Create an ec2 instance failed with ec2: error: unrecognized arguments

[Xin Yi]

I am a newbie to the ansible world. I followed your blog, https://djaodjin.com/blog/deploying-on-ec2-with-ansible.blog.html, to create a security group and an ec2 instance. The security group is created successfully, but creating ec2 instance is failed by ec2: error: unrecognized arguments: /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-14244.... I did set up aws credentials and asnsible variables properly as below

# AWS Credentials

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=xxx

export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=xxx

# EC2 Environment Variables

export ANSIBLE_HOSTS=/etc/ansible/ec2.py

export EC2_INI_PATH=/etc/ansible/ec2.ini

The files and output are showed as follow. Any ideas for this issue? Thanks for your Help!

$ cat group_vars/all

# Variables listed here are applicable to all host groups 

key_name: sobrr-staging.pem

aws_region: cn-north-1

ami_id: ami-9e0c9ea7

instance_type: m1.small

$ cat basic-create.yml

# Basic provisioning example

- name: Create AWS resources

  hosts: localhost

  connection: local

  gather_facts: False

  tasks:

  - name: Create security group

    ec2_group:

      name: my-security-group

      description: "A Security group"

      region: "{{aws_region}}"

      rules:

        - proto: tcp

          type: ssh

          from_port: 22

          to_port: 22

          cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0

      rules_egress:

        - proto: all

          type: all

          cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0

    register: basic_firewall

  - name: debug basic_firewall

    debug: 'msg="{{ basic_firewall }}"'

  - name: create an EC2 instance

    local_action:

      module: ec2

      key_name: "{{key_name}}"

      region: "{{aws_region}}"

      group_id: "{{basic_firewall.group_id}}"

      instance_type: "{{instance_type}}"

      image: "{{ami_id}}"

      count: 1

      wait: yes

    register: basic_ec2

  - name: debug instance start

    debug: 'msg="{{ basic_ec2 }}"'

OUTPUT

ansible-playbook -i /etc/ansible/hosts -vvvv basic-create.yml

/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/Crypto/Util/number.py:57: PowmInsecureWarning: Not using mpz_powm_sec.  You should rebuild using libgmp >= 5 to avoid timing attack vulnerability.

  _warn("Not using mpz_powm_sec.  You should rebuild using libgmp >= 5 to avoid timing attack vulnerability.", PowmInsecureWarning)

PLAY [Create AWS resources] ***************************************************

TASK: [Create security group] *************************************************

<localhost> region=cn-north-1 description=A Security group name=my-security-group

<localhost>

<localhost>

<localhost> u'LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 /usr/bin/python /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.15-98406246607462/ec2_group; rm -rf /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.15-98406246607462/ >/dev/null 2>&1']

ok: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "group_id": "sg-63fae101"}

TASK: [debug basic_firewall] **************************************************

ok: [localhost] => {

    "msg": "{'invocation': {'module_name': u'ec2_group', 'module_args': ''}, 'changed': False, 'group_id': 'sg-63fae101'}"

}

TASK: [create an EC2 instance] ************************************************

<127.0.0.1> instance_type=m1.small image=ami-9e0c9ea7 group_id=sg-63fae101 region=cn-north-1 key_name=sobrr-staging.pem

<127.0.0.1>

<127.0.0.1>

<127.0.0.1>

<127.0.0.1> u'LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 /usr/bin/env python /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.54-184834253412898/ec2 /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.54-184834253412898/arguments; rm -rf /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.54-184834253412898/ >/dev/null 2>&1']

failed: [localhost -> 127.0.0.1] => {"failed": true, "parsed": false}

usage: ec2 [-h] [--list] [--host HOST] [--refresh-cache]

ec2: error: unrecognized arguments: /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1424461765.54-184834253412898/arguments

FATAL: all hosts have already failed -- aborting

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************

           to retry, use: --limit @/home/ec2-user/basic-create.retry

localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1

[Dan Vaida]

For spinning up instances in AWS you don't need to tell ansible to use the dynamic inventory script. That is something you might want to use later on.

Try unsetting that environment variable.

Also, when running the playbook, you are telling it to use the inventory file /etc/ansible/hosts. Mind showing us what you have in there?