Summary

The website content provides a detailed guide on deploying Ansible AWX on OpenShift Origin, including pre-requisites, step-by-step installation instructions, and post-installation configurations.

Abstract

The article outlines the process for installing Ansible AWX, an open-source automation tool, on OpenShift Origin. It begins by introducing Ansible and AWX, noting the benefits of Ansible such as its simplicity, agent-less integration, and open-source licensing. The guide then lists the pre-requisites for the installation, including OpenShift Origin, an Ansible-installed server, OpenShift CLI package, and Git. The installation steps cover downloading the Ansible project from GitHub, setting up an OpenShift AWX project with a PostgreSQL service, configuring the inventory file, and executing the installation with Ansible. Post-installation, the article advises on adding a persistent volume to AWX-Celery to ensure data persistence. The guide concludes with instructions on accessing the AWX interface and provides a default username and password for initial login.

Opinions

The author emphasizes the importance of Ansible AWX as an open-source project, highlighting its availability under the Apache License 2.0.
The article suggests that managing IT environments and deployments is simplified with the use of Ansible AWX.
The guide is written with the assumption that the reader has a certain level of technical expertise, particularly in using command-line interfaces and understanding OpenShift and Ansible concepts.
The author provides a link to their own inventory file as a reference for readers, indicating a willingness to share resources and assist others in the community.
The inclusion of screenshots for visual guidance during the setup process suggests that the author values clear and comprehensive instructions for users.
By offering support through a web page, the author indicates a commitment to user success and ongoing assistance post-installation.

Deployment of Ansible AWX on OpenShift Origin

Red Hat and Ansible are agreed to creating an open-source project around the Ansible Tower codebases which was named Ansible AWX. The AWX source code is available under the Apache License 2.0. This project is hosted at Github.

Ansible is an automation technology for the management of IT environments and deployments. Using Ansible, IT operations teams can more easily deploy IT services, applications, and environments.

Some benefits of Ansible:

Simple and human-readable configuration and deployment.
Agent-less integration.
Host inventory to define different IT infrastructures.
A motivated and growing community that brings different modules and use cases.
Handling dynamic inventories in a simple way.
Open-source License.

In this post, we will start the installation of AWX on top of OpenShift Origin. In the next post, I will show how to use Ansible to manage Apache Configuration and deployment.

Pre-Requirements:

OpenShift Origin
Ansible installed server
OpenShift CLI package
Install Git to push a project

Steps To Install Ansible AWX

Step 1: Download Ansible Project from Github

We need to install Ansible one of the servers that we use for installation. I will perform all installation steps at the OpenShift master node. So Ansible and OpenShift CLI package will be already installed.

[root@master01 installer]# ansible  --version
ansible 2.6.9
  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 = /bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.5 (default, Oct 30 2018, 23:45:53) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-36)]

[root@master01 installer]# oc version
oc v3.11.0+62803d0-1
kubernetes v1.11.0+d4cacc0
features: Basic-Auth GSSAPI Kerberos SPNEGO

#mkdir  /appdata/
#cd /appdata/
#git clone https://github.com/ansible/awx.git
#cd awx/installer

Step 2: Create an OpenShift AWX project and PostgreSQL service

Create a Project named “awx”

Create a PostgreSQL database with these configuration settings. You should keep these parameters to add an inventory file later.

Database Service Name: postgresql

Database Connection Username: awx

PostgreSQL Connection Password: awx

PostgreSQL Database Name: awx

Step 3: Configure Inventory File

The default inventory file will be located under the installer directory. Uncomment and change only the parameters that you need to use. I downloaded binary files under “/appdata/”. So my inventory file will be located “/appdata/awx/installer/”. Also, you can download the inventory file which I used at this post from that link.

#cd /appdata/awx/installer/inventory

#vi /appdata/awx/installer/inventory

openshift_host=console.openshift.domdom.local:443 #OpenShift web console FQDN and  Port

openshift_project=awx #OpenShift project name which was created at step 2

openshift_user=development #OpenShift web console username

openshift_password=development #OpenShift web console password

openshift_skip_tls_verify=True #Define  true  if your web console ceriticate  is  untruested.

pg_hostname=postgresql.awx.svc #PostgreSQL service name -Applications > Service > postgresql > Hostname

pg_username=awx   #postgresql username

pg_password=awxpassword #postgresql password

pg_database=awx #postgresql database name

pg_port=5432 #postgresql port

Step 4: Execute the Installation with Ansible

#cd /appdata/awx/installer/

#ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml

Step 5: Add a persistent volume to AWX-Celery

After installation, we need to define a persistent volume to AWX-Celery.

[root@master01 installer]# oc  login
Authentication required for https://console-int.openshift.domdom.local:443 (openshift)
Username: development
Password:
Login successful.

You have access to the following projects and can switch between them with 'oc project <projectname>':

* awx

Using project "awx".
[root@master01 installer]# oc get statefulset
NAME      DESIRED   CURRENT   AGE
awx       1         1         10m
[root@master01 installer]#

Set running statefulset replicas to “0” for awx.

[root@master01 installer]# oc get statefulset
NAME      DESIRED   CURRENT   AGE
awx       1         1         10m
[root@master01 installer]# oc scale --replicas=0  statefulsets awx
statefulset.apps/awx scaled
[root@master01 installer]# oc get statefulset
NAME      DESIRED   CURRENT   AGE
awx       0         1         12m
[root@master01 installer]# oc get statefulset
NAME      DESIRED   CURRENT   AGE
awx       0         0         12m
[root@master01 installer]#

You should create a persistent volume claim for the “awx-celery”. First, use the web console to create a PVC named “claim-awx” then run these commands for volume.

[root@master01 installer]# oc  patch statefulsets awx -p '{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"volumes":[{"name":"awxprojectsdata","persistentVolumeClaim":{"claimName":"claim-awx"}}]}}}}'
statefulset.apps/awx patched
[root@master01 installer]# oc  patch statefulsets awx -p  '{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"awx-celery","volumeMounts":[{"mountPath":"/var/lib/awx/projects/","name":"awxprojectsdata"}]}]}}}}'
statefulset.apps/awx patched
[root@master01 installer]# oc scale --replicas=1  statefulsets awx
statefulset.apps/awx scaled
[root@master01 installer]# oc get statefulset
NAME      DESIRED   CURRENT   AGE
awx       1         1         24m
[root@master01 installer]#

That’s all. You can access URL and then login with the default username and password.

Default username: admin

Password:password

If you have any questions or need help, feel free to open a support ticket on the web page. Let’s share together.