{"id":51383,"date":"2025-08-07T05:55:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T05:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/?p=51383"},"modified":"2025-08-07T09:40:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T09:40:47","slug":"ansible-dynamic-ansible-inventory-script-for-aws-ec2-public-ips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/ansible-dynamic-ansible-inventory-script-for-aws-ec2-public-ips\/","title":{"rendered":"Ansible: Dynamic Ansible Inventory Script for AWS EC2 Public IPs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Below is a simple dynamic inventory Bash script<\/strong> for Ansible that queries all EC2 instances in your AWS account<\/strong>, gets their public IPs<\/strong>, and outputs a valid Ansible inventory.
You just need the AWS CLI installed and properly configured (aws configure<\/code>), and the script will work anywhere you have permissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Dynamic Ansible Inventory Script for AWS EC2 Public IPs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Save this as ec2_dynamic_inventory.sh<\/code> and make it executable (chmod +x ec2_dynamic_inventory.sh<\/code>).<\/p>\n\n\n

#!\/bin\/bash<\/span>\n\n# Simple AWS EC2 Dynamic Inventory for Ansible (public IPs)<\/span>\n# Requirements: awscli, jq<\/span>\n\nREGION=\"${AWS_REGION:-ap-south-1}\"<\/span>\n\nget_instances() {\n    aws ec2 describe-instances \\\n        --region \"$REGION\"<\/span> \\\n        --filters \"Name=instance-state-name,Values=running\"<\/span> \\\n        --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].{PublicIp:PublicIpAddress,Name:Tags[?Key==`Name`]|[0].Value,Id:InstanceId}'<\/span> \\\n        --output json\n}\n\nif<\/span> [[ \"$1\"<\/span> == \"--list\"<\/span> ]]; then\n    INSTANCES=$(get_instances)\n    HOSTS=$(echo<\/span> \"$INSTANCES\"<\/span> | jq -r '.[][] | select(.PublicIp != null) | .PublicIp'<\/span> | jq -R . | jq -s .)\n    cat <<EOF\n{\n  \"aws_ec2_public\"<\/span>: {\n    \"hosts\"<\/span>: $HOSTS\n  }\n}\nEOF\n    exit<\/span> 0<\/span>\nelif [[ \"$1\"<\/span> == \"--host\"<\/span> ]]; then\n    # Not needed for most use cases; required by Ansible interface.<\/span>\n    echo<\/span> \"{}\"<\/span>\n    exit<\/span> 0<\/span>\nelse<\/span>\n    echo<\/span> \"Usage: $0 --list|--host <hostname>\"<\/span>\n    exit<\/span> 1<\/span>\nfi\n\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> PHP<\/span> (<\/span>php<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Plain text for -i .\/ec2_dynamic_inventory.sh<\/code>:<\/strong> .\/ec2_dynamic_inventory.sh<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • JSON for -i .\/ec2_dynamic_inventory.sh --list<\/code><\/strong> (for Ansible dynamic inventory integration):<\/em> .\/ec2_dynamic_inventory.sh --list<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n
    Requirements<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Install the AWS CLI (yum install awscli<\/code> or pip install awscli<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Install jq<\/code> (yum install jq<\/code> or apt install jq<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Run aws configure<\/code> first, or ensure AWS credentials are available in your environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n
      How It Works<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Lists all running EC2 instances with public IPs<\/strong> in your chosen AWS region.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Outputs a group called [aws_ec2_public]<\/code> with each instance\u2019s public IP as a host.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Also supports --list<\/code> for JSON output compatible with Ansible\u2019s dynamic inventory system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n
        Sample Output<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        Text (INI) output:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
        [aws_ec2_public]<\/span>\n13.233<\/span>.139<\/span>.133<\/span>\n3.7<\/span>.218<\/span>.154<\/span>\n...\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        JSON output for --list<\/code>:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
        {\n  \"aws_ec2_public\"<\/span>: {\n    \"hosts\"<\/span>: [\n      \"13.233.139.133\"<\/span>,\n      \"3.7.218.154\"<\/span>\n    ]\n  }\n}\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> JSON \/ JSON with Comments<\/span> (<\/span>json<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n
        You can now use this script with Ansible:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
        ansible -i .\/ec2_dynamic_inventory.sh all -m ping\n<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
        or for playbooks:<\/p>\n\n\n
        ansible-playbook -i .\/ec2_dynamic_inventory.sh myplaybook.yml\n<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n
        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
        Below is a simple dynamic inventory Bash script for Ansible that queries all EC2 instances in your AWS account, gets their public IPs, and outputs a valid Ansible inventory.You just… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51383"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51394,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51383\/revisions\/51394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}