How to Install Ansible AWX on CentOS 7

In the previous tutorial, I showed you how to deploy Ansible AWX via docker. In the meantime, I’ve found two projects that build rpm packages for AWX. So in this tutorial, I will show you how to install Ansible AWX from RPM  files on CentOS 7. Ansible AWX is the OpenSource version of the Ansible Tower software.

I will be using 3 servers with CentOS 7 minimal installation and SELinux in permissive mode.

• 192.168.1.25 AWX Server
• 192.168.1.21 client1
• 192.168.1.22 client2

Minimum System Requirements for AWX Server

• At least 4GB of memory
• At least 2 cpu cores
• At least 20GB of space
• Running Docker, Openshift, or Kubernetes

Check the SELinux configuration.

[[email protected] ~]# sestatus
SELinux status: enabled
SELinuxfs mount: /sys/fs/selinux
SELinux root directory: /etc/selinux
Loaded policy name: targeted
Current mode: permissive
Mode from config file: permissive
Policy MLS status: enabled
Policy deny_unknown status: allowed
Max kernel policy version: 28
[[email protected] ~]#

Add the host entries in

/etc/hosts

[[email protected] ~]# cat /etc/hosts
192.168.1.25 awx.sunil.cc awx
192.168.1.21 client1.sunil.cc client1
192.168.1.22 client2.sunil.cc client2
[[email protected] ~]#

Add the firewall rules

[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable firewalld
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.fedoraproject.FirewallD1.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/firewalld.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service.
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start firewalld
[[email protected] ~]# firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent;firewall-cmd --add-service=https --permanent
success
success
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl restart firewalld
[[email protected] ~]#

Enable CentOS EPEL repository.

[[email protected] ~]# yum install -y epel-release

We need postgresql 9.6 for AWX installation.

Enable postgreSQL repo.

[[email protected] ~]# yum install -y https://download.postgresql.org/pub/repos/yum/9.6/redhat/rhel-7-x86_64/pgdg-centos96-9.6-3.noarch.rpm

Installing postgreSQL.

[[email protected] ~]# yum install postgresql96-server -y

Installing the other necessary rpms.

[[email protected] ~]# yum install -y rabbitmq-server wget memcached nginx ansible

Installing Ansible AWX

Adding the AWX repo.

[[email protected] ~]# wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/awx-rpm.repo https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/mrmeee/awx/repo/epel-7/mrmeee-awx-epel-7.repo

Installing the rpm

[[email protected] ~]# yum install -y awx

Intializing the database

[[email protected] ~]# /usr/pgsql-9.6/bin/postgresql96-setup initdb
Initializing database ... OK

[[email protected] ~]#

Starting the Rabbitmq Service

[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start rabbitmq-server
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable rabbitmq-server
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/rabbitmq-server.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/rabbitmq-server.service.
[[email protected] ~]#

Starting PostgreSQL Service

[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable postgresql-9.6
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/postgresql-9.6.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/postgresql-9.6.service.
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start postgresql-9.6

Starting Memcached Service

[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable memcached
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/memcached.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/memcached.service.
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start memcached

Creating Postgres user

[[email protected] ~]# sudo -u postgres createuser -S awx
could not change directory to "/root": Permission denied
[[email protected] ~]#

ignore the error

Creating the database

[[email protected] ~]# sudo -u postgres createdb -O awx awx
could not change directory to "/root": Permission denied
[[email protected] ~]#

ignore the error

Importing the data into Database

[[email protected] ~]# sudo -u awx /opt/awx/bin/awx-manage migrate

Initializing the configuration for AWX

[[email protected] ~]# echo "from django.contrib.auth.models import User; User.objects.create_superuser('admin', '[email protected]', 'password')" | sudo -u awx /opt/awx/bin/awx-manage shell
[[email protected] ~]# sudo -u awx /opt/awx/bin/awx-manage create_preload_data
Default organization added.
Demo Credential, Inventory, and Job Template added.
[[email protected] ~]# sudo -u awx /opt/awx/bin/awx-manage provision_instance --hostname=$(hostname)
Successfully registered instance awx.sunil.cc
(changed: True)
[[email protected] ~]# sudo -u awx /opt/awx/bin/awx-manage register_queue --queuename=tower --hostnames=$(hostname)
Creating instance group tower
Added instance awx.sunil.cc to tower
(changed: True)
[[email protected] ~]#

Configure Nginx

Take the backup of nginx.conf

[[email protected] ~]# cd /etc/nginx/
[[email protected] nginx]# pwd
/etc/nginx
[[email protected] nginx]# cp nginx.conf nginx.conf.bkp

Replace the nginx conf file

[[email protected] nginx]# wget -O /etc/nginx/nginx.conf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sunilsankar/awx-build/master/nginx.conf

Enable and start nginx service

[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start nginx
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable nginx

Start the awx services

[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start awx-cbreceiver
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start awx-celery-beat
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start awx-celery-worker
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start awx-channels-worker
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start awx-daphne
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl start awx-web

Make sure the service is started during restart

[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable awx-cbreceiver
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/awx-cbreceiver.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/awx-cbreceiver.service.
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable awx-celery-beat
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/awx-celery-beat.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/awx-celery-beat.service.
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable awx-celery-worker
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/awx-celery-worker.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/awx-celery-worker.service.
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable awx-channels-worker
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/awx-channels-worker.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/awx-channels-worker.service.
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable awx-daphne
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/awx-daphne.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/awx-daphne.service.
[[email protected] ~]# systemctl enable awx-web
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/awx-web.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/awx-web.service.
[[email protected] ~]#

Configure passwordless login from AWX server

Create a user on all the 3 hosts.

Here in this tutorial, I am creating a user ansible on all the 3 servers.

[[email protected] ~]# useradd ansible
[[email protected] ~]# useradd ansible
[[email protected] ~]# useradd ansible

Generating ssh key in awx server

[[email protected] nginx]# su - ansible
[[email protected] ~]$ ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/home/ansible/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:RW/dhTsxcyGicleRI0LpLm+LyhAVinm0xktapodc8gY [email protected]
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 2048]----+
| . . ..o. +ooo|
| = o . +.oo+*.o|
| E @ . ..oo.+ o*.|
|. # o oo.. o |
| = * S . |
| o . . . |
| . o |
| o .o |
| o..... |
+----[SHA256]-----+
[[email protected] ~]$

Adding the sudoers entry on all 3 servers as a last entry to the file

[[email protected] nginx]# visudo
ansible ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Copy the content of id_rsa.pub to authorized_keys on all the 3 servers

[[email protected] .ssh]$ cat id_rsa.pub
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDStB8JGsVsSLppwYWdnEPLE4xwFqRDn7xE/d3hjBQ6A0JGm1t+GtHB3GPIEjANFTnxQwHpR+cRttbL3mlQvpIYqCZOMZds9XA7VI5qgs0aSGUU8cNYKjmmrMpJa9sB4WVtj3M4u2fEXt9FKKCtjMMpOfiQxIkEhYZ+2GoAX5sHXan7TPcgwb5r7WW6j43aaPc6g9XWN63nonQz6KeMSFZ/y0o2HJMh1FEkktZw6A1HVfn+JNWoQb1glyqGjO1ync+Sok8yXpqakEEWpXNQSQYs4eBEwfkKql5EuolQMIbF9VYhpEcR9LfbMvYdq/RPKWN3mmRMWfPZ2dTZl515XBdV [email protected]
[[email protected] .ssh]$
[[email protected] .ssh]$ cat authorized_keys
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDStB8JGsVsSLppwYWdnEPLE4xwFqRDn7xE/d3hjBQ6A0JGm1t+GtHB3GPIEjANFTnxQwHpR+cRttbL3mlQvpIYqCZOMZds9XA7VI5qgs0aSGUU8cNYKjmmrMpJa9sB4WVtj3M4u2fEXt9FKKCtjMMpOfiQxIkEhYZ+2GoAX5sHXan7TPcgwb5r7WW6j43aaPc6g9XWN63nonQz6KeMSFZ/y0o2HJMh1FEkktZw6A1HVfn+JNWoQb1glyqGjO1ync+Sok8yXpqakEEWpXNQSQYs4eBEwfkKql5EuolQMIbF9VYhpEcR9LfbMvYdq/RPKWN3mmRMWfPZ2dTZl515XBdV [email protected]
[[email protected] .ssh]$ chmod 600 authorized_keys

Client1

[[email protected] ~]# su - ansible
[[email protected] ~]$ mkdir .ssh
[[email protected] ~]$ chmod 700 .ssh
[[email protected] ~]$ cat .ssh/authorized_keys
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDStB8JGsVsSLppwYWdnEPLE4xwFqRDn7xE/d3hjBQ6A0JGm1t+GtHB3GPIEjANFTnxQwHpR+cRttbL3mlQvpIYqCZOMZds9XA7VI5qgs0aSGUU8cNYKjmmrMpJa9sB4WVtj3M4u2fEXt9FKKCtjMMpOfiQxIkEhYZ+2GoAX5sHXan7TPcgwb5r7WW6j43aaPc6g9XWN63nonQz6KeMSFZ/y0o2HJMh1FEkktZw6A1HVfn+JNWoQb1glyqGjO1ync+Sok8yXpqakEEWpXNQSQYs4eBEwfkKql5EuolQMIbF9VYhpEcR9LfbMvYdq/RPKWN3mmRMWfPZ2dTZl515XBdV [email protected]
[[email protected] ~]$ chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys

Client2

[[email protected] ~]# su - ansible
[[email protected] ~]$ mkdir .ssh
[[email protected] ~]$ chmod 700 .ssh
[[email protected] ~]$ cat .ssh/authorized_keys
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDStB8JGsVsSLppwYWdnEPLE4xwFqRDn7xE/d3hjBQ6A0JGm1t+GtHB3GPIEjANFTnxQwHpR+cRttbL3mlQvpIYqCZOMZds9XA7VI5qgs0aSGUU8cNYKjmmrMpJa9sB4WVtj3M4u2fEXt9FKKCtjMMpOfiQxIkEhYZ+2GoAX5sHXan7TPcgwb5r7WW6j43aaPc6g9XWN63nonQz6KeMSFZ/y0o2HJMh1FEkktZw6A1HVfn+JNWoQb1glyqGjO1ync+Sok8yXpqakEEWpXNQSQYs4eBEwfkKql5EuolQMIbF9VYhpEcR9LfbMvYdq/RPKWN3mmRMWfPZ2dTZl515XBdV [email protected]
[[email protected] ~]$ chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys

Check the passwordless login from AWX server.

[[email protected] ~]$ ssh client1
Last login: Sun Mar 11 13:14:06 2018 from 192.168.1.25
[[email protected] ~]$ exit
logout
Connection to client1 closed.
[[email protected] ~]$ ssh client2
Last login: Sun Mar 11 12:50:14 2018 from 192.168.1.25
[[email protected] ~]$

Validate the Login:

The Login details are:

Username: “admin“
Password: “password“

In the next tutorial will show how to add a playbook and run the job.

Reference