Ansible with AWS
Use Ansible collections and dynamic inventory to operate AWS resources with temporary credentials, explicit regions and idempotent modules.
Integration boundary
The amazon.aws and community.aws collections call AWS APIs for inventory and resource operations while Ansible playbooks orchestrate the desired tasks.
Supported approaches
AWS API modules
Create or modify resources using collection modules and the standard AWS credential chain.
EC2 dynamic inventory
Discover instances from AWS APIs and construct inventory groups from controlled metadata.
Prerequisites
- Installed and pinned AWS Ansible collections
- Python AWS SDK dependencies
- A temporary IAM role or supported credential source
- An explicit region and account boundary
Implementation
Pin collections
Record tested collection versions in requirements.yml and install them reproducibly.
Configure dynamic inventory
Use filters and keyed groups that avoid importing unrelated accounts or instances.
Use purpose-built modules
Prefer idempotent AWS modules over shelling out to the AWS CLI for state changes.
Verification
Graph inventory
Review discovered hosts and groups before running a play.
ansible-inventory -i inventory.aws_ec2.yml --graph
Confirm AWS identity
Validate the account and role used by the automation.
Check idempotence
A second controlled run should not report changes when the managed state already matches.
Common failure modes
- Inventory spans unintended accounts or regions
- Collection and boto versions are incompatible
- Static keys are stored in inventory
- Non-idempotent shell tasks obscure state
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