# Simple playbook to start an ec2 instance **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 18, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/simple-playbook-to-start-an-ec2-instance/13719 "2013-10-18T20:52:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Soumya\_Simanta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Soumya\_Simanta](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Soumya_Simanta)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/simple-playbook-to-start-an-ec2-instance/13719/1 "2013-10-18T20:52:05Z")
I’m new to Ansbile and trying to start a simple EC2 instance. I’m trying to run my Ansbile playbook from an Amazon EC2 VM (host name is cfgsvr). Please let me know what am I missing here. Here is my directory structure - launch\_ec2 - setup.yml - vars - main.yml - tasks - setup.yml This is how my launch\_ec2/vars/main.yml looks like ---
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Gerla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Timothy\_Gerla](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Timothy_Gerla)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/simple-playbook-to-start-an-ec2-instance/13719/2 "2013-10-18T21:08:00Z")
Hi Soumya, Looks like there are a couple of problems here. First of all, you should note the with\_items and include combination is not supported and will be removed, so you should not use that. Instead, use with\_items in conjunction with the actual ec2 module call. Second of all, it looks like your configuration server can't connect to AWS. I am not entirely sure why, but you should troubleshoot that independently, maybe with the EC2 command line tools. Maybe it is a boto configuration problem. Instead of ~/.boto, you can pass the access key and secret key on the ec2 module's parameters, or set environment variables. Thirdly, have you see this example? [https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples/blob/master/language\_features/eucalyptus-ec2.yml](https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples/blob/master/language_features/eucalyptus-ec2.yml) It may be helpful. Good luck, -Tim ---
**Author:** ![Soumya\_Simanta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Soumya\_Simanta](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Soumya_Simanta)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/simple-playbook-to-start-an-ec2-instance/13719/3 "2013-10-21T03:46:14Z")
Thanks Tim. I was able to start up EC2 instances by following the example you posted in the link below. [https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples/blob/master/language\_features/eucalyptus-ec2.yml](https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples/blob/master/language_features/eucalyptus-ec2.yml) However, I’m having trouble connecting to the instances after they are created. This is my playbook. - name: Stage instance(s) hosts: cfgsvr connection: local user: myuserid gather\_facts: false vars: keypair: mykeypair image: ami-2efa9d47 instance\_type: m1.small #t1.micro subnet: subnet-xxxxxx region: us-east-1 image: ami-2efa9d47 # Launch 1 instance with the following parameters. Register the output. tasks: - name: Launch instance local\_action: ec2 keypair={{keypair}} vpc\_subnet\_id={{subnet}} instance\_type={{instance\_type}} image={{image}} wait=true count=1 register: ec2 # Use with\_items to add each instances public IP to a new hostgroup for use in the next play. - name: Add new instances to host group local\_action: add\_host hostname={{item.public\_ip}} groupname= **deploy** with\_items: ${ec2.instances} - name: Wait for the instances to boot by checking the ssh port local\_action: wait\_for host={{item.public\_dns\_name}} port=22 delay=60 timeout=320 state=started with\_items: ${ec2.instances} - name: Breathing room pause: seconds=30 # This play targets the new host group - name: Configure instance hosts: **deploy #must match groupname in “add\_host” above** user: ubuntu sudo: yes gather\_facts: true # Install the necessary software on each instance tasks: - name: Get the latest updates for instance action: command apt-get update - name: Install JDK apt: pkg=openjdk-6-jre-headless state=latest install\_recommends=no update\_cache=yes #action: apt pkg=java-1.7.0-openjdk state=latest - name: Install Maven2 apt: pkg=maven2 state=latest update\_cache=yes I’m launching the playbook using the following command. $ansible-playbook -v ec2\_launch.yml -vvvv -i inventory/ansible\_hosts **–private-key=/path/to/private/key** GATHERING FACTS \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ESTABLISH CONNECTION FOR USER: ubuntu EXEC [‘ssh’, ‘-tt’, ‘-vvv’, ‘-o’, ‘ControlMaster=auto’, ‘-o’, ‘ControlPersist=60s’, ‘-o’, ‘ControlPath=/home/dhkarimi/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-%h-%p-%r’, ‘-o’, ‘Port=22’, ‘-o’, ‘IdentityFile=/home/myuserid/.ec2/myprivatekey.pem’, ‘-o’, ‘KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no’, ‘-o’, ‘PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey’, ‘-o’, ‘PasswordAuthentication=no’, ‘-o’, ‘User=ubuntu’, ‘-o’, ‘ConnectTimeout=10’, u’None’, “/bin/sh -c ‘mkdir -p $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-1382270163.81-64347444346956 && chmod a+rx $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-1382270163.81-64347444346956 && echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-1382270163.81-64347444346956’”] fatal: [None] =\> SSH encountered an unknown error. The output was: OpenSSH\_5.9p1 Debian-5ubuntu1, OpenSSL 1.0.1 14 Mar 2012 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh\_config debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh\_config line 19: Applying options for \* debug1: auto-mux: Trying existing master debug1: Control socket “/home/myuserid/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-None-22-ubuntu” does not exist debug2: ssh\_connect: needpriv 0 ssh: Could not resolve hostname None: Name or service not known TASK: [Get the latest updates for instance] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* FATAL: no hosts matched or all hosts have already failed – aborting I can log into the launched instance by using the private key I’m passing to the ansible-playbook command. $ansible-playbook -v ec2\_launch.yml -vvvv -i inventory/ansible\_hosts **–private-key=/path/to/private/key** Any idea why is this failing? thanks -Soumya