Install AWX on Ubuntu

Install Ansible AWX on Ubuntu 20.04 using Kubernetes

AWX is the upstream open source version of Ansible Tower, you can install it for free and use it for free forever.

To install on Kubernetes I will be using the AWX-Operator

https://github.com/ansible/awx-operator

For this tutorial I will be installing on an Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 running on ESXi

I am starting from a clean Ubuntu 20.04 installation and will start with updating the packages. Following that the AWX install is very straightforward.

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo reboot

I also need to install VMWare tools, net-tools, Git SSH and Virtualenv

If you are new to Git, check out my Git Tutorial for Beginners

sudo apt install open-vm-tools-desktop
sudo apt install net-tools
sudo apt install git 
sudo apt install python3-virtualenv
sudo apt install openssh-server
sudo apt install curl 

AWX Install Kubernetes

First step is to setup the repos for Kubernetes and Cubectl

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl
chmod +x ./kubectl

Then we need to make it executable and move it to bin

chmod +x ./kubectl

Then move it to bin so we can run it as any user

sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Next we need to install minikube

kubectl version --client

Next install Docker

sudo apt-get update -y &&  sudo apt-get install -y docker.io

Install minikube

There is an issue installing latest version (currently 1.22) so stable version is 1.21 so use this

curl -Lo minikube https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/releases/download/v1.21.0/minikube-linux-amd64 && chmod +x minikube && sudo mv minikube /usr/local/bin/

Later versions might have a fix so the below will probably work.

curl -Lo minikube https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64 && chmod +x minikube && sudo mv minikube /usr/local/bin/

Add user to docker group

This is some code 

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log in and out – I rebooted server!

Start minikube

 minikube start --addons=ingress --cpus=4 --cni=flannel --install-addons=true \ --kubernetes-version=stable --memory=6g --wait=false

Check everything is working with kubectl get pods -A – you should see something like this

roger@AWX:~$ kubectl get pods -A
NAMESPACE       NAME                                        READY   STATUS      RESTARTS      AGE
ingress-nginx   ingress-nginx-admission-create--1-d7d5p     0/1     Completed   0             13m
ingress-nginx   ingress-nginx-admission-patch--1-6bjsb      0/1     Completed   1             13m
ingress-nginx   ingress-nginx-controller-69bdbc4d57-mbsvp   1/1     Running     0             13m
kube-system     coredns-78fcd69978-5x8jz                    1/1     Running     0             13m
kube-system     etcd-minikube                               1/1     Running     0             13m
kube-system     kube-apiserver-minikube                     1/1     Running     0             13m
kube-system     kube-controller-manager-minikube            1/1     Running     0             13m
kube-system     kube-proxy-fkdfn                            1/1     Running     0             13m
kube-system     kube-scheduler-minikube                     1/1     Running     0             13m
kube-system     storage-provisioner                         1/1     Running     1 (13m ago)   13m

Next install the AWX Operator

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/awx-operator/0.13.0/deploy/awx-operator.yaml

You can check the installation progress by entering this command

kubectl logs -f deployments/awx-operator

If you type kubectl get pod you should see one something like this

roger@AWX:~$ kubectl get pod
NAME                            READY   STATUS    RESTARTS        AGE
awx-demo-postgres-0             1/1     Running   1 (3m19s ago)   29m
awx-operator-75c79f5489-hvg2t   1/1     Running   1 (3m19s ago)   41m

Next you need to create a file called awx-demo.yml and put the following code into it

---
apiVersion: awx.ansible.com/v1beta1
kind: AWX
metadata:
  name: awx-demo
spec:
  service_type: nodeport
  ingress_type: none
  hostname: awx-demo.example.com

Now apply that file

roger@AWX:~$ kubectl apply -f awx-demo.yml
awx.awx.ansible.com/awx-demo created

You now need to wait a few minutes for the creation – you can check status with this command

kubectl get pods -l "app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=awx-operator"

Now you need to get the admin password

kubectl get secrets
kubectl get secret awx-demo-admin-password -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 --decode

You can now log into your AWX – point your browser to the IP address of your AWX

Do an ifconfig to check your IP – then point to http://<your-ip>

Ansible AWX default credentials

The default credentials for a new Ansible AWX install are.

Ansible AWX is no longer supported on Docker, but if you do need to install it on Docker you have to use V17.01 – details below

Install Ansible AWX 17.0.1 on Ubuntu 20.04 using Docker

AWX is the upstream open source version of Ansible Tower, you can install it for free and use it for free forever.

Latest repo: https://github.com/ansible/awx

However there is no support. If you want a supported version you need to look at Ansible Tower

For this tutorial I am going to be installing AWX 17.0.1 on an Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 running within VMWare workstation

Full install instructions can always be found here – https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/INSTALL.md

I am starting from a clean Ubuntu 20.04 installation and will start with updating the packages.

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo reboot

I also need to install VMWare tools, net-tools, Git SSH and Virtualenv

sudo apt install open-vm-tools-desktop
sudo apt install net-tools
sudo apt install git 
sudo apt install python3-virtualenv

Setup Virtual Environment

We now need to setup a virtual environment

I will make a directory called virtual and then create a virtual environment within that directory called awx

mkdir virtual 
cd virtual 
virtualenv awx

I now need to activate that virtual environment

source awx/bin/activate 

Your prompt should now change to this

AWX Install Docker

sudo apt -y install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg-agent software-properties-common

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable"

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Check Docker version

docker version 

Install Docker Compose

We now need to install docker-compose, in doing so it will also install Docker, which is also another requirement.

pip3 install docker-compose 

We now need to clone the AWX repository from Github, make sure you drop back to your home directory before doing this otherwise you will get an error saying the folder awx already exists

git clone -b 17.0.1 https://github.com/ansible/awx.git

Edit the Inventory file

You now have a folder called awx and within there a folder called installer and within there an inventory file you need to edit.

You just need to make sure you have set an admin password and we need to change the directory of your virtual environment.

Change # admin_password=password to

admin_password=(your secure password)

Find this line

AWX custom virtual environment folder. Only usable for local install.

custom_venv_dir=/opt/my-envs/ and change the path to /home/roger/virtual/awx (make sure you change your local username!)

Install Ansible

To build AWX you need to have Ansible installed to run the install playbook, make sure you are in your virtual environment and run

pip3 install ansible 

Run the install Playbook

You need to be in the inventory folder again

ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml 

If everything is in place this should run fully – watch out for any red!

This will take a little while (at least 10 minutes) to run through as it has to pull some images from Docker, but once it completes you should be able to type docker ps and see your running containers

You can now log into your Ansible AWX instance just point your browser to the IP address of your Ansible AWX.

Do an ifconfig to check your IP – then point to http://<your-ip>

You should see this screen

Ansible AWX Login Screen

Application Issues

Docker support has been removed for Ansible AWX so this process might not run for you at a later date if you try to use newer versions.

It is discussed here – https://groups.google.com/g/awx-project/c/47MjWSUQaOc/m/bCjSDn0eBQAJ

Using Ansible for Network Automation is a great to get started with programmability.
AWX will allow you to schedule jobs, and provide an audit path of previously run tasks.

Remember that there is no support with AWX and if you get stuck there is always the Ansible community. If you are looking for a more enterprise friendly tool Ansible Tower might be a better fit, you you do have to pay for a subscription which gets you support.

A lot of companies use AWX with great success, so why not install it and give it a go.

More Ansible Resources:

Ansible vs Python – Which is best?

Ansible Hosts File Example