Combine two default Ansible host files including one being ec2.py?

Question

I'm using Ansible is a mixed environment of AWS and non-AWS machines. I'd like to avoid passing hosts on the command line. How do I combine multiple host files in Ansible and make it the default? The current recommendation on the Ansible site is to override /etc/ansible/hosts with ec2.py. which prevents me from adding additional hosts. Thanks.

Answer 1

You can mix dynamic and static inventory files by creating a directory and dropping ec2.py in it plus your ini formatted inventory list as a separate file. It is mentioned briefly in the docs here.

for example:

  ./inventory/ec2.py
  ./inventory/additional-hosts

  ansible-playbook ... -i inventory/

Note that any file with the executable bit set will be treated as a dynamic inventory so make sure you files have the correct permissions.