Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker

travisdh1

Did this write up because everything else I found online were outdated.

I’m going to assume your starting from a CentOS 7 minimal install. It should have at least 2 cpu cores and 4GB RAM, tho I’d recommend more of each. Storage space wise, requirements call for at least 20GB, I went with 40GB.

This guide was written using the AWX install instructions on github: https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/INSTALL.md

In my case I did add in the XCP-ng guest tools as this is running on an XCP-ng server, but that shouldn’t affect anything in this guide.

All of these commands need to be run as root. Add sudo at the start of each command, or start out with sudo su -

Install some utilities I always like to have available.

yum -y install nano epel-release git yum-cron
yum -y install glances
sed -i 's/no/yes/g' /etc/yum/yum-cron.conf
systemctl enable --now yum-cron

Make sure the network adapter starts on boot. I use static IP mapping through DHCP, so no IP config needs done here.

sed -i 's/ONBOOT=no/ONBOOT=yes/g' /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Add IP addresses for AWX server and guests to hosts file.

echo "x.x.x.x awxhowto.travisdh1.net awxhowto" >> /etc/hosts
echo "x.x.x.x xo.travisdh1.net xo" >> /etc/hosts
echo "x.x.x.x nextcloud.travisdh1.net nextcloud" >> /etc/hosts

Open http firewall port. Mine is behind a reverse proxy, so I don’t configure HTTPS here.

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --reload

Start installing prerequisites. pip is needed for the docker python module, docker-compose, node and npm will not be the correct version from the repository, so we need to handle those ourselves.

yum -y install ansible docker make automake python2-pip
systemctl enable --now docker
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install docker-compose
pip install docker
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install 8
nvm use 8

We should now have all the prerequisites installed, and the correct version of each. Now onto the actual AWX things.

cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/ansible/awx
cd awx

I don’t think the AWX branding is required, but I’ve always put it in.

git clone https://github.com/ansible/awx-logos

Create a directory to persist the PostgreSQL docker instance and update the config.

mkdir /opt/postgresql
sed -i 's:postgres_data_dir=/tmp/pgdocker:postgres_data_dir=/opt/postgresql:g' /root/awx/installer/inventory

Tell the installer to build with the official logos.

sed -i 's:awx_official=false:awx_official=true:g' /root/awx/installer/inventory

Time to start the actual install

cd installer
ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml

That should be it. The web page will not be immediately available until some background processes finish. In order to check this progress use

docker logs -f awx_task

Look for:

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)

You will need to get the default admin password changed asap. Which is admin/password.

When done, you should be able to login and see:

travisdh1

Reserved for nginx reverse proxy config.

travisdh1

Reserved for update process

Emad R

@travisdh1

+++

Many thanks for this I never heard of this project, glad finally we have UI for either SS or Ansible

1337

@Emad-R said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

@travisdh1

+++

Many thanks for this I never heard of this project, glad finally we have UI for either SS or Ansible

The AWX project is upstream project for Red Hat's Ansible Tower.

https://www.ansible.com/products/awx-project/faq

travisdh1

@Pete-S said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

@Emad-R said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

@travisdh1

+++

Many thanks for this I never heard of this project, glad finally we have UI for either SS or Ansible

The AWX project is upstream project for Red Hat's Ansible Tower.

https://www.ansible.com/products/awx-project/faq

Also has lots of Ansible playbooks available at https://galaxy.ansible.com/ to do all the things.

faudel

Hi Travisdh,

Great article, i installed awx without a docker following this guide. [Moderated to remove promotional link.]

RojoLoco

@faudel said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

Hi Travisdh,

Great article, i installed awx without a docker following this guide. Take a look at this link [Moderated to remove promotional link.]

^^^ Kinda suspect, because:

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. Aside from that we also make money from affiliate links.

stacksofplates

Be careful with AWX. I would not use it in production. There are still breaking database changes between versions. There is a migration tool but still. Last time I used it, there were breaking changes from week to week. I've found Jenkins to be more flexible anyway.

wirestyle22

basic nginx config works and you can just run certbot for SSL

server {
	listen 80;
	server_name test.domain.com;
	location / {
	proxy_pass http://192.168.1.x;
	proxy_buffering off;
	}
}

wirestyle22

I attempted to login with admin/password and it is telling me it's the wrong username/password. The documentation says:

awx-manage changepassword admin

-bash: awx-manage : command not found

I am in /opt/awx

hm.

travisdh1

@wirestyle22 awx-manage might be in /opt/awx/bin, /opt/awx/sbin, or something like that. Here I thought the default username/password wouldn't get broken in their code updates. Like @stacksofplates said, AWX looks nice, but the devs are breaking it so often that it isn't something I'd consider production ready. I tried running through this a 3rd time, did everything the same, and it didn't work last night

wirestyle22

@travisdh1

Yeah I am just testing at home

wirestyle22

@travisdh1 seems like I should be able to change the admin password via cli, but it's not recognizing the command. @stacksofplates any ideas?

travisdh1

@wirestyle22 said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

@travisdh1

Yeah I am just testing at home

It's really sad that they are treating AWX this way. Basically means that Ansible/Tower is out of the question because they can't keep a stable code base.

wirestyle22

@travisdh1 I have to imagine that there is a way for me to change a user's password via cli that doesn't use awx-manage, if not then what is the reason that I am unable to use it? Not familiar with it enough to know though. Haven't found anything online yet.

travisdh1

@wirestyle22 said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

@travisdh1 I have to imagine that there is a way for me to change a user's password via cli that doesn't use awx-manage, if not then what is the reason that I am unable to use it? Not familiar with it enough to know though. Haven't found anything online yet.

Obviously I've not had to use awx-manage yet myself. Did you do a sudo find / -name "awx-manage"?

wirestyle22

@travisdh1 went to http://192.168.1.x/api/v1/config/ to try the basic auth prompt. Same issue.

travisdh1

@wirestyle22 said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

@travisdh1 went to http://192.168.1.x/api/v1/config/ to try the basic auth prompt. Same issue.

I won't have access to mine till I get home tonight. Poke me latter and I'll see if I can find awx-manage.

wirestyle22

@travisdh1 said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

@wirestyle22 said in Install AWX on CentOS 7 with Docker:

@travisdh1 went to http://192.168.1.x/api/v1/config/ to try the basic auth prompt. Same issue.

I won't have access to mine till I get home tonight. Poke me latter and I'll see if I can find awx-manage.

I found it. It's in /opt/awx/tools/docker-compose

command still errors.