# Updating the launch configuration on EC2 **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** aws\ **Created:** [August 15, 2014, 9:48am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/updating-the-launch-configuration-on-ec2/15956 "2014-08-15T09:48:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arangel\_Angov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Arangel\_Angov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Arangel_Angov)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 9:48am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/updating-the-launch-configuration-on-ec2/15956/1 "2014-08-15T09:48:26Z")
Hi, I've been playing with EC2 autoscaling for a while and my goal is to start an instance update it and then save it to an AMI or use the instance AMI id in a launch configuration tied to an auto scaling group so that I have my instance up to date all the time and ready for scaling. So I wanted to update the launch configuration using ec2\_lc so that I either use the newly generated AMI image or the image\_id of the running instance. The first doesn't work cause if I want to update the lc I actually need to delete both autoscaling group and lc (and this is not acceptable cause I have production instances running in the auto scaling group, so deleting it will terminate those instances). The second approach doesn't really work also cause I guess the ec2\_lc module doesn't support updating the lc or using the instance\_id of my updated instance in the lc, which is something that ec2 supports ([http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AutoScaling/latest/DeveloperGuide/create-lc-with-instanceID.html](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AutoScaling/latest/DeveloperGuide/create-lc-with-instanceID.html)). I could use the ec2 tools inside ansible but just wanted to see if anyone had this issue before and how you solved it - without using Tower of course. 🙂 Thanks. -Arangel ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Anderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Scott\_Anderson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Scott_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/updating-the-launch-configuration-on-ec2/15956/2 "2014-08-15T17:19:43Z")
Basically you just need to create a new launch configuration and then update it in the autoscaling group. Any new instances created in the autoscaling group will then use the new launch configuration. Regards, -scott ---
**Author:** ![Arangel\_Angov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Arangel\_Angov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Arangel_Angov)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 12:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/updating-the-launch-configuration-on-ec2/15956/3 "2014-08-29T12:27:20Z")
Thanks for the suggestion, that's what I ended up doing. Now to figure out how to delete all my old launch configurations. -Arangel > **(attachments)** > > ![get_social.png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/2/27b541b3e66fe55dbe9eaf0b617420598c3cd40d.png) > ![http___s2.gramble.com_images_icons_email_social-media-icons_Gramble_32x3....png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/8/83ae9f03856d8948386dcdd51584c91fa60a26dc.png) > ![http___s2.gramble.com_images_icons_email_social-media-icons_twitter_32X3....png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/d/d2237ec90dd12b8d55e52930797aa238382feb19.png) > ![http___s2.gramble.com_images_icons_email_social-media-icons_facebook_32x....png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/6/6c9c91570e1d3d5495d610c531af7690fab6f3a9.png) > ![social-media-icons_linkedin_32x32.png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/9/985ad3e2317e2fb88b1c320bde9fb14489d3f56d.png) > ![http___s2.gramble.com_images_icons_email_social-media-icons_instagram_32....png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/e/e561873909044631f0bfeae406e2d75f1922e0eb.png) > ![http___s2.gramble.com_images_icons_email_social-media-icons_googleplus_3....png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/3/3ffbc10580fdbd6ae05bcb323a60fdb0e27817de.png) ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Anderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Scott\_Anderson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Scott_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/updating-the-launch-configuration-on-ec2/15956/4 "2014-08-29T12:34:07Z")
Here’s my cleanup script and the relevant part of a module I use to do this. If there’s interest I can PR the module. def delete\_launch\_configs(asg\_connection, ec2\_connection, module): changed = False launch\_configs = asg\_connection.get\_all\_launch\_configurations() # Delete all launch configurations that no longer have an attendant AMI for config in launch\_configs: image\_id = config.image\_id images = ec2\_connection.get\_all\_images(image\_ids=[image\_id]) if not images: config.delete() changed = True tasks: - name: Obtain list of existing backup AMIs local\_action: module: ec2\_ami\_facts description: “{{ ami\_image\_name }}-backup” tags: environment: “{{ app\_environment }}” sorts: - “-name” region: “{{ vpc\_region }}” aws\_access\_key: “{{ aws\_access\_key }}” aws\_secret\_key: “{{ aws\_secret\_key }}” register: ami\_facts ignore\_errors: yes - name: Remove all but the most recent backup AMI local\_action: module: ec2\_ami image\_id: “{{ item.id }}” state: absent delete\_snapshot: yes region: “{{ vpc\_region }}” aws\_access\_key: “{{ aws\_access\_key }}” aws\_secret\_key: “{{ aws\_secret\_key }}” with\_items: ami\_facts.images[1:] - name: Remove all launch configurations whose AMIs no longer exist local\_action: module: ec2\_lc\_cleanup region: “{{ vpc\_region }}” aws\_access\_key: “{{ aws\_access\_key }}” aws\_secret\_key: “{{ aws\_secret\_key }}” ec2\_ami\_facts is used to enumerate the AMIs that I want to delete. It’s in a PR somewhere but was turned down for inclusion in core. Regards, -scott ---
**Author:** ![willthames](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@willthames](https://forum.ansible.com/u/willthames)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/updating-the-launch-configuration-on-ec2/15956/5 "2014-09-02T02:18:35Z")
I don’t think you need a custom launch config cleanup module - but I understand you do need a way to tell it what launchconfigs to cleanup ec2\_lc already has state=delete [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/library/cloud/ec2\_lc#L225](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/library/cloud/ec2_lc#L225) then it’s just a matter of determining the names of the launchconfigs that need deleting. Will ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Anderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Scott\_Anderson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Scott_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/updating-the-launch-configuration-on-ec2/15956/6 "2014-09-02T02:20:56Z")
That’s the rub… the “just a matter of” is the piece that the custom module does. 🙂 -scott ---
**Author:** ![willthames](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@willthames](https://forum.ansible.com/u/willthames)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/updating-the-launch-configuration-on-ec2/15956/7 "2014-09-02T03:32:22Z")
True, but a custom module that deletes launch configs without images seems less clean than a custom module that returns launch config facts that you could then iterate over: - local\_action: module: ec2\_lc\_facts … credentials register: launch\_configs - local\_action: module: ec2\_lc name: “{{item.name}}” … credentials state: absent with\_items: launch\_configs when: item.image != ami\_facts.images[0] I’d favour adding a list state to ec2\_lc rather than a custom ec2\_lc\_facts module (and similarly for ec2\_ami), but you’re right, similar implementations have not made it through the pull review process. (Although ec2\_vol and rds have similar capability)