AnsibleByExample

Ansible Troubleshooting: Fix Missing amazon.aws.ec2_ami_info

BeginnerAnsibleAWStroubleshootingautomation
2024-01-014By Luca Berton

Lesson 1 of 25 in AWS Automation

AWS with Ansible — full curriculum
  1. 1. AWS Basics for Ansible
  2. 2. Installing the amazon.aws Collection and boto3
  3. 3. AWS Credentials and Profiles: Safe Configuration
  4. 4. Your First AWS Playbook: Regions, Tags and Idempotency
  5. 5. AWS Dynamic Inventory with the aws_ec2 Plugin
  6. 6. Grouping and Filtering Hosts with keyed_groups and Filters
  7. 7. Provisioning EC2 Instances
  8. 8. AMIs and Launch Templates
  9. 9. Building VPC Networks with Ansible
  10. 10. Security Groups and Network Access Control
  11. 11. Elastic IPs and Load Balancers
  12. 12. S3 Buckets and Object Management
  13. 13. IAM Users, Roles and Policies
  14. 14. RDS Databases with Ansible
  15. 15. Route 53 DNS Automation
  16. 16. CloudWatch Monitoring and Alarms
  17. 17. Managing Secrets: Secrets Manager, SSM Parameter Store and Ansible Vault
  18. 18. Post-Provisioning Configuration with Roles
  19. 19. Bridging Provisioning and Configuration: add_host and wait_for
  20. 20. Auto Scaling Groups and Rolling Updates
  21. 21. Validating Infrastructure with Assertions and Health Checks
  22. 22. Error Handling and Rollback in AWS Playbooks
  23. 23. Structuring a Reusable AWS Automation Project
  24. 24. Cost Control and Teardown Playbooks
  25. 25. Capstone: Provision and Configure a Multi-Tier AWS Application
View path overview →

Introduction

When running a playbook that uses AWS modules, you may see:

ERROR! couldn't resolve module/action 'amazon.aws.ec2_ami_info'.
This often indicates a misspelling, missing collection, or incorrect module path.

This means the amazon.aws collection isn't installed. Here's how to fix it — and set up AWS authentication properly.

Quick Fix

ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws

Verify:

ansible-galaxy collection list | grep amazon.aws
# amazon.aws  7.2.0

Understanding the Error

The full error typically includes:

[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available
ERROR! couldn't resolve module/action 'amazon.aws.ec2_ami_info'

Three separate issues:

ErrorCauseFix
No inventory parsedMissing -i inventory flagAdd inventory file or use -i localhost,
Hosts list is emptyPlaybook targets undefined groupSet hosts: localhost for local AWS API calls
Couldn't resolve moduleCollection not installedansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws

Install AWS Collections

Single Collection

ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws

With Version Pinning

ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws:==7.2.0

# requirements.yml
collections:
  - name: amazon.aws
    version: ">=7.0.0,<8.0.0"
  - name: community.aws
    version: ">=7.0.0,<8.0.0"

ansible-galaxy collection install -r requirements.yml

Install Python Dependencies

The AWS collections require boto3 and botocore:

pip install boto3 botocore

Verify:

python3 -c "import boto3; print(boto3.__version__)"

Configure AWS Authentication

Method 1: Environment Variables

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE"
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY"
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="us-east-1"

Method 2: AWS CLI Profile

aws configure
# Enter access key, secret key, region, output format

Method 3: In Playbook (Use Vault!)

- name: Find AMIs
  amazon.aws.ec2_ami_info:
    aws_access_key: "{{ vault_aws_access_key }}"
    aws_secret_key: "{{ vault_aws_secret_key }}"
    region: us-east-1
    filters:
      name: "amzn2-ami-hvm-*-x86_64-gp2"
      state: available

Method 4: IAM Instance Profile

If running on EC2, attach an IAM role — no keys needed:

- name: Find AMIs (using instance profile)
  amazon.aws.ec2_ami_info:
    region: us-east-1
    filters:
      name: "amzn2-ami-hvm-*-x86_64-gp2"

Working Playbook Example

---
- name: Find latest Amazon Linux 2 AMI
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  gather_facts: false

  tasks:
    - name: Get AMI info
      amazon.aws.ec2_ami_info:
        region: us-east-1
        filters:
          name: "amzn2-ami-hvm-*-x86_64-gp2"
          state: available
          owner-alias: amazon
        owners:
          - amazon
      register: ami_result

    - name: Show latest AMI
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: |
          AMI ID: {{ ami_result.images | sort(attribute='creation_date') | last | json_query('image_id') }}
          Name: {{ ami_result.images | sort(attribute='creation_date') | last | json_query('name') }}
          Created: {{ ami_result.images | sort(attribute='creation_date') | last | json_query('creation_date') }}

Common AWS Collection Modules

ModulePurpose
amazon.aws.ec2_ami_infoFind AMI details
amazon.aws.ec2_instanceManage EC2 instances
amazon.aws.ec2_vpc_netManage VPCs
amazon.aws.s3_bucketManage S3 buckets
amazon.aws.ec2_security_groupManage security groups
amazon.aws.iam_roleManage IAM roles
community.aws.ecs_taskdefinitionECS task definitions
community.aws.rds_instanceRDS databases

Troubleshooting

Collection Installed But Module Still Not Found

Check the collection path:

ansible-config dump | grep COLLECTIONS_PATH
# COLLECTIONS_PATHS = ['/home/user/.ansible/collections', '/usr/share/ansible/collections']

# List what's installed
ls ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/amazon/aws/

Version Mismatch

Some modules were moved between collections or renamed:

# Old name (Ansible 2.9)
ec2_ami_info:

# New name (collections era)
amazon.aws.ec2_ami_info:

Virtual Environment Issues

If using a Python virtual environment, ensure the collection is installed in the right context:

# Activate venv first
source ~/.venvs/ansible/bin/activate
ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws
pip install boto3 botocore

Permissions Error During Install

# Install to user directory (default)
ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws

# Or specify a custom path
ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws -p ./collections
# Then set in ansible.cfg:
# [defaults]
# collections_path = ./collections

Conclusion

Install the collection with ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws, install Python dependencies with pip install boto3 botocore, set hosts: localhost and connection: local for API calls, and configure AWS credentials via environment variables, AWS CLI profile, or IAM instance role. Use requirements.yml with version pinning for reproducible environments.

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