Ansible – How to Install and configure AWX ?

Ansible AWX  is an upstream project of Ansible Tower.  To evaluate ansible Tower, you can deploy AWX and check the functionality. AWX deployment is simple if you have an existing docker environment. AWX is an opensource project and the community is offering AWX in the form of container. AWX requires multiple components like a database, Message queue, web services etc. While deploying AWX, the following images will be installed on docker environment.

 

AWX Components: 

• postgres  – Database
• rabbitmq – Message Queue
• memcached – General-Purpose Distributed Memory Caching system
• awx_web  – This image should be deployed together with ansible/awx_task
• awx_task – This image should be deployed together with ansible/awx_web

 

Ansible AWX project members ensured that deploying AWX should be very simple like automating other IT deployments. Here are the steps to deploy AWX on Docker environment.

• Setup the docker environment.
• Run the AWX deployment playbook.

 

Environment:

• CentOS 7
• SELinux Disabled
• Firewall Disabled.
• Internet connection

 

Deploying AWX :

1. Login to CentOS 7 server where you would like to host AWX.

 

2. Perform the docker test to ensure docker is functional and verify that system has internet access to pull the required images.

[root@ansible-server awx]# docker run -it hello-world
Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
Trying to pull repository docker.io/library/hello-world ...
latest: Pulling from docker.io/library/hello-world
d1725b59e92d: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:0add3ace90ecb4adbf7777e9aacf18357296e799f81cabc9fde470971e499788
Status: Downloaded newer image for docker.io/hello-world:latest

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
 1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
 2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
    (amd64)
 3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
    executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
 4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
    to your terminal.

 

3. Cloning the AWX repo to your server.

[root@ansible-server tmp]# git clone https://github.com/ansible/awx.git
Cloning into 'awx'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 152, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (152/152), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (106/106), done.
Receiving objects:   0% (900/181415), 460.00 KiB | 94.00 KiB/s

 

4. Navigate to “awx” directory.

[root@ansible-server tmp]# cd
[root@ansible-server ~]# cd awx
[root@ansible-server awx]# ls -lrt
total 156
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  2566 Sep 12 19:20 API_STANDARDS.md
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1620 Sep 12 19:20 DCO_1_1.md
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  2945 Sep 12 19:20 DATA_MIGRATION.md
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 17307 Sep 12 19:20 CONTRIBUTING.md
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  2442 Sep 12 19:20 README.md
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1055 Sep 12 19:20 MANIFEST.in
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 21027 Sep 12 19:20 Makefile
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  9304 Sep 12 19:20 LICENSE.md
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  5142 Sep 12 19:20 ISSUES.md
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 29033 Sep 12 19:20 INSTALL.md
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    41 Sep 12 19:20 config
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root   265 Sep 12 19:20 awx
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root  4096 Sep 12 19:20 docs
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   268 Sep 12 19:20 nodemon.json
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   149 Sep 12 19:20 manage.py
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   473 Sep 12 19:20 pytest.ini
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   870 Sep 12 19:20 shippable.yml
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  5975 Sep 12 19:20 setup.py
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  1195 Sep 12 19:20 setup.cfg
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Sep 12 19:20 requirements
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1745 Sep 12 19:20 tox.ini
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root   277 Sep 12 19:20 tools
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     6 Sep 13 00:21 tmp
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    72 Sep 13 02:59 installer
[root@ansible-server awx]#

 

5. Navigate to installer directory.

[root@ansible-server awx]# cd installer/
[root@ansible-server installer]# ls -lrt
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  469 Sep 12 19:20 install.yml
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  171 Sep 12 19:20 build.yml
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root   99 Sep 12 19:20 roles
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4940 Sep 13 02:59 inventory
[root@ansible-server installer]#

 

6. Update the “inventory” file like below.

[root@ansible-server installer]# cat inventory |grep -v "#" |sort -nr |grep .
secret_key=awxsecret
project_data_dir=/var/lib/awx/projects
postgres_data_dir=/var/lib/pgdocker
pg_username=awx
pg_port=5432
pg_password=awxpass
pg_database=awx
localhost ansible_connection=local ansible_python_interpreter="/usr/bin/env python"
host_port=80
dockerhub_version=latest
dockerhub_base=ansible
docker_compose_dir=/var/lib/awx
awx_official=true
awx_alternate_dns_servers="4.2.2.1,4.2.2.2"
[all:vars]
[root@ansible-server installer]#

If you do not specify “project_data_dir=/var/lib/awx/projects” during the deployment, you can’t use Manual SCM. You might face issue while creating the new project.

“WARNING: There are no available playbook directories in /var/lib/awx/projects. Either that directory is empty, or all of the contents are already assigned to other projects. Create a new directory there and make sure the playbook files can be read by the “awx” system user, or have Tower directly retrieve your playbooks from source control using the SCM Type option above.”

Note: “postgres_data_dir” path also very important where the Postgres data will be stored. By default, it has been set to /tmp. In some cases  /tmp will be cleaned up across the system reboot.

 

7. Run the ansible playbook to deploy AWX.

[root@ansible-server installer]#  ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml -vv
ansible-playbook 2.6.4
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-playbook
  python version = 2.7.5 (default, Apr 11 2018, 07:36:10) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-28)]
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
statically imported: /root/awx/installer/roles/local_docker/tasks/set_image.yml
statically imported: /root/awx/installer/roles/local_docker/tasks/standalone.yml
statically imported: /root/awx/installer/roles/local_docker/tasks/compose.yml

PLAYBOOK: install.yml *******************************************************************************************************************************
1 plays in install.yml

PLAY [Build and deploy AWX] *************************************************************************************************************************
META: ran handlers

TASK [check_vars : include_tasks] *******************************************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/check_vars/tasks/main.yml:3
skipping: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False"}

TASK [check_vars : include_tasks] *******************************************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/check_vars/tasks/main.yml:6
included: /root/awx/installer/roles/check_vars/tasks/check_docker.yml for localhost

TASK [check_vars : postgres_data_dir should be defined] *********************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/check_vars/tasks/check_docker.yml:3
ok: [localhost] => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "All assertions passed"
}

TASK [check_vars : host_port should be defined] *****************************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/check_vars/tasks/check_docker.yml:10
ok: [localhost] => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "All assertions passed"
}

TASK [image_build : Get Version from checkout if not provided] **************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/image_build/tasks/main.yml:2
skipping: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False"}

TASK [image_build : Set global version if not provided] *********************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/image_build/tasks/main.yml:8
skipping: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False"}

TASK [image_build : Verify awx-logos directory exists for official install] *************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/image_build/tasks/main.yml:13
skipping: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False"}

<<<<< Rmeoved lines >>>>>>

TASK [local_docker : Create /var/lib/awx directory] *************************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/local_docker/tasks/compose.yml:2
skipping: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False"}

TASK [local_docker : Create docker-compose.yml file] ************************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/local_docker/tasks/compose.yml:7
skipping: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False"}

TASK [local_docker : Start the containers] **********************************************************************************************************
task path: /root/awx/installer/roles/local_docker/tasks/compose.yml:12
skipping: [localhost] => {"changed": false, "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False"}
META: ran handlers
META: ran handlers

PLAY RECAP ******************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=12   changed=5    unreachable=0    failed=0

[root@ansible-server installer]#

 

8. Look for the new docker instances. We could see that playbook has deployed 5 docker images for AWX.

[root@ansible-server installer]# docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                        COMMAND                  CREATED              STATUS              PORTS                                                 NAMES
3613f7e35b9e        ansible/awx_task:latest      "/tini -- /bin/sh ..."   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   8052/tcp                                              awx_task
1667ba7d1d55        ansible/awx_web:latest       "/tini -- /bin/sh ..."   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   0.0.0.0:80->8052/tcp                                  awx_web
f55cf8f3f45d        memcached:alpine             "docker-entrypoint..."   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   11211/tcp                                             memcached
b6d3238433b8        ansible/awx_rabbitmq:3.7.4   "docker-entrypoint..."   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   4369/tcp, 5671-5672/tcp, 15671-15672/tcp, 25672/tcp   rabbitmq
706f9be8f572        postgres:9.6                 "docker-entrypoint..."   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   5432/tcp                                              postgres
[root@ansible-server installer]# 

 

9. Open the browser and access the server IP. Here, my host IP is ‘192.168.3.151’

[root@ansible-server ~]# ip a |grep inet |egrep -v "inet6|127.0.0.1"
    inet 192.168.3.151/24 brd 192.168.3.255 scope global noprefixroute ens32
[root@ansible-server ~]#

AWX – Home Page

 

10. Login with AWX’s default credential ( admin/ password  )

 

We have successfully deployed AWX.  What’s Next?  Start creating the playbook and integrate with AWX to start automating the environment.

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