diff --git a/plugins/inventory/ec2.py b/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
index b64025647e..d6fe950486 100755
--- a/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
+++ b/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
 
         # Inventory grouped by instance IDs, tags, security groups, regions,
         # and availability zones
-        self.inventory = {}
+        self.inventory = {"_meta" : {"hostvars" : {}}}
 
         # Index of hostname (address) to instance ID
         self.index = {}
@@ -376,6 +376,8 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         # Global Tag: tag all EC2 instances
         self.push(self.inventory, 'ec2', dest)
 
+        self.inventory["_meta"]["hostvars"][dest] = self.get_host_info_dict_from_instance(instance)
+
 
     def add_rds_instance(self, instance, region):
         ''' Adds an RDS instance to the inventory and index, as long as it is
@@ -479,23 +481,7 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         return list(name_list)
 
 
-    def get_host_info(self):
-        ''' Get variables about a specific host '''
-
-        if len(self.index) == 0:
-            # Need to load index from cache
-            self.load_index_from_cache()
-
-        if not self.args.host in self.index:
-            # try updating the cache
-            self.do_api_calls_update_cache()
-            if not self.args.host in self.index:
-                # host migh not exist anymore
-                return self.json_format_dict({}, True)
-
-        (region, instance_id) = self.index[self.args.host]
-
-        instance = self.get_instance(region, instance_id)
+    def get_host_info_dict_from_instance(self, instance):
         instance_vars = {}
         for key in vars(instance):
             value = getattr(instance, key)
@@ -536,8 +522,26 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
                 #print type(value)
                 #print value
 
-        return self.json_format_dict(instance_vars, True)
+        return instance_vars
 
+    def get_host_info(self):
+        ''' Get variables about a specific host '''
+
+        if len(self.index) == 0:
+            # Need to load index from cache
+            self.load_index_from_cache()
+
+        if not self.args.host in self.index:
+            # try updating the cache
+            self.do_api_calls_update_cache()
+            if not self.args.host in self.index:
+                # host migh not exist anymore
+                return self.json_format_dict({}, True)
+
+        (region, instance_id) = self.index[self.args.host]
+
+        instance = self.get_instance(region, instance_id)
+        return self.json_format_dict(self.get_host_info_dict_from_instance(instance), True)
 
     def push(self, my_dict, key, element):
         ''' Pushed an element onto an array that may not have been defined in