# must be stored as a dictionary/hash

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/must-be-stored-as-a-dictionary-hash/26950>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [March 9, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/must-be-stored-as-a-dictionary-hash/26950 "2018-03-09T22:29:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sanjanith\_reddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@sanjanith\_reddy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sanjanith_reddy)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/must-be-stored-as-a-dictionary-hash/26950/1 "2018-03-09T22:29:12Z")

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Hi All,  
I’m trying to launch an EC2 instance via a playbook. My playbook contents are like this:

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**Author:** ![Tchia04](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/fbc32d/32.png) [@Tchia04](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tchia04)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/must-be-stored-as-a-dictionary-hash/26950/2 "2018-03-09T23:12:15Z")

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what is the content of your aws\_keys.txt ?

Normally the file used with the include statement has .yml extension. Not sure if that makes any difference

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**Author:** ![sanjanith\_reddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@sanjanith\_reddy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sanjanith_reddy)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/must-be-stored-as-a-dictionary-hash/26950/3 "2018-03-09T23:26:48Z")

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My aws\_keys.txt has access key and secret key of my EC2 user.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sanjanith\_reddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@sanjanith\_reddy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sanjanith_reddy)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/must-be-stored-as-a-dictionary-hash/26950/4 "2018-03-09T23:26:59Z")

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aws\_keys has both access key and secret key of my EC2 user.