# Question: with\_sequence and registered variables not having anticipated outcome **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [September 28, 2016, 1:07am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-with-sequence-and-registered-variables-not-having-anticipated-outcome/22660 "2016-09-28T01:07:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chris\_Stobie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47c2d/32.png) [@Chris\_Stobie](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Chris_Stobie)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2016, 1:07am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-with-sequence-and-registered-variables-not-having-anticipated-outcome/22660/1 "2016-09-28T01:07:08Z")
I have a playbook that creates an ec2 instance and from that creation I want to register the output as a var. From there I would use the registered var to create and attach an ebs volume. However I’m running into the following error. ```auto - name: Create EC2 instance for zone A ec2: key_name: "{{ keypair }}" group: "{{ security_groups }}" image: "{{ ami }}" instance_type: "{{ instance_type }}" wait: true region: "{{ ec2_region }}" vpc_subnet_id: "{{ subneta }}" assign_public_ip: "{{ public_choice }}" zone: "{{ zonea }}" count: 1 instance_tags: Name: "db{{ item }}a.{{ env }}" envtype: "{{ envtype }}" register: ec2 with_sequence: "start=1 end={{ num }}" - debug: msg: "{{ ec2 }}" - debug: msg: "{{ ec2.instance_ids }}" ``` With this I get the following output ```auto dumbledore@ansible1a:/etc/ansible/roles/db_ec2/tasks > ansible-playbook db_ec2.yml -e 'env=qa num=1 ebs=true' ______ < PLAY > ------ \ ^__^ \ (oo)\ _______ (__)\ )\/\ >>----w | >> >> ______________________ < TASK [db_ec2 : fail] > ---------------------- \ ^__^ \ (oo)\ _______ (__)\ )\/\ >>----w | >> >> _______________________ < TASK [db_ec2 : debug] > ----------------------- \ ^__^ \ (oo)\ _______ (__)\ )\/\ >>----w | >> >> ok: [localhost] => { "msg": "If you need to change any default variables for this playbook edit vars/qa.yml and vars/ebs.yml for ebs configs" } _________________________ < TASK [db_ec2 : include] > ------------------------- \ ^__^ \ (oo)\ _______ (__)\ )\/\ >>----w | >> >> included: /etc/ansible/roles/db_ec2/tasks/./db_create.yml for localhost ________________________________________________ < TASK [db_ec2 : Create EC2 instance for zone A] > ------------------------------------------------ \ ^__^ \ (oo)\ _______ (__)\ )\/\ >>----w | >> >> changed: [localhost] => (item=1) _______________________ < TASK [db_ec2 : debug] > ----------------------- \ ^__^ \ (oo)\ _______ (__)\ )\/\ >>----w | >> >> ok: [localhost] => { "msg": { "changed": true, "msg": "All items completed", "results": [ { "_ansible_no_log": false, "changed": true, "instance_ids": [ "i-1046c108" ], "instances": [ { "ami_launch_index": "0", "architecture": "x86_64", "block_device_mapping": { "/dev/sda1": { "delete_on_termination": true, "status": "attached", "volume_id": "vol-55812edd" } }, "dns_name": "", "ebs_optimized": false, "groups": { "sg-749f3c0d": "qa-ssh", "sg-8f983bf6": "qa-db" }, "hypervisor": "xen", "id": "i-1046c108", "image_id": "ami-55e31a35", "instance_type": "m4.xlarge", "kernel": null, "key_name": "ccpkey", "launch_time": "2016-09-28T00:28:00.000Z", "placement": "us-west-2a", "private_dns_name": "ip-10-50-36-201.us-west-2.compute.internal", "private_ip": "10.50.36.201", "public_dns_name": "", "public_ip": null, "ramdisk": null, "region": "us-west-2", "root_device_name": "/dev/sda1", "root_device_type": "ebs", "state": "running", "state_code": 16, "tags": { "Name": "db1a.qa", "envtype": "qa-db" }, "tenancy": "default", "virtualization_type": "hvm" } ], "invocation": { "module_args": { "assign_public_ip": false, "aws_access_key": null, "aws_secret_key": null, "count": 1, "count_tag": null, "ebs_optimized": false, "ec2_url": null, "exact_count": null, "group": [ "qa-db", "qa-ssh" ], "group_id": null, "id": null, "image": "ami-55e31a35", "instance_ids": null, "instance_profile_name": null, "instance_tags": { "Name": "db1a.qa", "envtype": "qa-db" }, "instance_type": "m4.xlarge", "kernel": null, "key_name": "ccpkey", "monitoring": false, "network_interfaces": null, "placement_group": null, "private_ip": null, "profile": null, "ramdisk": null, "region": "us-west-2", "security_token": null, "source_dest_check": true, "spot_price": null, "spot_type": "one-time", "spot_wait_timeout": 600, "state": "present", "tenancy": "default", "termination_protection": false, "user_data": null, "validate_certs": true, "volumes": null, "vpc_subnet_id": "subnet-5d625c39", "wait": true, "wait_timeout": 300, "zone": "us-west-2a" }, "module_name": "ec2" }, "item": "1", "tagged_instances": [] } ] } } _______________________ < TASK [db_ec2 : debug] > ----------------------- \ ^__^ \ (oo)\ _______ (__)\ )\/\ >>----w | >> >> fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "'dict object' has no attribute 'instance_ids'"} ____________ < PLAY RECAP > ------------ \ ^__^ \ (oo)\ _______ (__)\ )\/\ >>----w | >> >> localhost : ok=4 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=1 ``` So I can see that the variable that should exist does in the output of the full ec2 variable. But when trying to use the key specific variable of ec2.instance\_ids it fails… ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2016, 6:15am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-with-sequence-and-registered-variables-not-having-anticipated-outcome/22660/2 "2016-09-28T06:15:22Z")
\ > - name: Create EC2 instance for zone A >    ec2: >     key\_name: "{{ keypair }}" >     group: "{{ security\_groups }}" >     image: "{{ ami }}" >     instance\_type: "{{ instance\_type }}" >     wait: true >     region: "{{ ec2\_region }}" >     vpc\_subnet\_id: "{{ subneta }}" >     assign\_public\_ip: "{{ public\_choice }}" >     zone: "{{ zonea }}" >     count: 1 >     instance\_tags: >       Name: "db{{ item }}a.{{ env }}" >       envtype: "{{ envtype }}" >    register: ec2 >    with\_sequence: "start=1 end={{ num }}" Remember that all the with\_ is a loop, and the register is a little different as described here [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks\_loops.html#using-register-with-a-loop](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks_loops.html#using-register-with-a-loop) The result is stored in a list ec2.results \ > ok: [localhost] =\> { >     "msg": { >         "changed": true, >         "msg": "All items completed", >         "results": [ Here you can see the results list. \ > So I can see that the variable that should exist does in the output of the > full ec2 variable. But when trying to use the key specific variable of > ec2.instance\_ids it fails... The correct entry would be ec2.results[0].instance\_ids for the first iteration of the loop and for the second iteration ec2.results[1].instance\_ids and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Christopher\_Stobie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Christopher\_Stobie](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Christopher_Stobie)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2016, 5:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-with-sequence-and-registered-variables-not-having-anticipated-outcome/22660/3 "2016-09-28T17:25:59Z")
OK that makes total sense. Follow up question, what is the syntax in ansible to iterate over every entry in the array. So for individual results you do ec2.results[0].instance\_ids. What do you do for all results or to loop over this to get every instance id from multiple entries. like ec2.results[i].instance\_ids or something? ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-with-sequence-and-registered-variables-not-having-anticipated-outcome/22660/4 "2016-09-28T18:15:57Z")
- debug: var=item.instance\_ids    with\_items: "{{ ec2.results }}" ---
**Author:** ![Christopher\_Stobie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Christopher\_Stobie](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Christopher_Stobie)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-with-sequence-and-registered-variables-not-having-anticipated-outcome/22660/5 "2016-09-28T18:41:54Z")
That’s what I thought but I get an error when trying to pass it to an ebs volume attachment. - name: Create and attach ec2 volume ec2\_vol: instance: “{{ item.instance\_ids }}” volume\_size: “{{ volume\_size }}” volume\_type: “{{ volume\_type }}” device\_name: “/dev/xvd{{ drive }}” region: us-west-2 with\_items: “{{ ec2a.results }}” when: ebs is defined dumbledore@ansible1a:/etc/ansible \> ansible-playbook /etc/ansible/playbooks/db\_ec2.yml -e ‘env=qa num=1 ebs=true’ ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 4:26am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-with-sequence-and-registered-variables-not-having-anticipated-outcome/22660/6 "2016-09-29T04:26:05Z")
> That's what I thought but I get an error when trying to pass it to an ebs > volume attachment. > - name: Create and attach ec2 volume >    ec2\_vol: >     instance: "{{ item.instance\_ids }}" I have no knowledge about ec2\_vol but can instance: be a list? >     volume\_size: "{{ volume\_size }}" >     volume\_type: "{{ volume\_type }}" >     device\_name: "/dev/xvd{{ drive }}" >     region: us-west-2 >    with\_items: "{{ ec2a.results }}" >    when: ebs is defined \ > u'group\_id': None, u'validate\_certs': True}}}) =\> { >     "item": { >         "changed": true, >         "instance\_ids": [ >             "i-3a0e8822" >         ], Here you see that item.instance\_ids is a list. \ > "tagged\_instances": }, "msg": "Invalid id: \"['i-3a0e8822']\""} > > Tells me invalid ID. I have wait set to wait for the instance to be > running. I guess instance: can't be a list, if so you can get the first item in the list by using item.instance[0].