Pinging another machine using AWS/ec2 dynamic inventory

[Sven Ehlert‏]

Hi all,

I have a rather simple usecase for which I don't seem to find an answer.

How can I ping a AWS/ec2 instance from another instance in a different play? I'm using the dynamic inventory.

The scenario is like this:

I create two ec2 instance in a play like this:

ec2:  
    group: "{{ security_group }}"
    instance_type: "{{ instance_type }}"
    image: "{{ image }}"
    region: "{{ region }}"
    key_name: "{{ keypair }}"
    instance_tags:
        Name: Destination


ec2:  
    group: "{{ security_group }}"
    instance_type: "{{ instance_type }}"
    image: "{{ image }}"
    region: "{{ region }}"
    key_name: "{{ keypair }}"
    instance_tags:
        Name: Source

This works well, the nodes are started and I can see them when running ./ec2.py

Then, in another play  (ping.yml) I want to do this

- name: pinging host

  hosts: tag_Name_Source

  remote_user: ubuntu

  tasks: 

  - shell: ping {{ tag_Name_Destination }}

I run it with 

ansible-playbook -i ec2.py ping.yml

but it gives me "One or more undefined variables: 'tag_Name_Destination' is undefined"

What is the right way to get the IP of the target machine?

I'm running Ansible 1.8.2 on Ubuntu.

Thanks for any hints.

/Sven

   

[James Cammarata‏]

Hi Sven, this is most likely due to the caching of data by the inventory script. You can set "cache_max_age = 0" in your ec2.ini to disable caching, to see if that helps.

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[Sven Ehlert‏]

Hi James,

thanks for the reply, however that didn't work out.

I get the same error ""One or more undefined variables: 'tag_Name_Destination' is undefined"

I can even simplify my playbook to "ping myself"

- name: pinging myself
  hosts: tag_Name_Source


  tasks:
  - shell: ping {{ tag_Name_Source }}

and I still get

PLAY [pinging myself] ***********************************************************


GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************
ok: [xx.xx.xx.xx]


TASK: [shell ping {{ tag_Name_Source }}] **************************************
fatal: [xx.xx.xx.xx] => One or more undefined variables: 'tag_Name_Source' is undefined

That is, while Ansible understands 'tag_Name_Source' in the 'hosts:' section, it doesn't understand the same variable in the "shell:" section.

Do I need to use a special syntax when using variables with {{ }}?

[Sven Ehlert‏]

I found a solution myself. The following playbook works as expected. This should be added to the ec2 tutorial.

- name: pinging myself
  hosts: tag_Name_Source


  tasks:

 
  - shell: ping {{ groups['tag_Name_Source'][0] }}