# Trouble with using variables for ec2 tags **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** aws\ **Created:** [June 18, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trouble-with-using-variables-for-ec2-tags/15494 "2014-06-18T20:09:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_Peters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Michael\_Peters](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Peters)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trouble-with-using-variables-for-ec2-tags/15494/1 "2014-06-18T20:09:42Z")
I'm trying to create a VPC with certain tags which are derived from variables. I feel like I can't find the right YAML/Jinja/whatever syntax to make it work though. At first I tried setting them in the resource\_tags directly when using the ec2\_vpc module like so:    - name: Create VPC for new environment       local\_action:         module: ec2\_vpc         state: present         cidr\_block: 10.0.0.0/16         resource\_tags: { "Name": "marketplace-{{ environment }}" }         region: "{{ aws\_region }}"         dns\_hostnames: true         dns\_support: true         internet\_gateway: true         validate\_certs: true         instance\_tenancy: default         wait: true         subnets:         route\_tables:       register: new\_vpc While this executes without errors it results in a VPC with the Name tag of "marketplace-{}" which is obviously not what I want. And if my Name tag starts out with a "{" like "{{ environment }}-marketplace" then I get this error: failed: [localhost] =\> {"failed": true, "parsed": false} invalid output was: Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/home/mpeters/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1403121708.45-114116167152383/ec2\_vpc", line 2001, in \     main()   File "/home/mpeters/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1403121708.45-114116167152383/ec2\_vpc", line 599, in main     (vpc\_dict, new\_vpc\_id, subnets\_changed, changed) = create\_vpc(module, vpc\_conn)   File "/home/mpeters/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1403121708.45-114116167152383/ec2\_vpc", line 278, in create\_vpc     previous\_vpc = find\_vpc(module, vpc\_conn, id, cidr\_block)   File "/home/mpeters/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1403121708.45-114116167152383/ec2\_vpc", line 240, in find\_vpc     if resource\_tags and set(resource\_tags.items()).issubset(set(vpc\_tags.items())): TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict' So I though, maybe ec2\_vpc does run the Jinja templating on the values in the resource\_tags dictionary. So I then tried to create the VPC with a dummy name tag, save it's vpc\_id and then use ec2\_tag to add the tags in a separate task:     - name: Tag the new VPC       local\_action: ec2\_tag resource={{ new\_vpc.vpc\_id }} region={{ aws\_region }} state=present       args:         tags:           Name: "marketplace-{{ environment }}" But this results in the same thing (vpc with a Name tag of "marketplace-{}" instead of something like "marketplace-branch-XYZ". Am I confused about the YAML/Jinja syntax to accomplish what I want or is using variables in EC2 tags not supported? And if it's not supported would pull requests to add it be something folks would like? Thanks ---
**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:** [June 19, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trouble-with-using-variables-for-ec2-tags/15494/2 "2014-06-19T05:18:56Z")
This is definitely the same YAML parsing error, but because it’s happening in the complex args it doesn’t seem to be triggering the same error detection/handling code. Could you please open a github issue for this as well? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Peters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Michael\_Peters](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Peters)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trouble-with-using-variables-for-ec2-tags/15494/3 "2014-06-19T13:40:49Z")
I've filed it as 2 separate issues since they could be related but different (one completing but with the wrong results and the other failing with the traceback): [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/7833](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/7833) [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/7835](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/7835) But I'm still a bit confused about the why the first attempt I mentioned is failing. It's not throwing the traceback, it's just giving weird results. Is this still a YAML error? Can I write my YAML in a way that doesn't trigger this problem? Or is there a limit on which values can be templated? Thanks, ---
**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:** [June 19, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trouble-with-using-variables-for-ec2-tags/15494/4 "2014-06-19T21:22:10Z")
Already got this on github, yes, but the problem is the ‘environment’ variable in Ansible is reserved. The “environment” keyword stores variables here. We may consider changing this to ansible\_environment as this occasionally happens.