amazon.aws.aws_ec2 inventory – EC2 inventory source

Note

This inventory plugin is part of the amazon.aws collection (version 11.3.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws. You need further requirements to be able to use this inventory plugin, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: amazon.aws.aws_ec2.

Synopsis
Requirements
Parameters
Notes
Examples

Synopsis

Get inventory hosts from Amazon Web Services EC2.
The inventory file is a YAML configuration file and must end with aws_ec2.{yml|yaml}. For example - my_inventory.aws_ec2.yml.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local controller node that executes this inventory.

python >= 3.6
boto3 >= 1.35.0
botocore >= 1.35.0

Parameters

Parameter	Comments
access_key aliases: aws_access_key_id, aws_access_key string	AWS access key ID. See the AWS documentation for more information about access tokens https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-sec-cred-types.html#access-keys-and-secret-access-keys. The aws_access_key and profile options are mutually exclusive. The aws_access_key_id alias was added in release 5.1.0 for consistency with the AWS botocore SDK. Configuration: Environment variable: `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` Environment variable: `AWS_ACCESS_KEY`
allow_duplicated_hosts boolean added in amazon.aws 5.0.0	By default, the first name that matches an entry of the `hostnames` list is returned. Turn this flag on if you don’t mind having duplicated entries in the inventory and you want to get all the hostnames that match. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
assume_role_arn aliases: iam_role_arn string	The ARN of the IAM role to assume to perform the lookup. You should still provide AWS credentials with enough privilege to perform the AssumeRole action.
cache boolean	Toggle to enable/disable the caching of the inventory’s source data, requires a cache plugin setup to work. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true` Configuration: INI entry: [inventory] cache = false Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE`
cache_connection string	Cache connection data or path, read cache plugin documentation for specifics. Configuration: INI entries: [defaults] fact_caching_connection = VALUE [inventory] cache_connection = VALUE Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION` Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_CONNECTION`
cache_plugin string	Cache plugin to use for the inventory’s source data. Default: `"memory"` Configuration: INI entries: [defaults] fact_caching = memory [inventory] cache_plugin = memory Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN` Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN`
cache_prefix string	Prefix to use for cache plugin files/tables. Default: `"ansible_inventory_"` Configuration: INI entries: [defaults] fact_caching_prefix = ansible_inventory_ [inventory] cache_prefix = ansible_inventory_ Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX` Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX`
cache_timeout integer	Cache duration in seconds. Default: `3600` Configuration: INI entries: [defaults] fact_caching_timeout = 3600 [inventory] cache_timeout = 3600 Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_TIMEOUT` Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_TIMEOUT`
compose dictionary	Create vars from jinja2 expressions. Default: `{}`
endpoint_url aliases: aws_endpoint_url string	URL to connect to instead of the default AWS endpoints. While this can be used to connection to other AWS-compatible services the amazon.aws and community.aws collections are only tested against AWS. Configuration: Environment variable: `AWS_URL`
exclude_filters list / elements=dictionary added in amazon.aws 1.5.0	A list of filters. Any instances matching one of the filters are excluded from the result. The filters from `exclude_filters` take priority over the `include_filters` and `filters` keys. Available filters are listed here http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/describe-instances.html#options. Every entry in this list triggers a search query. As such, from a performance point of view, it’s better to keep the list as short as possible. Default: `[]`
filters dictionary	A dictionary of filter value pairs. Available filters are listed here http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/describe-instances.html#options. Default: `{}`
groups dictionary	Add hosts to group based on Jinja2 conditionals. Default: `{}`
hostnames list / elements=any	A list in order of precedence for hostname variables. The elements of the list can be a dict with the keys mentioned below or a string. Can be one of the options specified in http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/describe-instances.html#options. If value provided does not exist in the above options, it will be used as a literal string. To use tags as hostnames use the syntax tag:Name=Value to use the hostname Name_Value, or tag:Name to use the value of the Name tag. Jinja2 filters can be added to the hostnames string. Added in version 9.2.0. Default: `[]`
name string / required	Name of the host.
prefix string	Prefix to prepend to `hostnames.name`. Same options as `hostnames.name`. If `hostnames.prefix` is specified, final hostname will be `hostnames.prefix` + `hostnames.separator` + `hostnames.name`. Default: `""`
separator string	Value to separate `hostnames.prefix` and `hostnames.name` when `hostnames.prefix` is specified. Default: `"_"`
hostvars_prefix string added in amazon.aws 3.1.0	The prefix for host variables names coming from AWS.
hostvars_suffix string added in amazon.aws 3.1.0	The suffix for host variables names coming from AWS.
include_filters list / elements=dictionary added in amazon.aws 1.5.0	A list of filters. Any instances matching at least one of the filters are included in the result. Available filters are listed here http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/describe-instances.html#options. Every entry in this list triggers a search query. As such, from a performance point of view, it’s better to keep the list as short as possible. Default: `[]`
keyed_groups list / elements=dictionary	Add hosts to group based on the values of a variable. Default: `[]`
default_value string added in ansible-core 2.12	The default value when the host variable’s value is `None` or an empty string. This option is mutually exclusive with `keyed_groups[].trailing_separator`.
key string	The key from input dictionary used to generate groups.
parent_group string	parent group for keyed group.
prefix string	A keyed group name will start with this prefix. Default: `""`
separator string	separator used to build the keyed group name. Default: `"_"`
trailing_separator boolean added in ansible-core 2.12	Set this option to `false` to omit the `keyed_groups[].separator` after the host variable when the value is `None` or an empty string. This option is mutually exclusive with `keyed_groups[].default_value`. Choices: `false` `true` ← (default)
leading_separator boolean added in ansible-core 2.11	Use in conjunction with `keyed_groups`. By default, a keyed group that does not have a prefix or a separator provided will have a name that starts with an underscore. This is because the default prefix is `""` and the default separator is `"_"`. Set this option to `false` to omit the leading underscore (or other separator) if no prefix is given. If the group name is derived from a mapping the separator is still used to concatenate the items. To not use a separator in the group name at all, set the separator for the keyed group to an empty string instead. Choices: `false` `true` ← (default)
profile aliases: aws_profile string	A named AWS profile to use for authentication. See the AWS documentation for more information about named profiles https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-profiles.html. The profile option is mutually exclusive with the aws_access_key, aws_secret_key and session_token options. Configuration: Environment variable: `AWS_PROFILE` Environment variable: `AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE`
region aliases: aws_region string	The AWS region to use. See the Amazon AWS documentation for more information http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html#ec2_region. Configuration: Environment variable: `AWS_REGION`
regions list / elements=string	A list of regions in which to describe EC2 instances. If empty (the default) default this will include all regions, except possibly restricted ones like `us-gov-west-1` and `cn-north-1`. Default: `[]`
route53_enabled boolean added in amazon.aws 10.1.0	Whether or not to use the Route53 DNS as host name. When set to `true`, Route53 hostnames will be included. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
route53_excluded_zones list / elements=string added in amazon.aws 10.1.0	A list of Route53 zones to exclude. Default: `[]`
route53_hostnames list / elements=string added in amazon.aws 10.1.0	Specifies the Route53 DNS name suffix to consider. Consider only Route53 zone with name ending with the value specified here. Default: `[]`
secret_key aliases: aws_secret_access_key, aws_secret_key string	AWS secret access key. See the AWS documentation for more information about access tokens https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-sec-cred-types.html#access-keys-and-secret-access-keys. The secret_key and profile options are mutually exclusive. The aws_secret_access_key alias was added in release 5.1.0 for consistency with the AWS botocore SDK. Configuration: Environment variable: `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` Environment variable: `AWS_SECRET_KEY`
session_token aliases: aws_session_token string	AWS STS session token for use with temporary credentials. See the AWS documentation for more information about access tokens https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-sec-cred-types.html#access-keys-and-secret-access-keys. The session_token and profile options are mutually exclusive. Configuration: Environment variable: `AWS_SESSION_TOKEN`
strict boolean	If `yes` make invalid entries a fatal error, otherwise skip and continue. Since it is possible to use facts in the expressions they might not always be available and we ignore those errors by default. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
strict_permissions boolean	By default if a 403 (Forbidden) error code is encountered this plugin will fail. You can set this option to False in the inventory config file which will allow 403 errors to be gracefully skipped. Choices: `false` `true` ← (default)
use_contrib_script_compatible_ec2_tag_keys boolean added in amazon.aws 1.5.0	Expose the host tags with `ec2_tag_TAGNAME` keys like the old `ec2.py` inventory script. The use of this feature is deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2026-12-01. Use the `ec2_tags` structure instead (e.g. use `ec2_tags.TAGNAME` rather than `ec2_tag_TAGNAME`). Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
use_contrib_script_compatible_sanitization boolean	By default this plugin is using a general group name sanitization to create safe and usable group names for use in Ansible. This option allows you to override that, in efforts to allow migration from the old `ec2.py` inventory script and matches the sanitization of groups when the script’s ``replace_dash_in_groups`` option is set to ``False``. To replicate behavior of ``replace_dash_in_groups = True`` with constructed groups, you will need to replace hyphens with underscores via the regex_replace filter for those entries. For this to work you should also turn off the TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS setting, otherwise the core engine will just use the standard sanitization on top. This is not the default as such names break certain functionality as not all characters are valid Python identifiers which group names end up being used as. The use of this feature is deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2026-12-01. Use Ansible’s default group name sanitization instead. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
use_extra_vars boolean added in ansible-core 2.11	Merge extra vars into the available variables for composition (highest precedence). Choices: `false` ← (default) `true` Configuration: INI entry: [inventory_plugins] use_extra_vars = false Environment variable: `ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_USE_EXTRA_VARS`
use_ssm_inventory boolean added in amazon.aws 6.0.0	Enables fetching additional EC2 instance information from the AWS Systems Manager (SSM) inventory service into hostvars. By leveraging the SSM inventory data, the `use_ssm_inventory` option provides additional details and attributes about the EC2 instances in your inventory. These details can include operating system information, installed software, network configurations, and custom inventory attributes defined in SSM. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`

Note

Configuration entries listed above for each entry type (Ansible variable, environment variable, and so on) have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up. The entry types are also ordered by precedence from low to high priority order. For example, an ansible.cfg entry (further up in the list) is overwritten by an Ansible variable (further down in the list).

Notes

Note

If no credentials are provided and the control node has an associated IAM instance profile then the role will be used for authentication.
The tags host variable is deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2026-12-01. Use ec2_tags instead to avoid conflicts with Ansible reserved variable names.
The ec2_tags host variable was added in version 11.2.0.
The use_contrib_script_compatible_ec2_tag_keys option is deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2026-12-01. Use the ec2_tags structure instead (e.g. use ec2_tags.TAGNAME rather than ec2_tag_TAGNAME).
The use_contrib_script_compatible_sanitization option is deprecated and will be removed in a release after 2026-12-01. Use Ansible’s default group name sanitization instead.
Inventories are not finalized at this stage, so the auto populated all and ungrouped groups will only reflect what previous inventory sources explicitly added to them.
Runtime ‘magic variables’ are not available during inventory construction. For example, groups and hostvars do not exist yet.
Caution: For modules, environment variables and configuration files are read from the Ansible ‘host’ context and not the ‘controller’ context. As such, files may need to be explicitly copied to the ‘host’. For lookup and connection plugins, environment variables and configuration files are read from the Ansible ‘controller’ context and not the ‘host’ context.
The AWS SDK (boto3) that Ansible uses may also read defaults for credentials and other settings, such as the region, from its configuration files in the Ansible ‘host’ context (typically ~/.aws/credentials). See https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/guide/credentials.html for more information.

Examples

# Minimal example using environment vars or instance role credentials
# Fetch all hosts in us-east-1, the hostname is the public DNS if it exists, otherwise the private IP address
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1

---

# Example using filters, ignoring permission errors, and specifying the hostname precedence
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
# The values for profile, access key, secret key and token can be hardcoded like:
profile: aws_profile
# or you could use Jinja as:
# profile: "{{ lookup('env', 'AWS_PROFILE') | default('aws_profile', true) }}"
# Populate inventory with instances in these regions
regions:
  - us-east-1
  - us-east-2
filters:
  ## All instances with their `Environment` tag set to `dev`
  # tag:Environment: dev

  # All dev and QA hosts
  tag:Environment:
    - dev
    - qa
  instance.group-id: sg-xxxxxxxx
# Ignores 403 errors rather than failing
strict_permissions: false
# Note: I(hostnames) sets the inventory_hostname. To modify ansible_host without modifying
# inventory_hostname use compose (see example below).
hostnames:
  - tag:Name=Tag1,Name=Tag2  # Return specific hosts only
  - tag:CustomDNSName
  - dns-name
  - name: 'tag:Name=Tag1,Name=Tag2'
  - name: 'private-ip-address'
    separator: '_'
    prefix: 'tag:Name'
  - name: 'test_literal' # Using literal values for hostname
    separator: '-'       # Hostname will be aws-test_literal
    prefix: 'aws'

# Returns all the hostnames for a given instance
allow_duplicated_hosts: false

---

# Example using constructed features to create groups and set ansible_host
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
  - us-west-1
# keyed_groups may be used to create custom groups
strict: false
keyed_groups:
  # Add e.g. x86_64 hosts to an arch_x86_64 group
  - prefix: arch
    key: 'architecture'
  # Add hosts to tag_Name_Value groups for each Name/Value tag pair
  - prefix: tag
    key: ec2_tags
  # Add hosts to e.g. instance_type_z3_tiny
  - prefix: instance_type
    key: instance_type
  # Create security_groups_sg_abcd1234 group for each SG
  - key: 'security_groups|json_query("[].group_id")'
    prefix: 'security_groups'
  # Create a group for each value of the Application tag
  - key: ec2_tags.Application
    separator: ''
  # Create a group per region e.g. aws_region_us_east_2
  - key: placement.region
    prefix: aws_region
  # Create a group (or groups) based on the value of a custom tag "Role" and add them to a metagroup called "project"
  - key: ec2_tags['Role']
    prefix: foo
    parent_group: "project"
# Set individual variables with compose
compose:
  # Use the private IP address to connect to the host
  # (note: this does not modify inventory_hostname, which is set via I(hostnames))
  ansible_host: private_ip_address

---

# Example using include_filters and exclude_filters to compose the inventory.
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
  - us-west-1
include_filters:
  - tag:Name:
      - 'my_second_tag'
  - tag:Name:
      - 'my_third_tag'
exclude_filters:
  - tag:Name:
      - 'my_first_tag'

---

# Example using groups to assign the running hosts to a group based on vpc_id
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
profile: aws_profile
# Populate inventory with instances in these regions
regions:
  - us-east-2
filters:
  # All instances with their state as `running`
  instance-state-name: running
keyed_groups:
  - prefix: tag
    key: ec2_tags
compose:
  ansible_host: public_dns_name
groups:
  libvpc: vpc_id == 'vpc-####'

---

# Define prefix and suffix for host variables coming from AWS.
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
hostvars_prefix: 'aws_'
hostvars_suffix: '_ec2'

---

# Define hostnames variables with jinja2 filters.
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
hostnames:
  - "tag:Name | replace('test', 'prod')"

---

# Define inventory with Route53 enabled and filtering specific route53 host names suffix.
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
route53_enabled: true
route53_hostnames:
  - .example.com
  - .another_example.org

---

# Define inventory with Route53 enabled and excluded zones.
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1
route53_enabled: true
route53_excluded_zones:
  - ansible.bar.net
  - ansible.foo.net

Authors

Sloane Hertel (@s-hertel)

Collection links

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2025 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/projects/ansible/latest/collections/amazon/aws/aws_ec2_inventory.html