/2 "2019-07-22T13:10:32Z")

</div>

instances I create, let's say 'Type=proxy'.  
Using the dynamic inventory I can target those instances by using  
'tag\_type\_proxy'.  
This then means I will have to use 'group\_vars/tag\_type\_proxy' to put  
any specific vars for this group of hosts.  
However, this deployment is going to be used for both AWS and non-AWS  
infrastructure.

I could just symlink:

group\_vars/proxy =\> group\_vars/tag\_type\_proxy

Is that something that people do?  
Alternatively I could rewrite the ansible code to expect  
'group\_type\_proxy' instead of 'proxy' but that seem convoluted...

thx

DIck

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Adam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@Adam](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Adam)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ec2-py-with-group-vars-etc/30829/3 "2019-07-22T16:32:02Z")

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Dick -

Here’s how I do it. I defined the “instances” dictionary in the playbook under vars, but you can do it with extra\_vars, or whatever works.

```auto
- name: Launch Instance
  ec2:
    instance_type: "{{ item.ec2_server_instance_type }}"
    group: "{{ item.ec2_server_security_group }}"
    image: "{{ item.ec2_server_image }}"
    wait: yes
    region: "{{ item.ec2_server_region }}"
    key_name: "{{ ec2_server_keypair }}"
    aws_access_key: "{{ ec2_server_access_key }}"
    aws_secret_key: "{{ ec2_server_secret_key }}"
    exact_count: "{{item.exact_count|default(1)}}"
    vpc_subnet_id: "{{vpc_subnet_ids['awsdev-app-1']}}"
    count_tag:
      Name: "{{item.ec2_server_name }}"
    instance_tags:
      Name: "{{ item.ec2_server_name }}"
      class: "{{ item.class|default(omit) }}"
      Type: "{{ item.type|default(omit) }}"
  with_items:
    - "{{instances}}"
  register: ec2
  become: no

- name: gather facts about ec2 instances in case they were created a while ago
  ec2_instance_facts:
    aws_access_key: "{{ ec2_server_access_key }}"
    aws_secret_key: "{{ ec2_server_secret_key }}"
    region: "{{ item.ec2_server_region }}"
    filters:
# "tag:Name": "{{item.ec2_server_name}}"
      "tag:class": "{{item.class}}"
      "instance-state-name": "running"
  with_items:
    - "{{instances}}"
  register: ec2
  no_log: true
  become: no

```

Hope that makes sense.

-Adam