Allowing specifying ip by address

lib/ansible/modules/cloud/google/gce.py

@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ options:
   external_ip:
     version_added: "1.9"
     description:
-      - type of external ip, ephemeral by default; alternatively, a list of fixed gce ip names can be given (if there is not enough specified ip, 'ephemeral' will be used)
+      - type of external ip, ephemeral by default; alternatively, a list of fixed gce ips or ip names can be given (if there is not enough specified ip, 'ephemeral' will be used)
     required: false
     default: "ephemeral"
     aliases: []
@@ -258,12 +258,15 @@ EXAMPLES = '''
 
 '''
 
+import socket
+
 try:
     import libcloud
     from libcloud.compute.types import Provider
     from libcloud.compute.providers import get_driver
     from libcloud.common.google import GoogleBaseError, QuotaExceededError, \
         ResourceExistsError, ResourceInUseError, ResourceNotFoundError
+    from libcloud.compute.drivers.gce import GCEAddress
     _ = Provider.GCE
     HAS_LIBCLOUD = True
 except ImportError:
@@ -350,7 +353,16 @@ def create_instances(module, gce, instance_names):
         instance_external_ip = None
     elif not isinstance(external_ip, basestring):
         try:
-            instance_external_ip = gce.ex_get_address(external_ip.pop(0) if len(external_ip) != 0 else 'ephemeral')
+            if len(external_ip) != 0:
+                instance_external_ip = external_ip.pop(0)
+                # check if instance_external_ip is an ip or a name
+                try:
+                    socket.inet_aton(instance_external_ip)
+                    instance_external_ip = GCEAddress(id='unknown', name='unknown', address=instance_external_ip, region='unknown', driver=gce)
+                except socket.error:
+                    instance_external_ip = gce.ex_get_address(instance_external_ip)
+            else:
+                instance_external_ip = 'ephemeral'
         except GoogleBaseError, e:
             module.fail_json(msg='Unexpected error attempting to get a static ip %s, error: %s' % (external_ip, e.value))
     else: