How can I use ec2.py and localhost at the same time

Question

How can I use the ec2.py to get a dynamic list of ec2 hosts and also use localhost as a host. I have googled over and over and can't seem to find a good solution. I have come across some close answers but all seem to require breaking your tasks down into two separate playbooks that can't be run at the same time.

Accepted Answer

I was trying to solve a similar issue.

I had a bunch of hosts which accepted connections from the Ansible host. For security reasons the Ansible host was not allowed to connect to itself. However, I needed to run the Common play on all host.

I specified all hosts, excluded the Ansible host, and then added localhost:

```
- name: Common
  hosts: "tag_name_*:!tag_name_ansible:localhost"
  roles:
    - common
```

Adding localhost worked fine even when using the EC2 inventory script. I am using Ansible 1.7 with an up-to-date EC2 inventory script.

How can I use ec2.py and localhost at the same time

Solution

Problem