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Installing AWX

This document provides a guide for installing AWX.

Table of contents

Getting started

Clone the repo

If you have not already done so, you will need to clone, or create a local copy, of the AWX repo. We generally recommend that you view the releases page:

https://github.com/ansible/awx/releases

...and clone the latest stable release, e.g.,

git clone -b x.y.z https://github.com/ansible/awx.git

Please note that deploying from HEAD (or the latest commit) is not stable, and that if you want to do this, you should proceed at your own risk (also, see the section #official-vs-building-images for building your own image).

For more on how to clone the repo, view git clone help.

Once you have a local copy, run commands within the root of the project tree.

AWX branding

You can optionally install the AWX branding assets from the awx-logos repo. Prior to installing, please review and agree to the trademark guidelines.

To install the assets, clone the awx-logos repo so that it is next to your awx clone. As you progress through the installation steps, you'll be setting variables in the inventory file. To include the assets in the build, set awx_official=true.

Prerequisites

Before you can run a deployment, you'll need the following installed in your local environment:

System Requirements

The system that runs the AWX service will need to satisfy the following requirements

  • At least 4GB of memory
  • At least 2 cpu cores
  • At least 20GB of space
  • Running Docker, Openshift, or Kubernetes
  • If you choose to use an external PostgreSQL database, please note that the minimum version is 10+.

Choose a deployment platform

We currently support running AWX as a containerized application using Docker images deployed to either an OpenShift cluster, a Kubernetes cluster, or docker-compose. The remainder of this document will walk you through the process of building the images, and deploying them to either platform.

The installer directory contains an inventory file, and a playbook, install.yml. You'll begin by setting variables in the inventory file according to the platform you wish to use, and then you'll start the image build and deployment process by running the playbook.

In the sections below, you'll find deployment details and instructions for each platform:

Official vs Building Images

When installing AWX you have the option of building your own image or using the image provided on DockerHub (see awx)

This is controlled by the following variables in the inventory file

dockerhub_base=ansible
dockerhub_version=latest

If these variables are present then all deployments will use these hosted images. If the variables are not present then the images will be built during the install.

dockerhub_base

The base location on DockerHub where the images are hosted (by default this pulls a container image named ansible/awx:tag)

dockerhub_version

Multiple versions are provided. latest always pulls the most recent. You may also select version numbers at different granularities: 1, 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.0.123

use_container_for_build

Use a local distribution build container image for building the AWX package. This is helpful if you don't want to bother installing the build-time dependencies as it is taken care of already.

Upgrading from previous versions

Upgrading AWX involves rerunning the install playbook. Download a newer release from https://github.com/ansible/awx/releases and re-populate the inventory file with your customized variables.

For convenience, you can create a file called vars.yml:

admin_password: 'adminpass'
pg_password: 'pgpass'
secret_key: 'mysupersecret'

And pass it to the installer:

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml -e @vars.yml

OpenShift

Prerequisites

To complete a deployment to OpenShift, you will need access to an OpenShift cluster. For demo and testing purposes, you can use Minishift to create a single node cluster running inside a virtual machine.

When using OpenShift for deploying AWX make sure you have correct privileges to add the security context 'privileged', otherwise the installation will fail. The privileged context is needed because of the use of the bubblewrap tool to add an additional layer of security when using containers.

You will also need to have the oc command in your PATH. The install.yml playbook will call out to oc when logging into, and creating objects on the cluster.

The default resource requests per-deployment requires:

Memory: 6GB CPU: 3 cores

This can be tuned by overriding the variables found in /installer/roles/kubernetes/defaults/main.yml. Special care should be taken when doing this as undersized instances will experience crashes and resource exhaustion.

For more detail on how resource requests are formed see: https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/latest/dev_guide/compute_resources.html#dev-compute-resources

Pre-install steps

Before starting the install, review the inventory file, and uncomment and provide values for the following variables found in the [all:vars] section:

openshift_host

IP address or hostname of the OpenShift cluster. If you're using Minishift, this will be the value returned by minishift ip.

openshift_skip_tls_verify

Boolean. Set to True if using self-signed certs.

openshift_project

Name of the OpenShift project that will be created, and used as the namespace for the AWX app. Defaults to awx.

openshift_user

Username of the OpenShift user that will create the project, and deploy the application. Defaults to developer.

openshift_pg_emptydir

Boolean. Set to True to use an emptyDir volume when deploying the PostgreSQL pod. Note: This should only be used for demo and testing purposes.

docker_registry

IP address and port, or URL, for accessing a registry that the OpenShift cluster can access. Defaults to 172.30.1.1:5000, the internal registry delivered with Minishift. This is not needed if you are using official hosted images.

docker_registry_repository

Namespace to use when pushing and pulling images to and from the registry. Generally this will match the project name. It defaults to awx. This is not needed if you are using official hosted images.

docker_registry_username

Username of the user that will push images to the registry. Will generally match the openshift_user value. Defaults to developer. This is not needed if you are using official hosted images.

Deploying to Minishift

Install Minishift by following the installation guide.

The recommended minimum resources for your Minishift VM:

$ minishift start --cpus=4 --memory=8GB

The Minishift VM contains a Docker daemon, which you can use to build the AWX images. This is generally the approach you should take, and we recommend doing so. To use this instance, run the following command to setup your environment:

# Set DOCKER environment variable to point to the Minishift VM
$ eval $(minishift docker-env)

Note

If you choose to not use the Docker instance running inside the VM, and build the images externally, you will have to enable the OpenShift cluster to access the images. This involves pushing the images to an external Docker registry, and granting the cluster access to it, or exposing the internal registry, and pushing the images into it.

PostgreSQL

By default, AWX will deploy a PostgreSQL pod inside of your cluster. You will need to create a Persistent Volume Claim which is named postgresql by default, and can be overridden by setting the openshift_pg_pvc_name variable. For testing and demo purposes, you may set openshift_pg_emptydir=yes.

If you wish to use an external database, in the inventory file, set the value of pg_hostname, and update pg_username, pg_password, pg_admin_password, pg_database, and pg_port with the connection information. When setting pg_hostname the installer will assume you have configured the database in that location and will not launch the postgresql pod.

Run the installer

To start the install, you will pass two extra variables on the command line. The first is openshift_password, which is the password for the openshift_user, and the second is docker_registry_password, which is the password associated with docker_registry_username.

If you're using the OpenShift internal registry, then you'll pass an access token for the docker_registry_password value, rather than a password. The oc whoami -t command will generate the required token, as long as you're logged into the cluster via oc cluster login.

Run the following command (docker_registry_password is optional if using official images):

# Start the install
$ ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml -e openshift_password=developer  -e docker_registry_password=$(oc whoami -t)

Post-install

After the playbook run completes, check the status of the deployment by running oc get pods:

# View the running pods
$ oc get pods

NAME                   READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
awx-3886581826-5mv0l   4/4       Running   0          8s
postgresql-1-l85fh     1/1       Running   0          20m

In the above example, the name of the AWX pod is awx-3886581826-5mv0l. Before accessing the AWX web interface, setup tasks and database migrations need to complete. These tasks are running in the awx_task container inside the AWX pod. To monitor their status, tail the container's STDOUT by running the following command, replacing the AWX pod name with the pod name from your environment:

# Follow the awx_task log output
$ oc logs -f awx-3886581826-5mv0l -c awx-celery

You will see the following indicating that database migrations are running:

Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
127.0.0.1 | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "db": "awx"
}
Operations to perform:
  Synchronize unmigrated apps: solo, api, staticfiles, messages, channels, django_extensions, ui, rest_framework, polymorphic
  Apply all migrations: sso, taggit, sessions, sites, kombu_transport_django, social_auth, contenttypes, auth, conf, main
Synchronizing apps without migrations:
  Creating tables...
    Running deferred SQL...
  Installing custom SQL...
Running migrations:
  Rendering model states... DONE
  Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
  Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
  Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
  Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK
  Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK
  Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK
  Applying taggit.0001_initial... OK
  Applying taggit.0002_auto_20150616_2121... OK
  ...

When you see output similar to the following, you'll know that database migrations have completed, and you can access the web interface:

Python 2.7.5 (default, Nov  6 2016, 00:28:07)
[GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-11)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
(InteractiveConsole)

>>> <User: admin>
>>> Default organization added.
Demo Credential, Inventory, and Job Template added.
Successfully registered instance awx-3886581826-5mv0l
(changed: True)
Creating instance group tower
Added instance awx-3886581826-5mv0l to tower

Once database migrations complete, the web interface will be accessible.

Accessing AWX

The AWX web interface is running in the AWX pod, behind the awx-web-svc service. To view the service, and its port value, run the following command:

# View available services
$ oc get services

NAME          CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)          AGE
awx-web-svc   172.30.111.74   <nodes>       8052:30083/TCP   37m
postgresql    172.30.102.9    <none>        5432/TCP         38m

The deployment process creates a route, awx-web-svc, to expose the service. How the ingres is actually created will vary depending on your environment, and how the cluster is configured. You can view the route, and the external IP address and hostname assigned to it, by running the following command:

# View available routes
$ oc get routes

NAME          HOST/PORT                             PATH      SERVICES      PORT      TERMINATION   WILDCARD
awx-web-svc   awx-web-svc-awx.192.168.64.2.nip.io             awx-web-svc   http      edge/Allow    None

The above example is taken from a Minishift instance. From a web browser, use https to access the HOST/PORT value from your environment. Using the above example, the URL to access the server would be https://awx-web-svc-awx.192.168.64.2.nip.io.

Once you access the AWX server, you will be prompted with a login dialog. The default administrator username is admin, and the password is password.

Kubernetes

Prerequisites

A Kubernetes deployment will require you to have access to a Kubernetes cluster as well as the following tools:

The installation program will reference kubectl directly. helm is only necessary if you are letting the installer configure PostgreSQL for you.

The default resource requests per-pod requires:

Memory: 6GB CPU: 3 cores

This can be tuned by overriding the variables found in /installer/roles/kubernetes/defaults/main.yml. Special care should be taken when doing this as undersized instances will experience crashes and resource exhaustion.

For more detail on how resource requests are formed see: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-compute-resources-container/

Pre-install steps

Before starting the install process, review the inventory file, and uncomment and provide values for the following variables found in the [all:vars] section uncommenting when necessary. Make sure the openshift and standalone docker sections are commented out:

kubernetes_context

Prior to running the installer, make sure you've configured the context for the cluster you'll be installing to. This is how the installer knows which cluster to connect to and what authentication to use

kubernetes_namespace

Name of the Kubernetes namespace where the AWX resources will be installed. This will be created if it doesn't exist

docker_registry_

These settings should be used if building your own base images. You'll need access to an external registry and are responsible for making sure your kube cluster can talk to it and use it. If these are undefined and the dockerhub_ configuration settings are uncommented then the images will be pulled from dockerhub instead

Configuring Helm

If you want the AWX installer to manage creating the database pod (rather than installing and configuring postgres on your own). Then you will need to have a working helm installation, you can find details here: https://helm.sh/docs/intro/quickstart/.

You do not need to create a Persistent Volume Claim as Helm does it for you. However, an existing one may be used by setting the pg_persistence_existingclaim variable.

Newer Kubernetes clusters with RBAC enabled will need to make sure a service account is created, make sure to follow the instructions here https://helm.sh/docs/topics/rbac/

Run the installer

After making changes to the inventory file use ansible-playbook to begin the install

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml

Post-install

After the playbook run completes, check the status of the deployment by running kubectl get pods --namespace awx (replace awx with the namespace you used):

# View the running pods, it may take a few minutes for everything to be marked in the Running state
$ kubectl get pods --namespace awx
NAME                             READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
awx-2558692395-2r8ss             4/4       Running   0          29s
awx-postgresql-355348841-kltkn   1/1       Running   0          1m

Accessing AWX

The AWX web interface is running in the AWX pod behind the awx-web-svc service:

# View available services
$ kubectl get svc --namespace awx
NAME             TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)        AGE
awx-postgresql   ClusterIP   10.7.250.208   <none>        5432/TCP       2m
awx-web-svc      NodePort    10.7.241.35    <none>        80:30177/TCP   1m

The deployment process creates an Ingress named awx-web-svc also. Some kubernetes cloud providers will automatically handle routing configuration when an Ingress is created others may require that you more explicitly configure it. You can see what kubernetes knows about things with:

 kubectl get ing --namespace awx
NAME          HOSTS     ADDRESS          PORTS     AGE
awx-web-svc   *         35.227.x.y       80        3m

If your provider is able to allocate an IP Address from the Ingress controller then you can navigate to the address and access the AWX interface. For some providers it can take a few minutes to allocate and make this accessible. For other providers it may require you to manually intervene.

SSL Termination

Unlike Openshift's Route the Kubernetes Ingress doesn't yet handle SSL termination. As such the default configuration will only expose AWX through HTTP on port 80. You are responsible for configuring SSL support until support is added (either to Kubernetes or AWX itself).

Docker-Compose

Prerequisites

  • Docker on the host where AWX will be deployed. After installing Docker, the Docker service must be started (depending on your OS, you may have to add the local user that uses Docker to the docker group, refer to the documentation for details)
  • docker-compose Python module.
    • This also installs the docker Python module, which is incompatible with docker-py. If you have previously installed docker-py, please uninstall it.
  • Docker Compose.

Pre-install steps

Deploying to a remote host

By default, the delivered installer/inventory file will deploy AWX to the local host. It is possible, however, to deploy to a remote host. The installer/install.yml playbook can be used to build images on the local host, and ship the built images to, and run deployment tasks on, a remote host. To do this, modify the installer/inventory file, by commenting out localhost, and adding the remote host.

For example, suppose you wish to build images locally on your CI/CD host, and deploy them to a remote host named awx-server. To do this, add awx-server to the installer/inventory file, and comment out or remove localhost, as demonstrated by the following:

# localhost ansible_connection=local
awx-server

[all:vars]
...

In the above example, image build tasks will be delegated to localhost, which is typically where the clone of the AWX project exists. Built images will be archived, copied to remote host, and imported into the remote Docker image cache. Tasks to start the AWX containers will then execute on the remote host.

If you choose to use the official images then the remote host will be the one to pull those images.

Note

You may also want to set additional variables to control how Ansible connects to the host. For more information about this, view Behavioral Inventory Parameters.

As mentioned above, in Prerequisites, the prerequisites are required on the remote host.

When deploying to a remote host, the playbook does not execute tasks with the become option. For this reason, make sure the user that connects to the remote host has privileges to run the docker command. This typically means that non-privileged users need to be part of the docker group.

Inventory variables

Before starting the install process, review the inventory file, and uncomment and provide values for the following variables found in the [all:vars] section:

postgres_data_dir

If you're using the default PostgreSQL container (see PostgreSQL below), provide a path that can be mounted to the container, and where the database can be persisted.

host_port

Provide a port number that can be mapped from the Docker daemon host to the web server running inside the AWX container. If undefined no port will be exposed. Defaults to 80.

host_port_ssl

Provide a port number that can be mapped from the Docker daemon host to the web server running inside the AWX container for SSL support. If undefined no port will be exposed. Defaults to 443, only works if you also set ssl_certificate (see below).

ssl_certificate

Optionally, provide the path to a file that contains a certificate and its private key. This needs to be a .pem-file

docker_compose_dir

When using docker-compose, the docker-compose.yml file will be created there (default /tmp/awxcompose).

custom_venv_dir

Adds the custom venv environments from the local host to be passed into the containers at install.

ca_trust_dir

If you're using a non trusted CA, provide a path where the untrusted Certs are stored on your Host.

Docker registry

If you wish to tag and push built images to a Docker registry, set the following variables in the inventory file:

docker_registry

IP address and port, or URL, for accessing a registry.

docker_registry_repository

Namespace to use when pushing and pulling images to and from the registry. Defaults to awx.

docker_registry_username

Username of the user that will push images to the registry. Defaults to developer.

Note

These settings are ignored if using official images

Proxy settings

http_proxy

IP address and port, or URL, for using an http_proxy.

https_proxy

IP address and port, or URL, for using an https_proxy.

no_proxy

Exclude IP address or URL from the proxy.

PostgreSQL

AWX requires access to a PostgreSQL database, and by default, one will be created and deployed in a container, and data will be persisted to a host volume. In this scenario, you must set the value of postgres_data_dir to a path that can be mounted to the container. When the container is stopped, the database files will still exist in the specified path.

If you wish to use an external database, in the inventory file, set the value of pg_hostname, and update pg_username, pg_password, pg_admin_password, pg_database, and pg_port with the connection information.

Run the installer

If you are not pushing images to a Docker registry, start the install by running the following:

# Set the working directory to installer
$ cd installer

# Run the Ansible playbook
$ ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml

If you're pushing built images to a repository, then use the -e option to pass the registry password as follows, replacing password with the password of the username assigned to docker_registry_username (note that you will also need to remove dockerhub_base and dockerhub_version from the inventory file):

# Set the working directory to installer
$ cd installer

# Run the Ansible playbook
$ ansible-playbook -i inventory -e docker_registry_password=password install.yml

Post-install

After the playbook run completes, Docker starts a series of containers that provide the services that make up AWX. You can view the running containers using the docker ps command.

If you're deploying using Docker Compose, container names will be prefixed by the name of the folder where the docker-compose.yml file is created (by default, awx).

Immediately after the containers start, the awx_task container will perform required setup tasks, including database migrations. These tasks need to complete before the web interface can be accessed. To monitor the progress, you can follow the container's STDOUT by running the following:

# Tail the awx_task log
$ docker logs -f awx_task

You will see output similar to the following:

Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
127.0.0.1 | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "db": "awx"
}
Operations to perform:
  Synchronize unmigrated apps: solo, api, staticfiles, messages, channels, django_extensions, ui, rest_framework, polymorphic
  Apply all migrations: sso, taggit, sessions, sites, kombu_transport_django, social_auth, contenttypes, auth, conf, main
Synchronizing apps without migrations:
  Creating tables...
    Running deferred SQL...
  Installing custom SQL...
Running migrations:
  Rendering model states... DONE
  Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
  Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
  Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
  Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK
  Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK
  Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK
  Applying taggit.0001_initial... OK
  Applying taggit.0002_auto_20150616_2121... OK
  Applying main.0001_initial... OK
...

Once migrations complete, you will see the following log output, indicating that migrations have completed:

Python 2.7.5 (default, Nov  6 2016, 00:28:07)
[GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-11)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
(InteractiveConsole)

>>> <User: admin>
>>> Default organization added.
Demo Credential, Inventory, and Job Template added.
Successfully registered instance awx
(changed: True)
Creating instance group tower
Added instance awx to tower
(changed: True)
...

Accessing AWX

The AWX web server is accessible on the deployment host, using the host_port value set in the inventory file. The default URL is http://localhost.

You will prompted with a login dialog. The default administrator username is admin, and the password is password.

Installing the AWX CLI

awx is the official command-line client for AWX. It:

  • Uses naming and structure consistent with the AWX HTTP API
  • Provides consistent output formats with optional machine-parsable formats
  • To the extent possible, auto-detects API versions, available endpoints, and feature support across multiple versions of AWX.

Potential uses include:

  • Configuring and launching jobs/playbooks
  • Checking on the status and output of job runs
  • Managing objects like organizations, users, teams, etc...

The preferred way to install the AWX CLI is through pip directly from PyPI:

pip3 install awxkit
awx --help

Building the CLI Documentation

To build the docs, spin up a real AWX server, pip3 install sphinx sphinxcontrib-autoprogram, and run:

~ TOWER_HOST=https://awx.example.org TOWER_USERNAME=example TOWER_PASSWORD=secret make clean html
~ cd build/html/ && python -m http.server
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 (http://0.0.0.0:8000/) ..