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/latest
...and clone the latest stable tag, 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.
For more on how to clone the repo, view git clone help.
Once you have a local copy, run the commands in the following sections from the root of the project tree.
Here are the main make targets:
docker-compose-build- used for building the development image, which is used by thedocker-composetarget. You can skip this target if you want to use the latest ghcr.io/ansible/awx_devel:devel image rather than build a new one.docker-compose- make target for development, passes awx_devel image and tag
Notable files:
tools/docker-compose/inventoryfile - used to configure the AWX development environment.tools/docker-compose/ansible/migrate.yml- playbook for migrating data from Local Docker to the Development Environment
- 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
dockergroup, refer to the documentation for details) - Docker Compose.
- Ansible will need to be installed as we use it to template files needed for the docker-compose.
- OpenSSL.
The docker-compose development environment is regularly used and should work on x86_64 systems running:
- Fedora (maintained versions)
- Ubuntu LTS (18, 20)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, CentOS Stream 8
- macOS 11
Use on other platforms is untested, and may require local changes.
In the inventory file, set your pg_password, broadcast_websocket_secret, secret_key, and any other settings you need for your deployment.
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 docker volume. When the container is stopped, the database files will still exist in the docker volume. An external database can be used by setting the pg_host, pg_hostname, and pg_username.
If you are coming from a Local Docker installation of AWX, consider migrating your data first, see the data migration section below.
The AWX base container image (defined in the Dockerfile templated from Dockerfile.j2) contains basic OS dependencies and symbolic links into the development environment that make running the services easy.
Run the following to build the image:
$ make docker-compose-buildThe image will need to be rebuilt if there are any changes to Dockerfile.j2 or any of the files used by the templated Dockerfile.
Once the build completes, you will have a ansible/awx_devel image in your local image cache. Use the docker images command to view it, as follows:
(host)$ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
ansible/awx_devel latest ba9ec3e8df74 26 minutes ago 1.42GBBy default, this image will be tagged with your branch name. You can specify a custom tag by setting an environment variable, for example:
DEVEL_IMAGE_NAME=quay.io/your_user/awx_devel:17.0.1
By default, the development environment will use the devel image from receptor.
This is used directly in docker-compose.yml for the hop nodes.
The receptor binary is also copied over to the main awx_devel image, used in all other AWX nodes.
Because of this, the RECEPTOR_IMAGE environment variable must be set when running
both docker-compose-build and docker-compose in order to use the correct receptor in all containers.
If you need to create a new receptor image, you can check out receptor and build it like this:
CONTAINERCMD=docker TAG=quay.io/ansible/receptor:release_1.1 make containerThen that can be used by AWX like this:
export RECEPTOR_IMAGE=quay.io/ansible/receptor:release_1.1
make docker-compose-build
make docker-composeRun the awx, postgres and redis containers. This utilizes the image built in the previous step, and will automatically start all required services and dependent containers. Once the containers launch, your session will be attached to the awx container, and you'll be able to watch log messages and events in real time. You will see messages from Django and the front end build process.
$ make docker-composeThe make target assumes that the image you built is tagged with your current branch. This allows you to build images for different contexts or branches. When starting the containers, you can choose a specific branch by setting
COMPOSE_TAG=<branch name>in your environment. For example, you might be working in a feature branch, but you want to run the containers using the devel image you built previously. To do that, start the containers using the following command:$ COMPOSE_TAG=devel make docker-compose
For running docker-compose detached mode, start the containers using the following command:
$ make docker-compose COMPOSE_UP_OPTS=-d
If you have encountered the infinitely-repeating Waiting for postgres to be ready to accept connections message during the execution, try to do the following:
- Stop and delete AWX-related docker containers.
- Delete all associated docker volumes.
- Delete all associated docker networks.
- Repeat the process from scratch.
If you have only AWX-related container entities in your system, you can simply stop and delete everything using the following commands:
docker stop $(docker ps -a -q)
docker system prune -a
docker volume prune
docker network pruneA cluster (of containers) with execution nodes and a hop node can be created by the docker-compose Makefile target.
By default, it will create 1 hybrid node.
You can switch the type of AWX nodes between hybrid and control with MAIN_NODE_TYPE.
MAIN_NODE_TYPE=control EXECUTION_NODE_COUNT=2 COMPOSE_TAG=devel make docker-compose
Running the above command will create a cluster of 1 control node, 1 hop node, and 2 execution nodes. A hop node is automatically created whenever there are 1 or more execution nodes.
The number of nodes can be changed:
CONTROL_PLANE_NODE_COUNT=2 EXECUTION_NODE_COUNT=3 COMPOSE_TAG=devel make docker-compose
This will spin up a topology represented below. (names are the receptor node names, which differ from the AWX Instance names and network address in some cases)
┌──────────────┐
│ │
┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────┤ receptor-1 │
│ │ │ │ │
│ awx_1 │◄──────────┐ │ └──────────────┘
│ │ │ ▼
└──────┬───────┘ ┌──────┴───────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ receptor-hop │◄───────┤ receptor-2 │
▼ │ │ │ │
┌──────────────┐ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘
│ │ ▲
│ awx_2 │ │ ┌──────────────┐
│ │ │ │ │
└──────────────┘ └──────────┤ receptor-3 │
│ │
└──────────────┘
All execution (receptor-*) nodes connect to the hop node.
Only the awx_1 node connects to the hop node out of the AWX cluster.
awx_1 connects to awx_2, fulfilling the requirement that the AWX cluster is fully connected.
For example, if a job is launched with awx_2 as the controller_node and receptor-3 as the execution_node,
then awx_2 communicates to receptor-3 via awx_1 and then receptor-hop.
The first time you start the environment, database migrations need to run in order to build the PostgreSQL database. It will take few moments, but eventually you will see output in your terminal session that looks like the following:
awx_1 | Operations to perform:
awx_1 | Synchronize unmigrated apps: solo, api, staticfiles, debug_toolbar, messages, channels, django_extensions, ui, rest_framework, polymorphic
awx_1 | Apply all migrations: sso, taggit, sessions, sites, kombu_transport_django, contenttypes, auth, conf, main
awx_1 | Synchronizing apps without migrations:
awx_1 | Creating tables...
awx_1 | Running deferred SQL...
awx_1 | Installing custom SQL...
awx_1 | Running migrations:
awx_1 | Rendering model states... DONE
awx_1 | Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
awx_1 | Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
awx_1 | Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
...Prerequisites (on your local machine)
- npm
- nodejs
Required versions listed here https://github.com/ansible/ansible-ui/blob/main/README.md
On your local machine (not in awx container)
make clean/ui uiThis will clone the ansible-ui into the awx/ui/src directory and build the static files. Then when the containers come up, awx-manage collectstatic will copy those files into the proper place.
You can also use UI_LOCAL to build from a locally cloned ansible-ui repo.
See the ui development documentation for more information on using the frontend development, build, and test tooling.
Once migrations are completed and the UI is built, you can begin using AWX. The UI can be reached in your browser at https://localhost:8043/, and the API can be found at https://localhost:8043/api/v2.
Before you can log into AWX, you need to create an admin user. With this user you will be able to create more users, and begin configuring the server. From within the container shell, run the following command:
$ docker exec -ti tools_awx_1 awx-manage createsuperuserRemember the username and password, as you will use them to log into the web interface for the first time.
Optionally, you may also want to load some demo data. This will create a demo project, inventory, and job template.
$ docker exec tools_awx_1 awx-manage create_preload_dataThis information will persist in the database running in the
tools_postgres_1container, until the container is removed. You may periodically need to recreate this container, and thus the database, if the database schema changes in an upstream commit.
If you are migrating data from a Local Docker installation (17.0.1 and prior), you can migrate your data to the development environment via the migrate.yml playbook using the steps described here.
Upgrading AWX involves checking out the new source code and re-running the make target. Download a newer release from https://github.com/ansible/awx/releases and re-populate the inventory file with your customized variables.
After updating the inventory file with any custom values, run the make target from the root of your AWX clone.
$ make docker-compose- Start a shell
- Start AWX from the container shell
- Using Logstash
- Start a Cluster
- Start with Minikube
- Splunk Integration
To run awx-manage commands and modify things inside the container, you will want to start a shell session on the awx container. In a new terminal session, use the docker exec command to start the shell session:
(host)$ docker exec -it tools_awx_1 bashThis creates a session in the awx containers, just as if you were using ssh, and allows you execute commands within the running container.
Often times you'll want to start the development environment without immediately starting all of the services in the awx container, and instead be taken directly to a shell. You can do this with the following:
(host)$ make docker-compose-testUsing docker exec, this will create a session in the running awx container, and place you at a command prompt, where you can run shell commands inside the container.
If you want to start and use the development environment, you'll first need to bootstrap it by running the following command:
(container)# /usr/bin/bootstrap_development.shThe above will do all the setup tasks, including running database migrations, so it may take a couple minutes. Once it's done it will drop you back to the shell.
In order to launch all developer services:
(container)# /usr/bin/launch_awx.shlaunch_awx.sh also calls bootstrap_development.sh so if all you are doing is launching the supervisor to start all services, you don't
need to call bootstrap_development.sh first.
Certain features or bugs are only applicable when running a cluster of AWX nodes. To bring up a 3 node cluster development environment simply run the below command.
(host)$ CONTROL_PLANE_NODE_COUNT=3 make docker-composeCONTROL_PLANE_NODE_COUNT is configurable and defaults to 1, effectively a non-clustered AWX.
Note that you may see multiple messages of the form 2021-03-04 20:11:47,666 WARNING [-] awx.main.wsrelay Connection from awx_2 to awx_5 failed: 'Cannot connect to host awx_5:8013 ssl:False [Name or service not known]'.. This can happen when you bring up a cluster of many nodes, say 10, then you bring up a cluster of less nodes, say 3. In this example, there will be 7 Instance records in the database that represent AWX instances. The AWX development environment mimics the VM deployment (vs. kubernetes) and expects the missing nodes to be brought back to healthy by the admin. The warning message you are seeing is all of the AWX nodes trying to connect the websocket backplane. You can manually delete the Instance records from the database i.e. Instance.objects.get(hostname='awx_9').delete() to stop the warnings.
To bring up a 1 node AWX + minikube that is accessible from AWX run the following.
Start minikube
(host)$minikube start --cpus=4 --memory=8g --addons=ingressStart AWX
(host)$ make docker-compose-container-groupAlternatively, you can set the env var MINIKUBE_CONTAINER_GROUP=true to use the default dev env bring up. his way you can use other env flags like the cluster node count. Set MINIKUBE_SETUP=true to make the roles download, install and run minikube for you, but if you run into issues with this just start minikube yourself.
(host)$ MINIKUBE_CONTAINER_GROUP=true make docker-composeIf you want to clean all things once your are done, you can do:
(host)$ make docker-compose-container-group-cleanSplunk is a log aggregation tool that can be used to test AWX with external logging integration. This section describes how to build a reference Splunk instance and plumb it with your AWX for testing purposes.
First, be sure that you have the awx.awx collection installed by running make install_collection.
Next, install the splunk.es collection by running ansible-galaxy collection install splunk.es.
Anytime you want to run a Splunk instance alongside AWX we can start docker-compose with the SPLUNK option to get a Splunk instance with the command:
SPLUNK=true make docker-composeOnce the containers come up three new ports (8000, 8089 and 9199) should be exposed and the Splunk server should be running on some of those ports (the 9199 will be created later by the plumbing playbook). The first port (8000) is the non-SSL admin port and you can log into splunk with the credentials admin/splunk_admin. The url will be like http://:8000/ this will be referenced below. The 8089 is the API port that the ansible modules will use to connect to and configure splunk. The 9199 port will be used to construct a TCP listener in Splunk that AWX will forward messages to.
Once the containers are up we are ready to configure and plumb Splunk with AWX. To do this we have provided a playbook which will:
- Backup and configure the External Logging adapter in AWX. NOTE: this will back up your existing settings but the password fields can not be backed up through the API, you need a DB backup to recover this.
- Create a TCP port in Splunk for log forwarding
For routing traffic between AWX and Splunk we will use the internal docker compose network. The Logging Aggregator will be configured using the internal network machine name of splunk.
Once you have have the collections installed (from above) you can run the playbook like:
export CONTROLLER_USERNAME=<your username>
export CONTROLLER_PASSWORD=<your password>
ansible-playbook tools/docker-compose/ansible/plumb_splunk.ymlOnce the playbook is done running Splunk should now be setup in your development environment. You can log into the admin console (see above for username/password) and click on "Searching and Reporting" in the left hand navigation. In the search box enter source="http:tower_logging_collections" and click search.
Run a HashiVault container alongside of AWX.
VAULT=true make docker-composeYou can find the initialization data at tools/docker-compose/_sources/secrets/vault_init.yml,
This includes the unseal keys and a root token.
You will need to unseal the HashiVault each time the container is started. The easiest way to do that is to run:
ansible-playbook tools/docker-compose/ansible/unseal_vault.ymlThis will perform the unseal and also display the root token for login.
For demo purposes, Vault will be auto-configured to include a Key Value (KV) vault called my_engine along with a secret called my_key in /my_engine/my_root/my_folder.
The secret value is this_is_the_secret_value.
To create a secret connected to this vault in AWX you can run the following playbook:
export CONTROLLER_USERNAME=<your username>
export CONTROLLER_PASSWORD=<your password>
ansible-playbook tools/docker-compose/ansible/plumb_vault.ymlThis will create the following items in your AWX instance:
- A credential called
Vault Lookup Credtied to the vault instance. - A credential called
Vault UserPass Lookup Credtied to the vault instance. - A custom credential type called
Vault Custom Cred Type. - A credential called
Credential From HashiCorp Vault via Token Authwhich is of the created type using theVault Lookup Credto get the secret. - A credential called
Credential From HashiCorp Vault via UserPass Authwhich is of the created type using theVault Userpass Lookup Credto get the secret.
The custom credential type adds a variable when used in a playbook called the_secret_from_vault.
If you have a playbook like:
---
- name: Show a vault secret
hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: False
tasks:
- debug:
var: the_secret_from_vault
And run it through AWX with the credential Credential From Vault via Token Auth tied to it, the debug should result in this_is_the_secret_value. If you run it through AWX with the credential Credential From Vault via Userpass Auth, the debug should result in this_is_the_userpass_secret_value.
See docs at https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/tools/grafana/README.md
OTEL=true GRAFANA=true LOKI=true PROMETHEUS=true make docker-composeThis will start the sidecar container tools_otel_1 and configure AWX logging to send to it. The OpenTelemetry Collector is configured to export logs to Loki. Grafana is configured with Loki as a datasource. AWX logs can be viewed in Grafana.
http://localhost:3001 grafana