diff --git a/plugins/provisioners/ansible/config.rb b/plugins/provisioners/ansible/config.rb
index 818e11c7a..6232d8ece 100644
--- a/plugins/provisioners/ansible/config.rb
+++ b/plugins/provisioners/ansible/config.rb
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ module VagrantPlugins
       attr_accessor :tags
       attr_accessor :skip_tags
       attr_accessor :start_at_task
+      attr_accessor :groups
       attr_accessor :host_key_checking
 
       # Joker attribute, used to pass unsupported arguments to ansible anyway
@@ -30,6 +31,7 @@ module VagrantPlugins
         @skip_tags         = UNSET_VALUE
         @start_at_task     = UNSET_VALUE
         @raw_arguments     = UNSET_VALUE
+        @groups            = UNSET_VALUE
         @host_key_checking = "true"
       end
 
@@ -46,6 +48,7 @@ module VagrantPlugins
         @skip_tags         = nil if @skip_tags == UNSET_VALUE
         @start_at_task     = nil if @start_at_task == UNSET_VALUE
         @raw_arguments     = nil if @raw_arguments == UNSET_VALUE
+        @groups            = {}  if @groups == UNSET_VALUE
         @host_key_checking = nil if @host_key_checking == UNSET_VALUE
       end
 
diff --git a/plugins/provisioners/ansible/provisioner.rb b/plugins/provisioners/ansible/provisioner.rb
index b1d6a866b..ce8cdf741 100644
--- a/plugins/provisioners/ansible/provisioner.rb
+++ b/plugins/provisioners/ansible/provisioner.rb
@@ -69,6 +69,31 @@ module VagrantPlugins
         generated_inventory_file.open('w') do |file|
           file.write("# Generated by Vagrant\n\n")
           file.write("#{machine.name} ansible_ssh_host=#{ssh[:host]} ansible_ssh_port=#{ssh[:port]}\n")
+
+          # Write out groups information.  Only include current
+          # machine and its groups to avoid Ansible errors on
+          # provisioning.
+          groups_of_groups = {}
+          included_groups = []
+
+          config.groups.each_pair do |gname, gmembers|
+            if gname.end_with?(":children")
+              groups_of_groups[gname] = gmembers
+            elsif gmembers.include?("#{machine.name}")
+              included_groups << gname
+              file.write("\n[#{gname}]\n")
+              file.write("#{machine.name}\n")
+            end
+          end
+
+          groups_of_groups.each_pair do |gname, gmembers|
+            unless (included_groups & gmembers).empty?
+              file.write("\n[#{gname}]\n")
+              gmembers.each do |gm|
+                file.write("#{gm}\n") if included_groups.include?(gm)
+              end
+            end
+          end
         end
 
         return generated_inventory_file.to_s
diff --git a/website/docs/source/v2/provisioning/ansible.html.md b/website/docs/source/v2/provisioning/ansible.html.md
index 619b8e71a..20f48fa0e 100644
--- a/website/docs/source/v2/provisioning/ansible.html.md
+++ b/website/docs/source/v2/provisioning/ansible.html.md
@@ -146,4 +146,13 @@ by the sudo command.
 * `ansible.raw_arguments` is an *unsafe wildcard* string that can be used to take advantage of `ansible-playbook` arguments that are not (yet) supported by this Vagrant provisioner plugin. This can be very useful when integrating with bleeding edge Ansible versions. Following precedence rules apply:
   * Any supported options (described above) will override conflicting `raw_arguments` value (e.g. `--tags` or `--start-at-task`)
   * Vagrant default user authentication can be overridden via `raw_arguments` (with custom values for `--user` and `--private-key`)
+* `ansible.groups` can be used to pass a hash of group names and group members to be included in the generated inventory file.  For example:
+```
+ansible.groups = {
+  "group1" => ["machine1"],
+  "group2" => ["machine2", "machine3"],
+  "all_groups:children" => ["group1", "group2"]
+}
+```
+Note that only the current machine and its related groups will be added to the inventory file.
 * `ansible.host_key_checking` can be set to `false` which will disable host key checking and prevent `"FAILED: (25, 'Inappropriate ioctl for device')"` errors from being reported during provisioner runs.  The default value is `true`, which matches the default behavior of Ansible 1.2.1 and later.