AWS EC2 Provisioning by Ansible

EC2 instances are created or terminated with the Ansible Plays in this repository, therefore software stack deployment is achieved on Amazon Cloud with dynamic computing resources. Ansible dynamic inventory and cloud modules are used to manage cloud resources such as security groups, VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) with public ip addresses.

Contents:

Get Started

In this document, we expect to start ec2 instances, deploy software stacks with a dynamic inventory like a text inventory file and terminate instances when its completed. This can be applied to other cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure or OpenStack.

Background

Typical ansible playbook runs with a static text inventory file which consists of a set of IP addresses or host names accessible via SSH because it assume that there are machines ready to install software and configure settings through Ansible roles, plays. When it comes to cloud resources, those IPs or host names are not permanent because new instances are started with different network access information. Ansible Dynamic Inventory allows to retrieve instance information directly from EC2 instead of reading a text file.

In addition, Ansible ec2 cloud module supports creating/terminating ec2 instances as Ansible tasks, therefore booting and terminating ec2 instances are automated by Ansible plays, in this case, boot.yml and terminate.yml files.

AWS Credentials

AWS_ACCESS_KEY and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY are required to communicate with AWS under your account. Ansible provides several options to import credentials like ec2.ini file, boto profile (e.g. ~/.aws/credentials) and environment variables but we will use environment variables with ansible-vault to secure the information.

  • Be ready with your AWS_ACCESS_KEY and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

  • Store the information in a file like:

    $ nano cred
  export AWS_ACCESS_KEY=1234567890
  export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=1234567890

(Replace 1234567890 with a real value)

  • Encrypt the file with ansible-vault with your password for this file:

    $ ansible-vault encrypt cred
New Vault password:
Confirm New Vault password:

The encrypted file looks like:

$ cat cred
$ANSIBLE_VAULT;1.1;AES256
36383835346339373263616238633662613265653766646236616538326130616666373864323537
6265613637646530396663393236636534313138623536300a343638643134656330646661653230
32363234646631323034336338376337323836616532396639656234396235303531306133323663
3838383962386338320a623932313934356563303964303831323732323363343364646235633261
61396361366131363262623739376535393062663361303966333533396664663832616234306234
34623461316530643063313338666635396463336361643962633536666264613665343135303163
613937373831323931613039653438363431

  • Enable your EC2 credentials in a shell by:

    $ $(ansible-vault view cred)
Vault password:
$

You can confirm whether it’s loaded or not by:

$ env|grep AWS
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=1234567890
AWS_ACCESS_KEY=1234567890

Dynamic Inventory

It is not required to have a text inventory file in your Ansible home directory as long as ec2.py script provides dynamic inventory.

  • Download and run ec2.py AWS External Inventory Script:

    $ curl -L https://raw.github.com/ansible/ansible/devel/contrib/inventory/ec2.py > ec2.py
% Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
100 63776  100 63776    0     0   135k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  317k

  • Make it executable by:

    $ chmod a+x ./ec2.py

  • Check running EC2 instances, (wait a few seconds):

    $ ./ec2.py
 {
   "_meta": {
     "hostvars": {}
   }
 }

There is no running instances now but if you have some, the JSON return dataset looks like:

{
  "_meta": {
    "hostvars": {
      "54.85.130.171": {
	"ansible_ssh_host": "54.85.130.171",
	"ec2__in_monitoring_element": false,
	"ec2_ami_launch_index": "0",
	"ec2_architecture": "x86_64",
	"ec2_client_token": "",
	"ec2_dns_name": "",
	"ec2_ebs_optimized": false,
	"ec2_eventsSet": "",
	"ec2_group_name": "",
	"ec2_hypervisor": "xen",
	"ec2_id": "i-1a2c68e2",
	"ec2_image_id": "ami-2d39803a",
	"ec2_instance_profile": "",
	"ec2_instance_type": "t2.micro",
	"ec2_ip_address": "54.85.130.171",
	"ec2_item": "",
	"ec2_kernel": "",
	"ec2_key_name": "albert",
	"ec2_launch_time": "2016-09-15T17:18:36.000Z",
	"ec2_monitored": false,
	"ec2_monitoring": "",
	"ec2_monitoring_state": "disabled",
	"ec2_persistent": false,
	"ec2_placement": "us-east-1a",
	"ec2_platform": "",
	"ec2_previous_state": "",
	"ec2_previous_state_code": 0,
	"ec2_private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-104.ec2.internal",
	"ec2_private_ip_address": "172.30.3.104",
	"ec2_public_dns_name": "",
	"ec2_ramdisk": "",
	"ec2_reason": "",
	"ec2_region": "us-east-1",
	"ec2_requester_id": "",
	"ec2_root_device_name": "/dev/sda1",
	"ec2_root_device_type": "ebs",
	"ec2_security_group_ids": "sg-69ebc60c,sg-115b376b",
	"ec2_security_group_names": "default,abds_secgroup",
	"ec2_sourceDestCheck": "true",
	"ec2_spot_instance_request_id": "",
	"ec2_state": "running",
	"ec2_state_code": 16,
	"ec2_state_reason": "",
	"ec2_subnet_id": "subnet-719a774d",
	"ec2_tag_datanodes": "True",
	"ec2_tag_frontendnodes": "False",
	"ec2_tag_hadoopnodes": "True",
	"ec2_tag_historyservernodes": "False",
	"ec2_tag_journalnodes": "True",
	"ec2_tag_namenodes": "True",
	"ec2_tag_resourcemanagernodes": "True",
	"ec2_tag_zookeepernodes": "True",
	"ec2_virtualization_type": "hvm",
	"ec2_vpc_id": "vpc-e6c17c83"
      }
    }
  },
  "ami_2d39803a": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "ec2": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "i-1a2c68e2": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "key_albert": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "security_group_abds_secgroup": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "security_group_default": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "tag_datanodes_True": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "tag_frontendnodes_False": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "tag_hadoopnodes_True": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "tag_historyservernodes_False": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "tag_journalnodes_True": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "tag_namenodes_True": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "tag_resourcemanagernodes_True": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "tag_zookeepernodes_True": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "type_t2_micro": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "us-east-1": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "us-east-1a": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ],
  "vpc_id_vpc_e6c17c83": [
    "54.85.130.171"
  ]
}

  • Switch inventory argument option in your ansible-playbook command like:

    $ ansible-playbook -i ec2.py

For more information, see Ansible Dynamic Inventory here

Launching EC2 Instances via Ansible ec2 module

Ansible provide cloud modules to manage instances and we use ec2 module for Amazon EC2 cloud to launch or terminate instances. Other clouds i.e. Azure, Digital Ocean, Docker, Google Compute Engine (GCE) or OpenStack are also supported in the cloud modules. For more information see documentation here and source code from ansible-modules-core here

The following ec2 task starts a single EC2 instance with Ubuntu 14.04 image:

- ec2:
    key_name: albert          # SSH registered key name
    instance_type: t2.micro   # EC2 Instance size
    image: ami-2d39803a       # Ubuntu 14.04 image
    group: default            # security group
    region: us-east-1         # EC2 Region

This five lines in ec2 task launches a new EC2 instance on us-east-1 region. Find out more details here

EC2 Tags for Inventory Groups

instance_tags is used to create inventory groups therefore Ansible plays run on particular hosts. For example, deploying hadoop cluster requires several inventory groups such as namenodes, datanodes or zookeepernodes. instance_tags is useful to put a label on ec2 instances to distinguish virtual servers between different inventory groups. The following example shows that three ec2 instances will be created with the tags for namenodes, datanodes and zookeepernodes like:

- ec2:
    key_name: "{{ keypair }}"
    instance_type: "{{ instance_size }}"
    image: "{{ image }}"
    region: "{{ region }}"
    exact_count: 3
    count_tag: three-nodes
    group:  [ 'default', "{{ security_group }}" ]
    instance_tags:
      namenodes: True
      datanodes: True
      zookeepernodes: True
      historyservernodes: False
      frontendnodes: False

The key:value tags are used here and the AWS EC2 returns JSON data like:

{u'ansible_all_ipv4_addresses': [u'172.30.3.139'],
 u'ansible_all_ipv6_addresses': [u'fe80::4b9:ffff:fe81:65f'],
 u'ansible_architecture': u'x86_64',
 u'ansible_bios_date': u'05/12/2016',
 u'ansible_bios_version': u'4.2.amazon',
 'ansible_check_mode': False,
 u'ansible_cmdline': {u'BOOT_IMAGE': u'/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-91-generic',
		      u'console': u'ttyS0',
		      u'ro': True,
		      u'root': u'UUID=73362e04-90b8-4c53-b878-2097820e0b34'},
 u'ansible_date_time': {u'date': u'2016-09-16',
			u'day': u'16',
			u'epoch': u'1473991427',
			u'hour': u'02',
			u'iso8601': u'2016-09-16T02:03:47Z',
			u'iso8601_basic': u'20160916T020347397930',
			u'iso8601_basic_short': u'20160916T020347',
			u'iso8601_micro': u'2016-09-16T02:03:47.398008Z',
			u'minute': u'03',
			u'month': u'09',
			u'second': u'47',
			u'time': u'02:03:47',
			u'tz': u'UTC',
			u'tz_offset': u'+0000',
			u'weekday': u'Friday',
			u'weekday_number': u'5',
			u'weeknumber': u'37',
			u'year': u'2016'},
 u'ansible_default_ipv4': {u'address': u'172.30.3.139',
			   u'alias': u'eth0',
			   u'broadcast': u'172.30.3.255',
			   u'gateway': u'172.30.3.1',
			   u'interface': u'eth0',
			   u'macaddress': u'06:b9:ff:81:06:5f',
			   u'mtu': 9001,
			   u'netmask': u'255.255.255.0',
			   u'network': u'172.30.3.0',
			   u'type': u'ether'},
 u'ansible_default_ipv6': {},
 u'ansible_devices': {u'xvda': {u'holders': [],
				u'host': u'',
				u'model': None,
				u'partitions': {u'xvda1': {u'sectors': u'16755795',
							   u'sectorsize': 512,
							   u'size': u'7.99 GB',
							   u'start': u'16065'}},
				u'removable': u'0',
				u'rotational': u'0',
				u'sas_address': None,
				u'sas_device_handle': None,
				u'scheduler_mode': u'deadline',
				u'sectors': u'16777216',
				u'sectorsize': u'512',
				u'size': u'8.00 GB',
				u'support_discard': u'0',
				u'vendor': None}},
 u'ansible_distribution': u'Ubuntu',
 u'ansible_distribution_major_version': u'14',
 u'ansible_distribution_release': u'trusty',
 u'ansible_distribution_version': u'14.04',
 u'ansible_dns': {u'nameservers': [u'172.30.0.2'],
		  u'search': [u'ec2.internal']},
 u'ansible_domain': u'',
 u'ansible_env': {u'HOME': u'/home/ubuntu',
		  u'LANG': u'en_US.UTF-8',
		  u'LC_ALL': u'en_US.UTF-8',
		  u'LC_MESSAGES': u'en_US.UTF-8',
		  u'LOGNAME': u'ubuntu',
		  u'MAIL': u'/var/mail/ubuntu',
		  u'PATH': u'/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games',
		  u'PWD': u'/home/ubuntu',
		  u'SHELL': u'/bin/bash',
		  u'SHLVL': u'1',
		  u'SSH_CLIENT': u'156.56.102.202 38016 22',
		  u'SSH_CONNECTION': u'156.56.102.202 38016 172.30.3.139 22',
		  u'SSH_TTY': u'/dev/pts/0',
		  u'TERM': u'xterm',
		  u'USER': u'ubuntu',
		  u'XDG_RUNTIME_DIR': u'/run/user/1000',
		  u'XDG_SESSION_ID': u'8',
		  u'_': u'/bin/sh'},
 u'ansible_eth0': {u'active': True,
		   u'device': u'eth0',
		   u'ipv4': {u'address': u'172.30.3.139',
			     u'broadcast': u'172.30.3.255',
			     u'netmask': u'255.255.255.0',
			     u'network': u'172.30.3.0'},
		   u'ipv6': [{u'address': u'fe80::4b9:ffff:fe81:65f',
			      u'prefix': u'64',
			      u'scope': u'link'}],
		   u'macaddress': u'06:b9:ff:81:06:5f',
		   u'mtu': 9001,
		   u'pciid': u'vif-0',
		   u'promisc': False,
		   u'type': u'ether'},
 u'ansible_fips': False,
 u'ansible_form_factor': u'Other',
 u'ansible_fqdn': u'ip-172-30-3-139',
 u'ansible_gather_subset': [u'hardware', u'network', u'virtual'],
 u'ansible_hostname': u'ip-172-30-3-139',
 u'ansible_interfaces': [u'lo', u'eth0'],
 u'ansible_kernel': u'3.13.0-91-generic',
 u'ansible_lo': {u'active': True,
		 u'device': u'lo',
		 u'ipv4': {u'address': u'127.0.0.1',
			   u'broadcast': u'host',
			   u'netmask': u'255.0.0.0',
			   u'network': u'127.0.0.0'},
		 u'ipv6': [{u'address': u'::1',
			    u'prefix': u'128',
			    u'scope': u'host'}],
		 u'mtu': 65536,
		 u'promisc': False,
		 u'type': u'loopback'},
 u'ansible_lsb': {u'codename': u'trusty',
		  u'description': u'Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS',
		  u'id': u'Ubuntu',
		  u'major_release': u'14',
		  u'release': u'14.04'},
 u'ansible_machine': u'x86_64',
 u'ansible_machine_id': u'dd1bac9cb23792a632bd6ee157719517',
 u'ansible_memfree_mb': 715,
 u'ansible_memory_mb': {u'nocache': {u'free': 932, u'used': 60},
			u'real': {u'free': 715, u'total': 992, u'used': 277},
			u'swap': {u'cached': 0,
				  u'free': 0,
				  u'total': 0,
				  u'used': 0}},
 u'ansible_memtotal_mb': 992,
 u'ansible_mounts': [{u'device': u'/dev/xvda1',
		      u'fstype': u'ext4',
		      u'mount': u'/',
		      u'options': u'rw,discard',
		      u'size_available': 7029567488,
		      u'size_total': 8309932032,
		      u'uuid': u''}],
 u'ansible_nodename': u'ip-172-30-3-139',
 u'ansible_os_family': u'Debian',
 u'ansible_pkg_mgr': u'apt',
 u'ansible_processor': [u'GenuineIntel',
			u'Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 v2 @ 2.50GHz'],
 u'ansible_processor_cores': 1,
 u'ansible_processor_count': 1,
 u'ansible_processor_threads_per_core': 1,
 u'ansible_processor_vcpus': 1,
 u'ansible_product_name': u'HVM domU',
 u'ansible_product_serial': u'NA',
 u'ansible_product_uuid': u'NA',
 u'ansible_product_version': u'4.2.amazon',
 u'ansible_python': {u'executable': u'/usr/bin/python',
		     u'has_sslcontext': False,
		     u'type': u'CPython',
		     u'version': {u'major': 2,
				  u'micro': 6,
				  u'minor': 7,
				  u'releaselevel': u'final',
				  u'serial': 0},
		     u'version_info': [2, 7, 6, u'final', 0]},
 u'ansible_python_version': u'2.7.6',
 u'ansible_selinux': False,
 u'ansible_service_mgr': u'upstart',
 u'ansible_ssh_host': u'52.23.213.103',
 u'ansible_ssh_host_key_dsa_public': u'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',
 u'ansible_ssh_host_key_ecdsa_public': u'AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBCjuapwx2AgG834ti6pGu7gbF2YJmoQ1r6wGVNQrnVHs7rZ5S+hhTSjRmZQ7d5zYgbqFX/f9WGAQgAn89dWyHPE=',
 u'ansible_ssh_host_key_ed25519_public': u'AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIEOzako99Tn5mO/vjk+ctHc9HKmtdsdJxTqqNIoo0RI3',
 u'ansible_ssh_host_key_rsa_public': u'AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC7elCMaVXdqIuBrO+4Fx5oPggQdI7JRKv176NsoRtwsYPtxp07t4mllkH6ATsQgkj9wDHOxMk73zyEFaMZskCVNwvN1bwGIyZX/i8JXJtzAdvZZNn1cH1zCi1WD3bRx3dp+p8JU+OmVBhaElPYqm3W+BDWGC7b4YqHbqTHDNTUswgvvLuXr0Qw7fdWMNxb8Va7c3GOrMEkMWnHpMpVCu6Y8zIHdcmJWSMeBXOUKPkXXsaI6jAX8koi8pAFeX95rHbwhP2uo76ueJqWJhDPLm6FdXW+hsPIKDn4eFIhVrHNROml4Z3pAR6FmfidJEi5dvXmefLC6IQH9eDgf7Dn5fS9',
 u'ansible_swapfree_mb': 0,
 u'ansible_swaptotal_mb': 0,
 u'ansible_system': u'Linux',
 u'ansible_system_capabilities': [u''],
 u'ansible_system_capabilities_enforced': u'True',
 u'ansible_system_vendor': u'Xen',
 u'ansible_uptime_seconds': 21477,
 u'ansible_user_dir': u'/home/ubuntu',
 u'ansible_user_gecos': u'Ubuntu',
 u'ansible_user_gid': 1000,
 u'ansible_user_id': u'ubuntu',
 u'ansible_user_shell': u'/bin/bash',
 u'ansible_user_uid': 1000,
 u'ansible_userspace_architecture': u'x86_64',
 u'ansible_userspace_bits': u'64',
 'ansible_version': {'full': '2.1.1.0',
		     'major': 2,
		     'minor': 1,
		     'revision': 1,
		     'string': '2.1.1.0'},
 u'ansible_virtualization_role': u'guest',
 u'ansible_virtualization_type': u'xen',
 u'ec2__in_monitoring_element': False,
 u'ec2_ami_launch_index': u'0',
 u'ec2_architecture': u'x86_64',
 u'ec2_client_token': u'',
 u'ec2_dns_name': u'',
 u'ec2_ebs_optimized': False,
 u'ec2_eventsSet': u'',
 u'ec2_group_name': u'',
 u'ec2_hypervisor': u'xen',
 u'ec2_id': u'i-435014bb',
 u'ec2_image_id': u'ami-2d39803a',
 u'ec2_instance_profile': u'',
 u'ec2_instance_type': u't2.micro',
 u'ec2_ip_address': u'52.23.213.103',
 u'ec2_item': u'',
 u'ec2_kernel': u'',
 u'ec2_key_name': u'albert',
 u'ec2_launch_time': u'2016-09-15T20:05:34.000Z',
 u'ec2_monitored': False,
 u'ec2_monitoring': u'',
 u'ec2_monitoring_state': u'disabled',
 u'ec2_persistent': False,
 u'ec2_placement': u'us-east-1a',
 u'ec2_platform': u'',
 u'ec2_previous_state': u'',
 u'ec2_previous_state_code': 0,
 u'ec2_private_dns_name': u'ip-172-30-3-139.ec2.internal',
 u'ec2_private_ip_address': u'172.30.3.139',
 u'ec2_public_dns_name': u'',
 u'ec2_ramdisk': u'',
 u'ec2_reason': u'',
 u'ec2_region': u'us-east-1',
 u'ec2_requester_id': u'',
 u'ec2_root_device_name': u'/dev/sda1',
 u'ec2_root_device_type': u'ebs',
 u'ec2_security_group_ids': u'sg-69ebc60c,sg-115b376b',
 u'ec2_security_group_names': u'default,abds_secgroup',
 u'ec2_sourceDestCheck': u'true',
 u'ec2_spot_instance_request_id': u'',
 u'ec2_state': u'running',
 u'ec2_state_code': 16,
 u'ec2_state_reason': u'',
 u'ec2_subnet_id': u'subnet-719a774d',
 u'ec2_tag_datanodes': u'True',
 u'ec2_tag_frontendnodes': u'True',
 u'ec2_tag_hadoopnodes': u'True',
 u'ec2_tag_historyservernodes': u'True',
 u'ec2_tag_journalnodes': u'True',
 u'ec2_tag_namenodes': u'True',
 u'ec2_tag_resourcemanagernodes': u'True',
 u'ec2_tag_zookeepernodes': u'True',
 u'ec2_virtualization_type': u'hvm',
 u'ec2_vpc_id': u'vpc-e6c17c83',
 'group_names': [u'ami_2d39803a',
		 u'ec2',
		 u'i-435014bb',
		 u'key_albert',
		 u'security_group_abds_secgroup',
		 u'security_group_default',
		 u'tag_datanodes_True',
		 u'tag_frontendnodes_True',
		 u'tag_hadoopnodes_True',
		 u'tag_historyservernodes_True',
		 u'tag_journalnodes_True',
		 u'tag_namenodes_True',
		 u'tag_resourcemanagernodes_True',
		 u'tag_zookeepernodes_True',
		 u'type_t2_micro',
		 u'us-east-1',
		 u'us-east-1a',
		 u'vpc_id_vpc_e6c17c83'],
 'groups': {'all': [u'52.23.213.103', u'54.196.41.145', u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'ami_2d39803a': [u'52.23.213.103',
			      u'54.196.41.145',
			      u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'ec2': [u'52.23.213.103', u'54.196.41.145', u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'i-435014bb': [u'52.23.213.103'],
	    u'i-e250141a': [u'54.196.41.145'],
	    u'i-e350141b': [u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'key_albert': [u'52.23.213.103',
			   u'54.196.41.145',
			   u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'security_group_abds_secgroup': [u'52.23.213.103',
					     u'54.196.41.145',
					     u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'security_group_default': [u'52.23.213.103',
					u'54.196.41.145',
					u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'tag_datanodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103',
				    u'54.196.41.145',
				    u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'tag_frontendnodes_False': [u'54.196.41.145', u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'tag_frontendnodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103'],
	    u'tag_hadoopnodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103',
				      u'54.196.41.145',
				      u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'tag_historyservernodes_False': [u'54.196.41.145',
					      u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'tag_historyservernodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103'],
	    u'tag_journalnodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103',
				       u'54.196.41.145',
				       u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'tag_namenodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103',
				    u'54.196.41.145',
				    u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'tag_resourcemanagernodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103',
					       u'54.196.41.145',
					       u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'tag_zookeepernodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103',
					 u'54.196.41.145',
					 u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'type_t2_micro': [u'52.23.213.103',
			       u'54.196.41.145',
			       u'54.209.137.235'],
	    'ungrouped': ['localhost'],
	    u'us-east-1': [u'52.23.213.103',
			   u'54.196.41.145',
			   u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'us-east-1a': [u'52.23.213.103',
			    u'54.196.41.145',
			    u'54.209.137.235'],
	    u'vpc_id_vpc_e6c17c83': [u'52.23.213.103',
				     u'54.196.41.145',
				     u'54.209.137.235']},
 'inventory_dir': '/home/albert/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible',
 'inventory_file': 'ec2.py',
 'inventory_hostname': u'52.23.213.103',
 'inventory_hostname_short': u'52',
 u'module_setup': True,
 'omit': '__omit_place_holder__943b1cb4d91b305bcddb59adcbdfd6146fda5e7e',
 'playbook_dir': u'/home/albert/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible'}

As you noticed that tags create separate host groups in a tag_<key>_<value> form, for example, namenodes are listed like:

u'tag_namenodes_True': [u'52.23.213.103',
                        u'54.196.41.145',
                        u'54.209.137.235'],

It is good because Ansible directly call this group like:

$ ansible -m ping -i ec2.py -u ubuntu "tag_namenodes_True"

However, if hostnames should be just namenodes without any prefix or postfix, we can fix that using add_host module. Let’s see that in convert.yml.

Converting Inventory Groups

convent.yml uses add_host to create a new inventory groups and it corrects group names from tag_<key>_<value> fomat to <key> like just namenodes. Sample task looks like

- name: convert EC2 tags_*_True inventory groups
  hosts: "tag_namenodes_True"
  tasks:
      - name: Add new instance to host group (namenodes)
        add_host: hostname="{{ hostvars[item]['ec2_ip_address'] }}" groupname=namenodes
        with_items: "{{ groups['tag_namenodes_True'] }}"

This task runs towards tag_namenodes_True group and create a new group named namenodes with EC2 IP addresses therefore following ansible playbooks or roles can be used without modification in hostnames.

Terminating EC2 Instances

state: 'absent' terminates ec2 instances with instance ids which boot.yml stores using ec2_facts. Therefore, terminate.yml reads the YAML fact file and gets instance ids to terminate. include_vars imports data from YAML and makes them accessible in Ansible Plays.

Sample ec2_fact file looks like:

    "ansible_facts": {
	"changed": true,
	"instance_ids": [
	    "i-8c064074",
	    "i-8306407b"
	],
	"instances": [
	    {
		"ami_launch_index": "0",
		"architecture": "x86_64",
		"block_device_mapping": {
		    "/dev/sda1": {
			"delete_on_termination": true,
			"status": "attached",
			"volume_id": "vol-71970cf0"
		    }
		},
		"dns_name": "",
		"ebs_optimized": false,
		"groups": {
		    "sg-115b376b": "abds_secgroup",
		    "sg-69ebc60c": "default"
		},
		"hypervisor": "xen",
		"id": "i-8c064074",
		"image_id": "ami-2d39803a",
		"instance_type": "t2.micro",
		"kernel": null,
		"key_name": "albert",
		"launch_time": "2016-09-17T03:14:11.000Z",
		"placement": "us-east-1a",
		"private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-89.ec2.internal",
		"private_ip": "172.30.3.89",
		"public_dns_name": "",
		"public_ip": "54.159.24.94",
		"ramdisk": null,
		"region": "us-east-1",
		"root_device_name": "/dev/sda1",
		"root_device_type": "ebs",
		"state": "running",
		"state_code": 16,
		"tags": {
		    "datanodes": "True",
		    "frontendnodes": "False",
		    "hadoopnodes": "True",
		    "historyservernodes": "False",
		    "journalnodes": "True",
		    "namenodes": "True",
		    "resourcemanagernodes": "True",
		    "zookeepernodes": "True"
		},
		"tenancy": "default",
		"virtualization_type": "hvm"
	    },
	    {
		"ami_launch_index": "1",
		"architecture": "x86_64",
		"block_device_mapping": {
		    "/dev/sda1": {
			"delete_on_termination": true,
			"status": "attached",
			"volume_id": "vol-c4960d45"
		    }
		},
		"dns_name": "",
		"ebs_optimized": false,
		"groups": {
		    "sg-115b376b": "abds_secgroup",
		    "sg-69ebc60c": "default"
		},
		"hypervisor": "xen",
		"id": "i-8306407b",
		"image_id": "ami-2d39803a",
		"instance_type": "t2.micro",
		"kernel": null,
		"key_name": "albert",
		"launch_time": "2016-09-17T03:14:11.000Z",
		"placement": "us-east-1a",
		"private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-88.ec2.internal",
		"private_ip": "172.30.3.88",
		"public_dns_name": "",
		"public_ip": "54.175.124.32",
		"ramdisk": null,
		"region": "us-east-1",
		"root_device_name": "/dev/sda1",
		"root_device_type": "ebs",
		"state": "running",
		"state_code": 16,
		"tags": {
		    "datanodes": "True",
		    "frontendnodes": "False",
		    "hadoopnodes": "True",
		    "historyservernodes": "False",
		    "journalnodes": "True",
		    "namenodes": "True",
		    "resourcemanagernodes": "True",
		    "zookeepernodes": "True"
		},
		"tenancy": "default",
		"virtualization_type": "hvm"
	    }
	],
	"tagged_instances": [
	    {
		"ami_launch_index": "0",
		"architecture": "x86_64",
		"block_device_mapping": {
		    "/dev/sda1": {
			"delete_on_termination": true,
			"status": "attached",
			"volume_id": "vol-71970cf0"
		    }
		},
		"dns_name": "",
		"ebs_optimized": false,
		"groups": {
		    "sg-115b376b": "abds_secgroup",
		    "sg-69ebc60c": "default"
		},
		"hypervisor": "xen",
		"id": "i-8c064074",
		"image_id": "ami-2d39803a",
		"instance_type": "t2.micro",
		"kernel": null,
		"key_name": "albert",
		"launch_time": "2016-09-17T03:14:11.000Z",
		"placement": "us-east-1a",
		"private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-89.ec2.internal",
		"private_ip": "172.30.3.89",
		"public_dns_name": "",
		"public_ip": "54.159.24.94",
		"ramdisk": null,
		"region": "us-east-1",
		"root_device_name": "/dev/sda1",
		"root_device_type": "ebs",
		"state": "running",
		"state_code": 16,
		"tags": {
		    "datanodes": "True",
		    "frontendnodes": "False",
		    "hadoopnodes": "True",
		    "historyservernodes": "False",
		    "journalnodes": "True",
		    "namenodes": "True",
		    "resourcemanagernodes": "True",
		    "zookeepernodes": "True"
		},
		"tenancy": "default",
		"virtualization_type": "hvm"
	    },
	    {
		"ami_launch_index": "1",
		"architecture": "x86_64",
		"block_device_mapping": {
		    "/dev/sda1": {
			"delete_on_termination": true,
			"status": "attached",
			"volume_id": "vol-c4960d45"
		    }
		},
		"dns_name": "",
		"ebs_optimized": false,
		"groups": {
		    "sg-115b376b": "abds_secgroup",
		    "sg-69ebc60c": "default"
		},
		"hypervisor": "xen",
		"id": "i-8306407b",
		"image_id": "ami-2d39803a",
		"instance_type": "t2.micro",
		"kernel": null,
		"key_name": "albert",
		"launch_time": "2016-09-17T03:14:11.000Z",
		"placement": "us-east-1a",
		"private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-88.ec2.internal",
		"private_ip": "172.30.3.88",
		"public_dns_name": "",
		"public_ip": "54.175.124.32",
		"ramdisk": null,
		"region": "us-east-1",
		"root_device_name": "/dev/sda1",
		"root_device_type": "ebs",
		"state": "running",
		"state_code": 16,
		"tags": {
		    "datanodes": "True",
		    "frontendnodes": "False",
		    "hadoopnodes": "True",
		    "historyservernodes": "False",
		    "journalnodes": "True",
		    "namenodes": "True",
		    "resourcemanagernodes": "True",
		    "zookeepernodes": "True"
		},
		"tenancy": "default",
		"virtualization_type": "hvm"
	    }
	]
    },
    "changed": false,
    "invocation": {
	"module_args": {
	    "file": "/tmp/a.yml"
	},
	"module_name": "include_vars"
    }
}

Basic Issues

  • secgroup is only available for vpc

  • vpc or subnetid is necessary to create ec2 instance

  • ‘{{secgroup.name}}’ doesn’t work even though it is defined from http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/ec2_group_module.html Did I something wrong?

  • group_id works!:

    31             group_id: "{{secgroup_first.group_id}}"

VPC & Subnet

  • manually added from portal website for those

Additional Files e.g. ec2.ini or ec2.py for dynamic inventory

aws_access_key_id and aws_secret_key need to be defined in the ec2.ini file. additionally, rds and elasticache need to be set False:

rds = False
elasticache = False

Performance Measurement

Time lapse can be measured by callback functions defined in ansible.cfg

[defaults]
callback_whitelist = profile_tasks

Sample results:

$ ansible-playbook play.yml -i ec2.py  -vvv
Using /home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/ansible.cfg as config file

PLAYBOOK: play.yml *************************************************************
1 plays in play.yml

PLAY [create a test instance] **************************************************

TASK [Create security group] ***************************************************
task path: /home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/play.yml:5
Wednesday 14 September 2016  00:22:33 -0400 (0:00:00.019)       0:00:00.019 ***
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: lee212
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.12-47283165924615 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1473826953.12-47283165924615="` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.12-47283165924615 `" ) && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> PUT /tmp/tmpvNc7Ff TO /home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.12-47283165924615/ec2_group
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8 /home/lee212/venv/ansible/bin/python /home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.12-47283165924615/ec2_group; rm -rf "/home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.12-47283165924615/" > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'
ok: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "group_id": "sg-692c4d13", "invocation": {"module_args": {"aws_access_key": null, "aws_secret_key": null, "description": "A Security group", "ec2_url": null, "name": "security-group-test", "profile": null, "purge_rules": true, "purge_rules_egress": true, "region": "us-east-1", "rules": [{"cidr_ip": "0.0.0.0/0", "from_port": 22, "proto": "tcp", "to_port": 22}], "rules_egress": [{"cidr_ip": "0.0.0.0/0", "from_port": null, "group_desc": "example of ec2 secgroup", "proto": -1, "to_port": null}], "security_token": null, "state": "present", "validate_certs": true, "vpc_id": "vpc-e6c17c83"}, "module_name": "ec2_group"}}

TASK [ec2 launch test] *********************************************************
task path: /home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/play.yml:22
Wednesday 14 September 2016  00:22:33 -0400 (0:00:00.552)       0:00:00.571 ***
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: lee212
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.7-216570325713589 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1473826953.7-216570325713589="` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.7-216570325713589 `" ) && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> PUT /tmp/tmpnwiErZ TO /home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.7-216570325713589/ec2
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8 /home/lee212/venv/ansible/bin/python /home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.7-216570325713589/ec2; rm -rf "/home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826953.7-216570325713589/" > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'
changed: [localhost] => {"changed": true, "instance_ids": ["i-f7364c0f"], "instances": [{"ami_launch_index": "0", "architecture": "x86_64", "block_device_mapping": {"/dev/sda1": {"delete_on_termination": true, "status": "attached", "volume_id": "vol-f678e477"}}, "dns_name": "", "ebs_optimized": false, "groups": {"sg-692c4d13": "security-group-test"}, "hypervisor": "xen", "id": "i-f7364c0f", "image_id": "ami-2d39803a", "instance_type": "t2.micro", "kernel": null, "key_name": "hrlee", "launch_time": "2016-09-14T04:22:34.000Z", "placement": "us-east-1a", "private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-157.ec2.internal", "private_ip": "172.30.3.157", "public_dns_name": "", "public_ip": "54.197.111.173", "ramdisk": null, "region": "us-east-1", "root_device_name": "/dev/sda1", "root_device_type": "ebs", "state": "running", "state_code": 16, "tags": {}, "tenancy": "default", "virtualization_type": "hvm"}], "invocation": {"module_args": {"assign_public_ip": true, "aws_access_key": null, "aws_secret_key": null, "count": 1, "count_tag": null, "ebs_optimized": false, "ec2_url": null, "exact_count": null, "group": null, "group_id": ["sg-692c4d13"], "id": null, "image": "ami-2d39803a", "instance_ids": null, "instance_profile_name": null, "instance_tags": null, "instance_type": "t2.micro", "kernel": null, "key_name": "hrlee", "monitoring": false, "network_interfaces": null, "placement_group": null, "private_ip": null, "profile": null, "ramdisk": null, "region": "us-east-1", "security_token": null, "source_dest_check": true, "spot_launch_group": null, "spot_price": null, "spot_type": "one-time", "spot_wait_timeout": "600", "state": "present", "tenancy": "default", "termination_protection": false, "user_data": null, "validate_certs": true, "volumes": null, "vpc_subnet_id": "subnet-719a774d", "wait": true, "wait_timeout": "300", "zone": null}, "module_name": "ec2"}, "tagged_instances": []}

TASK [Add new instance to host group] ******************************************
task path: /home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/play.yml:35
Wednesday 14 September 2016  00:22:55 -0400 (0:00:22.170)       0:00:22.741 ***
creating host via 'add_host': hostname=54.197.111.173
changed: [localhost] => (item={u'kernel': None, u'root_device_type': u'ebs', u'private_dns_name': u'ip-172-30-3-157.ec2.internal', u'public_ip': u'54.197.111.173', u'private_ip': u'172.30.3.157', u'id': u'i-f7364c0f', u'ebs_optimized': False, u'state': u'running', u'virtualization_type': u'hvm', u'architecture': u'x86_64', u'ramdisk': None, u'block_device_mapping': {u'/dev/sda1': {u'status': u'attached', u'delete_on_termination': True, u'volume_id': u'vol-f678e477'}}, u'key_name': u'hrlee', u'image_id': u'ami-2d39803a', u'tenancy': u'default', u'groups': {u'sg-692c4d13': u'security-group-test'}, u'public_dns_name': u'', u'state_code': 16, u'tags': {}, u'placement': u'us-east-1a', u'ami_launch_index': u'0', u'dns_name': u'', u'region': u'us-east-1', u'launch_time': u'2016-09-14T04:22:34.000Z', u'instance_type': u't2.micro', u'root_device_name': u'/dev/sda1', u'hypervisor': u'xen'}) => {"add_host": {"groups": ["launched"], "host_name": "54.197.111.173", "host_vars": {}}, "changed": true, "invocation": {"module_args": {"groupname": "launched", "hostname": "54.197.111.173"}, "module_name": "add_host"}, "item": {"ami_launch_index": "0", "architecture": "x86_64", "block_device_mapping": {"/dev/sda1": {"delete_on_termination": true, "status": "attached", "volume_id": "vol-f678e477"}}, "dns_name": "", "ebs_optimized": false, "groups": {"sg-692c4d13": "security-group-test"}, "hypervisor": "xen", "id": "i-f7364c0f", "image_id": "ami-2d39803a", "instance_type": "t2.micro", "kernel": null, "key_name": "hrlee", "launch_time": "2016-09-14T04:22:34.000Z", "placement": "us-east-1a", "private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-157.ec2.internal", "private_ip": "172.30.3.157", "public_dns_name": "", "public_ip": "54.197.111.173", "ramdisk": null, "region": "us-east-1", "root_device_name": "/dev/sda1", "root_device_type": "ebs", "state": "running", "state_code": 16, "tags": {}, "tenancy": "default", "virtualization_type": "hvm"}}

TASK [Wait for SSH to come up] *************************************************
task path: /home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/play.yml:38
Wednesday 14 September 2016  00:22:55 -0400 (0:00:00.035)       0:00:22.776 ***
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: lee212
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826975.89-214245185864373 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1473826975.89-214245185864373="` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826975.89-214245185864373 `" ) && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> PUT /tmp/tmp2vGL53 TO /home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826975.89-214245185864373/wait_for
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8 /home/lee212/venv/ansible/bin/python /home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826975.89-214245185864373/wait_for; rm -rf "/home/lee212/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1473826975.89-214245185864373/" > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'
ok: [localhost] => (item={u'kernel': None, u'root_device_type': u'ebs', u'private_dns_name': u'ip-172-30-3-157.ec2.internal', u'public_ip': u'54.197.111.173', u'private_ip': u'172.30.3.157', u'id': u'i-f7364c0f', u'ebs_optimized': False, u'state': u'running', u'virtualization_type': u'hvm', u'architecture': u'x86_64', u'ramdisk': None, u'block_device_mapping': {u'/dev/sda1': {u'status': u'attached', u'delete_on_termination': True, u'volume_id': u'vol-f678e477'}}, u'key_name': u'hrlee', u'image_id': u'ami-2d39803a', u'tenancy': u'default', u'groups': {u'sg-692c4d13': u'security-group-test'}, u'public_dns_name': u'', u'state_code': 16, u'tags': {}, u'placement': u'us-east-1a', u'ami_launch_index': u'0', u'dns_name': u'', u'region': u'us-east-1', u'launch_time': u'2016-09-14T04:22:34.000Z', u'instance_type': u't2.micro', u'root_device_name': u'/dev/sda1', u'hypervisor': u'xen'}) => {"changed": false, "elapsed": 60, "invocation": {"module_args": {"connect_timeout": 5, "delay": 60, "exclude_hosts": null, "host": "54.197.111.173", "path": null, "port": 22, "search_regex": null, "state": "started", "timeout": 320}, "module_name": "wait_for"}, "item": {"ami_launch_index": "0", "architecture": "x86_64", "block_device_mapping": {"/dev/sda1": {"delete_on_termination": true, "status": "attached", "volume_id": "vol-f678e477"}}, "dns_name": "", "ebs_optimized": false, "groups": {"sg-692c4d13": "security-group-test"}, "hypervisor": "xen", "id": "i-f7364c0f", "image_id": "ami-2d39803a", "instance_type": "t2.micro", "kernel": null, "key_name": "hrlee", "launch_time": "2016-09-14T04:22:34.000Z", "placement": "us-east-1a", "private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-157.ec2.internal", "private_ip": "172.30.3.157", "public_dns_name": "", "public_ip": "54.197.111.173", "ramdisk": null, "region": "us-east-1", "root_device_name": "/dev/sda1", "root_device_type": "ebs", "state": "running", "state_code": 16, "tags": {}, "tenancy": "default", "virtualization_type": "hvm"}, "path": null, "port": 22, "search_regex": null, "state": "started"}

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=4    changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0

Wednesday 14 September 2016  00:23:56 -0400 (0:01:00.194)       0:01:22.971 ***
===============================================================================
Wait for SSH to come up ------------------------------------------------ 60.19s
/home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/play.yml:38 --------------------
ec2 launch test -------------------------------------------------------- 22.17s
/home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/play.yml:22 --------------------
Create security group --------------------------------------------------- 0.55s
/home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/play.yml:5 ---------------------
Add new instance to host group ------------------------------------------ 0.04s
/home/lee212/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible/play.yml:35 --------------------

ec2.py

ec2.py --list option displays cached data. Try with --refresh for update.

$ ./ec2.py --list
{
  "_meta": {
    "hostvars": {
      "54.197.206.131": {
        "ansible_ssh_host": "54.197.206.131",
        "ec2__in_monitoring_element": false,
        "ec2_ami_launch_index": "0",
        "ec2_architecture": "x86_64",
        "ec2_client_token": "",
        "ec2_dns_name": "",
        "ec2_ebs_optimized": false,
        "ec2_eventsSet": "",
        "ec2_group_name": "",
        "ec2_hypervisor": "xen",
        "ec2_id": "i-b4a8d24c",
        "ec2_image_id": "ami-2d39803a",
        "ec2_instance_profile": "",
        "ec2_instance_type": "t2.micro",
        "ec2_ip_address": "54.197.206.131",
        "ec2_item": "",
        "ec2_kernel": "",
        "ec2_key_name": "hrlee",
        "ec2_launch_time": "2016-09-14T14:52:55.000Z",
        "ec2_monitored": false,
        "ec2_monitoring": "",
        "ec2_monitoring_state": "disabled",
        "ec2_persistent": false,
        "ec2_placement": "us-east-1a",
        "ec2_platform": "",
        "ec2_previous_state": "",
        "ec2_previous_state_code": 0,
        "ec2_private_dns_name": "ip-172-30-3-230.ec2.internal",
        "ec2_private_ip_address": "172.30.3.230",
        "ec2_public_dns_name": "",
        "ec2_ramdisk": "",
        "ec2_reason": "",
        "ec2_region": "us-east-1",
        "ec2_requester_id": "",
        "ec2_root_device_name": "/dev/sda1",
        "ec2_root_device_type": "ebs",
        "ec2_security_group_ids": "sg-692c4d13",
        "ec2_security_group_names": "security-group-test",
        "ec2_sourceDestCheck": "true",
        "ec2_spot_instance_request_id": "",
        "ec2_state": "running",
        "ec2_state_code": 16,
        "ec2_state_reason": "",
        "ec2_subnet_id": "subnet-719a774d",
        "ec2_virtualization_type": "hvm",
        "ec2_vpc_id": "vpc-e6c17c83"
      }
    }
  },
  "ami_2d39803a": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "ec2": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "i-b4a8d24c": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "key_hrlee": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "security_group_security_group_test": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "tag_none": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "type_t2_micro": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "us-east-1": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "us-east-1a": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ],
  "vpc_id_vpc_e6c17c83": [
    "54.197.206.131"
  ]
}

You can compare with aws ec2 results:

$ aws ec2 describe-instances
{
    "Reservations": [
        {
            "OwnerId": "461335111454",
            "ReservationId": "r-233f22da",
            "Groups": [],
            "Instances": [
                {
                    "Monitoring": {
                        "State": "disabled"
                    },
                    "PublicDnsName": "",
                    "State": {
                        "Code": 16,
                        "Name": "running"
                    },
                    "EbsOptimized": false,
                    "LaunchTime": "2016-09-14T14:52:55.000Z",
                    "PublicIpAddress": "54.197.206.131",
                    "PrivateIpAddress": "172.30.3.230",
                    "ProductCodes": [],
                    "VpcId": "vpc-e6c17c83",
                    "StateTransitionReason": "",
                    "InstanceId": "i-b4a8d24c",
                    "ImageId": "ami-2d39803a",
                    "PrivateDnsName": "ip-172-30-3-230.ec2.internal",
                    "KeyName": "hrlee",
                    "SecurityGroups": [
                        {
                            "GroupName": "security-group-test",
                            "GroupId": "sg-692c4d13"
                        }
                    ],
                    "ClientToken": "",
                    "SubnetId": "subnet-719a774d",
                    "InstanceType": "t2.micro",
                    "NetworkInterfaces": [
                        {
                            "Status": "in-use",
                            "MacAddress": "06:a5:49:cf:87:a1",
                            "SourceDestCheck": true,
                            "VpcId": "vpc-e6c17c83",
                            "Description": "",
                            "Association": {
                                "PublicIp": "54.197.206.131",
                                "PublicDnsName": "",
                                "IpOwnerId": "amazon"
                            },
                            "NetworkInterfaceId": "eni-8ae97085",
                            "PrivateIpAddresses": [
                                {
                                    "Association": {
                                        "PublicIp": "54.197.206.131",
                                        "PublicDnsName": "",
                                        "IpOwnerId": "amazon"
                                    },
                                    "Primary": true,
                                    "PrivateIpAddress": "172.30.3.230"
                                }
                            ],
                            "Attachment": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeviceIndex": 0,
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "AttachmentId": "eni-attach-4243efba",
                                "AttachTime": "2016-09-14T14:52:55.000Z"
                            },
                            "Groups": [
                                {
                                    "GroupName": "security-group-test",
                                    "GroupId": "sg-692c4d13"
                                }
                            ],
                            "SubnetId": "subnet-719a774d",
                            "OwnerId": "461335111454",
                            "PrivateIpAddress": "172.30.3.230"
                        }
                    ],
                    "SourceDestCheck": true,
                    "Placement": {
                        "Tenancy": "default",
                        "GroupName": "",
                        "AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1a"
                    },
                    "Hypervisor": "xen",
                    "BlockDeviceMappings": [
                        {
                            "DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                            "Ebs": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "VolumeId": "vol-21e37ca0",
                                "AttachTime": "2016-09-14T14:52:56.000Z"
                            }
                        }
                    ],
                    "Architecture": "x86_64",
                    "RootDeviceType": "ebs",
                    "RootDeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                    "VirtualizationType": "hvm",
                    "AmiLaunchIndex": 0
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

ec2 facts

Dynamic inventory provides metadata from ec2 module and hostvars contains additional information like:

{u’ansible_all_ipv4_addresses’: [u‘172.30.3.139’],

u’ansible_all_ipv6_addresses’: [u’fe80::4b9:ffff:fe81:65f’], u’ansible_architecture’: u’x86_64’, u’ansible_bios_date’: u‘05/12/2016’, u’ansible_bios_version’: u‘4.2.amazon’, ‘ansible_check_mode’: False, u’ansible_cmdline’: {u’BOOT_IMAGE’: u’/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-91-generic’,

u’console’: u’ttyS0’, u’ro’: True, u’root’: u’UUID=73362e04-90b8-4c53-b878-2097820e0b34’},
u’ansible_date_time’: {u’date’: u‘2016-09-16’,
u’day’: u‘16’, u’epoch’: u‘1473991427’, u’hour’: u‘02’, u’iso8601’: u‘2016-09-16T02:03:47Z’, u’iso8601_basic’: u‘20160916T020347397930’, u’iso8601_basic_short’: u‘20160916T020347’, u’iso8601_micro’: u‘2016-09-16T02:03:47.398008Z’, u’minute’: u‘03’, u’month’: u‘09’, u’second’: u‘47’, u’time’: u‘02:03:47’, u’tz’: u’UTC’, u’tz_offset’: u’+0000’, u’weekday’: u’Friday’, u’weekday_number’: u‘5’, u’weeknumber’: u‘37’, u’year’: u‘2016’},
u’ansible_default_ipv4’: {u’address’: u‘172.30.3.139’,
u’alias’: u’eth0’, u’broadcast’: u‘172.30.3.255’, u’gateway’: u‘172.30.3.1’, u’interface’: u’eth0’, u’macaddress’: u‘06:b9:ff:81:06:5f’, u’mtu’: 9001, u’netmask’: u‘255.255.255.0’, u’network’: u‘172.30.3.0’, u’type’: u’ether’},

u’ansible_default_ipv6’: {}, u’ansible_devices’: {u’xvda’: {u’holders’: [],

u’host’: u’‘, u’model’: None, u’partitions’: {u’xvda1’: {u’sectors’: u‘16755795’,

u’sectorsize’: 512, u’size’: u‘7.99 GB’, u’start’: u‘16065’}},

u’removable’: u‘0’, u’rotational’: u‘0’, u’sas_address’: None, u’sas_device_handle’: None, u’scheduler_mode’: u’deadline’, u’sectors’: u‘16777216’, u’sectorsize’: u‘512’, u’size’: u‘8.00 GB’, u’support_discard’: u‘0’, u’vendor’: None}},

u’ansible_distribution’: u’Ubuntu’, u’ansible_distribution_major_version’: u‘14’, u’ansible_distribution_release’: u’trusty’, u’ansible_distribution_version’: u‘14.04’, u’ansible_dns’: {u’nameservers’: [u‘172.30.0.2’],

u’search’: [u’ec2.internal’]},

u’ansible_domain’: u’‘, u’ansible_env’: {u’HOME’: u’/home/ubuntu’,

u’LANG’: u’en_US.UTF-8’, u’LC_ALL’: u’en_US.UTF-8’, u’LC_MESSAGES’: u’en_US.UTF-8’, u’LOGNAME’: u’ubuntu’, u’MAIL’: u’/var/mail/ubuntu’, u’PATH’: u’/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games’, u’PWD’: u’/home/ubuntu’, u’SHELL’: u’/bin/bash’, u’SHLVL’: u‘1’, u’SSH_CLIENT’: u‘156.56.102.202 38016 22’, u’SSH_CONNECTION’: u‘156.56.102.202 38016 172.30.3.139 22’, u’SSH_TTY’: u’/dev/pts/0’, u’TERM’: u’xterm’, u’USER’: u’ubuntu’, u’XDG_RUNTIME_DIR’: u’/run/user/1000’, u’XDG_SESSION_ID’: u‘8’, u’_’: u’/bin/sh’},
u’ansible_eth0’: {u’active’: True,

u’device’: u’eth0’, u’ipv4’: {u’address’: u‘172.30.3.139’,

u’broadcast’: u‘172.30.3.255’, u’netmask’: u‘255.255.255.0’, u’network’: u‘172.30.3.0’},
u’ipv6’: [{u’address’: u’fe80::4b9:ffff:fe81:65f’,
u’prefix’: u‘64’, u’scope’: u’link’}],

u’macaddress’: u‘06:b9:ff:81:06:5f’, u’mtu’: 9001, u’pciid’: u’vif-0’, u’promisc’: False, u’type’: u’ether’},

u’ansible_fips’: False, u’ansible_form_factor’: u’Other’, u’ansible_fqdn’: u’ip-172-30-3-139’, u’ansible_gather_subset’: [u’hardware’, u’network’, u’virtual’], u’ansible_hostname’: u’ip-172-30-3-139’, u’ansible_interfaces’: [u’lo’, u’eth0’], u’ansible_kernel’: u‘3.13.0-91-generic’, u’ansible_lo’: {u’active’: True,

u’device’: u’lo’, u’ipv4’: {u’address’: u‘127.0.0.1’,

u’broadcast’: u’host’, u’netmask’: u‘255.0.0.0’, u’network’: u‘127.0.0.0’},
u’ipv6’: [{u’address’: u’::1’,
u’prefix’: u‘128’, u’scope’: u’host’}],

u’mtu’: 65536, u’promisc’: False, u’type’: u’loopback’},

u’ansible_lsb’: {u’codename’: u’trusty’,
u’description’: u’Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS’, u’id’: u’Ubuntu’, u’major_release’: u‘14’, u’release’: u‘14.04’},

u’ansible_machine’: u’x86_64’, u’ansible_machine_id’: u’dd1bac9cb23792a632bd6ee157719517’, u’ansible_memfree_mb’: 715, u’ansible_memory_mb’: {u’nocache’: {u’free’: 932, u’used’: 60},

u’real’: {u’free’: 715, u’total’: 992, u’used’: 277}, u’swap’: {u’cached’: 0,

u’free’: 0, u’total’: 0, u’used’: 0}},

u’ansible_memtotal_mb’: 992, u’ansible_mounts’: [{u’device’: u’/dev/xvda1’,

u’fstype’: u’ext4’, u’mount’: u’/’, u’options’: u’rw,discard’, u’size_available’: 7029567488, u’size_total’: 8309932032, u’uuid’: u’‘}],

u’ansible_nodename’: u’ip-172-30-3-139’, u’ansible_os_family’: u’Debian’, u’ansible_pkg_mgr’: u’apt’, u’ansible_processor’: [u’GenuineIntel’,

u’Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 v2 @ 2.50GHz’],

u’ansible_processor_cores’: 1, u’ansible_processor_count’: 1, u’ansible_processor_threads_per_core’: 1, u’ansible_processor_vcpus’: 1, u’ansible_product_name’: u’HVM domU’, u’ansible_product_serial’: u’NA’, u’ansible_product_uuid’: u’NA’, u’ansible_product_version’: u‘4.2.amazon’, u’ansible_python’: {u’executable’: u’/usr/bin/python’,

u’has_sslcontext’: False, u’type’: u’CPython’, u’version’: {u’major’: 2,

u’micro’: 6, u’minor’: 7, u’releaselevel’: u’final’, u’serial’: 0},

u’version_info’: [2, 7, 6, u’final’, 0]},

u’ansible_python_version’: u‘2.7.6’, u’ansible_selinux’: False, u’ansible_service_mgr’: u’upstart’, u’ansible_ssh_host’: u‘52.23.213.103’, u’ansible_ssh_host_key_dsa_public’: u’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’, u’ansible_ssh_host_key_ecdsa_public’: u’AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBCjuapwx2AgG834ti6pGu7gbF2YJmoQ1r6wGVNQrnVHs7rZ5S+hhTSjRmZQ7d5zYgbqFX/f9WGAQgAn89dWyHPE=’, u’ansible_ssh_host_key_ed25519_public’: u’AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIEOzako99Tn5mO/vjk+ctHc9HKmtdsdJxTqqNIoo0RI3’, u’ansible_ssh_host_key_rsa_public’: u’AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC7elCMaVXdqIuBrO+4Fx5oPggQdI7JRKv176NsoRtwsYPtxp07t4mllkH6ATsQgkj9wDHOxMk73zyEFaMZskCVNwvN1bwGIyZX/i8JXJtzAdvZZNn1cH1zCi1WD3bRx3dp+p8JU+OmVBhaElPYqm3W+BDWGC7b4YqHbqTHDNTUswgvvLuXr0Qw7fdWMNxb8Va7c3GOrMEkMWnHpMpVCu6Y8zIHdcmJWSMeBXOUKPkXXsaI6jAX8koi8pAFeX95rHbwhP2uo76ueJqWJhDPLm6FdXW+hsPIKDn4eFIhVrHNROml4Z3pAR6FmfidJEi5dvXmefLC6IQH9eDgf7Dn5fS9’, u’ansible_swapfree_mb’: 0, u’ansible_swaptotal_mb’: 0, u’ansible_system’: u’Linux’, u’ansible_system_capabilities’: [u’‘], u’ansible_system_capabilities_enforced’: u’True’, u’ansible_system_vendor’: u’Xen’, u’ansible_uptime_seconds’: 21477, u’ansible_user_dir’: u’/home/ubuntu’, u’ansible_user_gecos’: u’Ubuntu’, u’ansible_user_gid’: 1000, u’ansible_user_id’: u’ubuntu’, u’ansible_user_shell’: u’/bin/bash’, u’ansible_user_uid’: 1000, u’ansible_userspace_architecture’: u’x86_64’, u’ansible_userspace_bits’: u‘64’, ‘ansible_version’: {‘full’: ‘2.1.1.0’,

‘major’: 2, ‘minor’: 1, ‘revision’: 1, ‘string’: ‘2.1.1.0’},

u’ansible_virtualization_role’: u’guest’, u’ansible_virtualization_type’: u’xen’, u’ec2__in_monitoring_element’: False, u’ec2_ami_launch_index’: u‘0’, u’ec2_architecture’: u’x86_64’, u’ec2_client_token’: u’‘, u’ec2_dns_name’: u’‘, u’ec2_ebs_optimized’: False, u’ec2_eventsSet’: u’‘, u’ec2_group_name’: u’‘, u’ec2_hypervisor’: u’xen’, u’ec2_id’: u’i-435014bb’, u’ec2_image_id’: u’ami-2d39803a’, u’ec2_instance_profile’: u’‘, u’ec2_instance_type’: u’t2.micro’, u’ec2_ip_address’: u‘52.23.213.103’, u’ec2_item’: u’‘, u’ec2_kernel’: u’‘, u’ec2_key_name’: u’albert’, u’ec2_launch_time’: u‘2016-09-15T20:05:34.000Z’, u’ec2_monitored’: False, u’ec2_monitoring’: u’‘, u’ec2_monitoring_state’: u’disabled’, u’ec2_persistent’: False, u’ec2_placement’: u’us-east-1a’, u’ec2_platform’: u’‘, u’ec2_previous_state’: u’‘, u’ec2_previous_state_code’: 0, u’ec2_private_dns_name’: u’ip-172-30-3-139.ec2.internal’, u’ec2_private_ip_address’: u‘172.30.3.139’, u’ec2_public_dns_name’: u’‘, u’ec2_ramdisk’: u’‘, u’ec2_reason’: u’‘, u’ec2_region’: u’us-east-1’, u’ec2_requester_id’: u’‘, u’ec2_root_device_name’: u’/dev/sda1’, u’ec2_root_device_type’: u’ebs’, u’ec2_security_group_ids’: u’sg-69ebc60c,sg-115b376b’, u’ec2_security_group_names’: u’default,abds_secgroup’, u’ec2_sourceDestCheck’: u’true’, u’ec2_spot_instance_request_id’: u’‘, u’ec2_state’: u’running’, u’ec2_state_code’: 16, u’ec2_state_reason’: u’‘, u’ec2_subnet_id’: u’subnet-719a774d’, u’ec2_tag_datanodes’: u’True’, u’ec2_tag_frontendnodes’: u’True’, u’ec2_tag_hadoopnodes’: u’True’, u’ec2_tag_historyservernodes’: u’True’, u’ec2_tag_journalnodes’: u’True’, u’ec2_tag_namenodes’: u’True’, u’ec2_tag_resourcemanagernodes’: u’True’, u’ec2_tag_zookeepernodes’: u’True’, u’ec2_virtualization_type’: u’hvm’, u’ec2_vpc_id’: u’vpc-e6c17c83’, ‘group_names’: [u’ami_2d39803a’,

u’ec2’, u’i-435014bb’, u’key_albert’, u’security_group_abds_secgroup’, u’security_group_default’, u’tag_datanodes_True’, u’tag_frontendnodes_True’, u’tag_hadoopnodes_True’, u’tag_historyservernodes_True’, u’tag_journalnodes_True’, u’tag_namenodes_True’, u’tag_resourcemanagernodes_True’, u’tag_zookeepernodes_True’, u’type_t2_micro’, u’us-east-1’, u’us-east-1a’, u’vpc_id_vpc_e6c17c83’],
‘groups’: {‘all’: [u‘52.23.213.103’, u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’ami_2d39803a’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],

u’ec2’: [u‘52.23.213.103’, u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’], u’i-435014bb’: [u‘52.23.213.103’], u’i-e250141a’: [u‘54.196.41.145’], u’i-e350141b’: [u‘54.209.137.235’], u’key_albert’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,

u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’security_group_abds_secgroup’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’security_group_default’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’tag_datanodes_True’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],

u’tag_frontendnodes_False’: [u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’], u’tag_frontendnodes_True’: [u‘52.23.213.103’], u’tag_hadoopnodes_True’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,

u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’tag_historyservernodes_False’: [u‘54.196.41.145’,
u‘54.209.137.235’],

u’tag_historyservernodes_True’: [u‘52.23.213.103’], u’tag_journalnodes_True’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,

u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’tag_namenodes_True’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’tag_resourcemanagernodes_True’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’tag_zookeepernodes_True’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’type_t2_micro’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],

‘ungrouped’: [‘localhost’], u’us-east-1’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,

u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’us-east-1a’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’],
u’vpc_id_vpc_e6c17c83’: [u‘52.23.213.103’,
u‘54.196.41.145’, u‘54.209.137.235’]},

‘inventory_dir’: ‘/home/albert/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible’, ‘inventory_file’: ‘ec2.py’, ‘inventory_hostname’: u‘52.23.213.103’, ‘inventory_hostname_short’: u‘52’, u’module_setup’: True, ‘omit’: ‘__omit_place_holder__943b1cb4d91b305bcddb59adcbdfd6146fda5e7e’, ‘playbook_dir’: u’/home/albert/git/aws-cloudformation-by-ansible’}

Documentation about ec2 facts: http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/ec2_facts_module.html

In Practice

boot.yml launches ec2 instances and ec2.py --list returns running ec2 instances with public ip addresses. When the actual playbook site.yml runs for Big Data Stacks, inventory groups and IPs are required to connect.

Traditional Inventory file

inventory.txt contains, for example:

[namenodes]
mycluster0
mycluster1

[resourcemanagernodes]
mycluster0
mycluster1

[datanodes]
mycluster0
mycluster1
mycluster2

[zookeepernodes]
mycluster0
mycluster1
mycluster2

[hadoopnodes]
mycluster0
mycluster1
mycluster2

[historyservernodes]
mycluster2

[journalnodes]
mycluster2
mycluster1
mycluster0

[frontendnodes]
mycluster2

and the following directories for each hostname, e.g. mycluster[0-2] look like:

$ cat host_vars/mycluster0
ansible_ssh_host: 192.168.1.100
zookeeper_id: 0

Dynamic Inventory (ec2)

Let’s assume the official ec2.py is used for dynamic inventory for Amazon EC2. (It’s from https://raw.github.com/ansible/ansible/devel/contrib/inventory/ec2.py)

It returns JSON based on running instances on Amazon, for example, if no vm is running:

$ ./ec2.py --list
{
  "_meta": {
    "hostvars": {}
   }
}

Note

chmod a+x ec2.py for executable

If there is running VMs, the return JSON data looks like:

{
“_meta”: {
“hostvars”: {
“54.85.130.171”: {
“ansible_ssh_host”: “54.85.130.171”, “ec2__in_monitoring_element”: false, “ec2_ami_launch_index”: “0”, “ec2_architecture”: “x86_64”, “ec2_client_token”: “”, “ec2_dns_name”: “”, “ec2_ebs_optimized”: false, “ec2_eventsSet”: “”, “ec2_group_name”: “”, “ec2_hypervisor”: “xen”, “ec2_id”: “i-1a2c68e2”, “ec2_image_id”: “ami-2d39803a”, “ec2_instance_profile”: “”, “ec2_instance_type”: “t2.micro”, “ec2_ip_address”: “54.85.130.171”, “ec2_item”: “”, “ec2_kernel”: “”, “ec2_key_name”: “albert”, “ec2_launch_time”: “2016-09-15T17:18:36.000Z”, “ec2_monitored”: false, “ec2_monitoring”: “”, “ec2_monitoring_state”: “disabled”, “ec2_persistent”: false, “ec2_placement”: “us-east-1a”, “ec2_platform”: “”, “ec2_previous_state”: “”, “ec2_previous_state_code”: 0, “ec2_private_dns_name”: “ip-172-30-3-104.ec2.internal”, “ec2_private_ip_address”: “172.30.3.104”, “ec2_public_dns_name”: “”, “ec2_ramdisk”: “”, “ec2_reason”: “”, “ec2_region”: “us-east-1”, “ec2_requester_id”: “”, “ec2_root_device_name”: “/dev/sda1”, “ec2_root_device_type”: “ebs”, “ec2_security_group_ids”: “sg-69ebc60c,sg-115b376b”, “ec2_security_group_names”: “default,abds_secgroup”, “ec2_sourceDestCheck”: “true”, “ec2_spot_instance_request_id”: “”, “ec2_state”: “running”, “ec2_state_code”: 16, “ec2_state_reason”: “”, “ec2_subnet_id”: “subnet-719a774d”, “ec2_tag_datanodes”: “True”, “ec2_tag_frontendnodes”: “False”, “ec2_tag_hadoopnodes”: “True”, “ec2_tag_historyservernodes”: “False”, “ec2_tag_journalnodes”: “True”, “ec2_tag_namenodes”: “True”, “ec2_tag_resourcemanagernodes”: “True”, “ec2_tag_zookeepernodes”: “True”, “ec2_virtualization_type”: “hvm”, “ec2_vpc_id”: “vpc-e6c17c83”

}

}

}, “ami_2d39803a”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “ec2”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “i-1a2c68e2”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “key_albert”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “security_group_abds_secgroup”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “security_group_default”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “tag_datanodes_True”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “tag_frontendnodes_False”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “tag_hadoopnodes_True”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “tag_historyservernodes_False”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “tag_journalnodes_True”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “tag_namenodes_True”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “tag_resourcemanagernodes_True”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “tag_zookeepernodes_True”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “type_t2_micro”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “us-east-1”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “us-east-1a”: [

“54.85.130.171”

], “vpc_id_vpc_e6c17c83”: [

“54.85.130.171”

]

}

EC2 Tags for Inventory Groups

If you noticed that there are tags for host groups like tag_hadoopnodes_True, ec2 instances have key:value tags and these are used for identifying inventory groups.

Ansible ec2 module provides instance_tags option to define them.

Example:

ec2:
  ...
  instance_tags:
     namenodes: True
     ...
     frontendnodes: False

boot.yml defines tags information when it starts EC2 instances.

add_host

This task converts tag_*_True list to Inventory groups therefore existing roles run without changes between dynamic and static file inventories.

convert.yml contains add_host tasks to convert the inventory groups.

For example, to convert hadoopnodes:

- name: convert EC2 tags_*_True inventory groups
  hosts: "tag_hadoopnodes_True"
  tasks:

    - name: Add new instance to host group (hadoopnodes)
      add_host: hostname="{{ hostvars[item]['ec2_ip_address'] }}" groupname=hadoopnodes
      with_items: "{{ groups['tag_hadoopnodes_True'] }}"

The hosts in the tag_hadoopnodes_True list run the add_host task to add its ec2_ip_address (in this case, AWS VPC, virtual private cloud, associates with a floating ip address and it is visible via ec2_ip_address) to the new group name hadoopnodes which the following ansible roles for BigData Stack requires.

site.yml with Include

Three Ansible playbooks are provided to deploy virtual clusters on Amazon EC2.

  • boot.yml: to start EC2 instances
  • convert.yml: to provide inventory groups from dynamic inventory of ec2.
  • example-project-nist-fingerprint-matching.yml: to run SDS playbooks

Facts for Create and Terminate Instances

Ansible provides additional EC2 information of ec2 module using ec2_facts which contains instance ids, image ids, regions, etc. Boot up plays creates ec2 instances for projects and applications are installed and datasets are loaded to complete jobs on Cloud resources. If all jobs are finished successfully, the last step would be terminating VM instances. boot.yml playbook stores ec2 instance ids using ec2_facts in YAML format and terminate.yml playbook uses the information to delete instances.

Sample ec2 facts are: .. include:: ec2_facts_for_vars.txt

to_nice_yaml

boot.yml playbook stores instance information in a YAML file therefore terminate.yml can find instance ids to terminate. to_nice_yaml and copy module (with content option) is used to store ec2_fact information in a YAML file.

include_vars

The nice thing about Ansible is that data variables in a YAML file can be easily imported using include_vars. terminate.yml playbook uses it to read the instance information that started by boot.yml

Indices and tables