diff --git a/awx/main/tasks.py b/awx/main/tasks.py
index 93303f511c..eef1590d1a 100644
--- a/awx/main/tasks.py
+++ b/awx/main/tasks.py
@@ -1101,6 +1101,7 @@ class RunInventoryUpdate(BaseTask):
             ec2_opts.setdefault('all_rds_instances', 'False')
             ec2_opts.setdefault('rds', 'False')
             ec2_opts.setdefault('nested_groups', 'True')
+            ec2_opts.setdefault('elasticache', 'False')
             if inventory_update.instance_filters:
                 ec2_opts.setdefault('instance_filters', inventory_update.instance_filters)
             group_by = [x.strip().lower() for x in inventory_update.group_by.split(',') if x.strip()]
diff --git a/awx/plugins/inventory/ec2.py b/awx/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
index b8b1d43dea..cab0d2b85c 100755
--- a/awx/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
+++ b/awx/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
@@ -505,7 +505,7 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         # that's why we need to call describe directly (it would be called by
         # the shorthand method anyway...)
         try:
-            conn = elasticache.connect_to_region(region)
+            conn = self.connect_to_aws(elasticache, region)
             if conn:
                 # show_cache_node_info = True
                 # because we also want nodes' information
@@ -541,7 +541,7 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         # that's why we need to call describe directly (it would be called by
         # the shorthand method anyway...)
         try:
-            conn = elasticache.connect_to_region(region)
+            conn = self.connect_to_aws(elasticache, region)
             if conn:
                 response = conn.describe_replication_groups()