Install AWX 19.2.0 on Ubuntu 20.04 – Unbuffered Technology Solutions

Created: 6/10/2021

I’ve been pretty frustrated that the AWX community moved to Kubernetes deployments. I wanted to try to find the simplest solution to get this up and running.

I can’t vouch for the security of this setup yet. It is a work in progress, and I will update it as I learn more.

Running containers for years, I find Kubernetes very interesting. However, I’m stepping into this very slowly and carefully.

I chose to configure the PostgreSQL database as a deb package instead of a container. I will probably convert this later on as I get more comfortable with the setup (baby steps, you know).

This is a living document. I’m going to clean up the grammar, expand a bit on each subject, and work on providing better documentation.

Assumptions:

Due to aliasing in bash and the snap command, I chose to document executing this as the root user. I would recommend using sudo in front of the commands instead.
# represents a root prompt (your logged in as root, eg sudo -u -i).
user$ represents a non-privileged user – eg sudo -u user -i

Item	Value	Notes
Operating System	Ubuntu 20.04.2	Fresh install, all filesystems formatted XFS Packages up to date
Kubernetes	microk8s	snap install microk8s –classic
OS IP	192.168.0.65	Internal IP of host
K8s namespace	Default	Using the default namespace – for now
HA Cluster	No	Single node microk8s cluster
AWX Runner	0.10.0	https://github.com/ansible/awx-operator/blob/devel/roles/installer/defaults/main.yml Mapping is under image_version
AWX Version	19.2.0	Install with AWX Runner
PostgreSQL	12	Not containerized, fresh install
Nginx	Reverse Proxy	Proxy to the AWX Container Port (NodePort)

Overview

Install Ubuntu 20.04

I can’t vouch for ext4, but I know this configuration works with XFS. I would highly recommend using this filesystem.
Note the ufw (firewall) section below. It needs to be enabled in order for this to work correctly. Make sure you enable ssh – or you may just lock yourself out of your system.

Install Postgresql 12

Install the postgresql packages

# sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib
# pg_ctlcluster 12 main start

Create the postgresql user to connect as, set the password, and grant permissions to the database

# su - postgres
postgres$ psql
postgres=# CREATE USER ums1 WITH PASSWORD 'super-secret';
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE ums1 TO ums1 ;

Configure Postgres to listen on all IP’s

# vi /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf
Change
#listen_addresses = 'localhost'
To

listen_addresses = '*'

Set up authentication to postgres

# vi /etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf

host    all             all             0.0.0.0/0               md5

Restart the postgres service

# systemctl restart postgresql

Install Microk8s

Install the microk8s software

# sudo snap install microk8s --classic 
# sudo ufw allow ssh
# sudo ufw allow in on cni0 
# sudo ufw allow out on cni0
# sudo ufw default allow routed
# sudo ufw enable ufw
# sudo microk8s start
# sudo microk8s status --wait-ready

Make things easier

Add to bashrc

# alias kubectl="microk8s kubectl"
or
# snap alias microk8s.kubectl kubectl
and while we are at it - add bash completion
# source <(microk8s.kubectl completion bash)

Deploy AWX Operator

Login to github f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/awx-operator/ and find the current release. At the time of this writing 0.10.0 is current

TODO: mapping

# kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/awx-operator/0.10.0/deploy/awx-operator.yaml
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/awxs.awx.ansible.com created
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/awxbackups.awx.ansible.com created
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/awxrestores.awx.ansible.com created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/awx-operator created
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/awx-operator created
serviceaccount/awx-operator created
deployment.apps/awx-operator created

List out the POD’s

# kubectl get pods
NAME                            READY   STATUS              RESTARTS   AGE
awx-operator-5dd757f594-qtw95   0/1     ContainerCreating   0          4m37s

Create a file. I called it ums1-awx1.unbuffered.lan.yml

---
apiVersion: awx.ansible.com/v1beta1
kind: AWX
metadata:
  name: ums-awx1  # or some other name
spec:
  service_type: nodeport
  ingress_type: ingress
  hostname: ums-awx1.unbuffered.lan

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: ums1-postgres-configuration
  namespace: default
stringData:
  host: "192.168.0.65"
  port: "5432"
  database: ums1
  username: ums1
  password: super-secret
  sslmode: prefer
  type: unmanaged
type: Opaque

# kubectl apply -f ums1-awx1.unbuffered.lan.yml 
awx.awx.ansible.com/ums-awx1 created
secret/ums1-postgres-configuration configured

Check the status

# kubectl get awx
NAME              AGE
ums1              93s

Look at the details of the running pods:

# kubectl get pods -l "app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=awx-operator"
NAME                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
ums1-6bf679c645-zqskm   4/4     Running   0          2m34s

List the containers in the pod

# kubectl describe pod/ums1-6bf679c645-zqskm  -n default

Connect to the pod

# kubectl exec --stdin --tty ums1-6bf679c645-zqskm -c ums1-web -- /bin/bash
Your in the container now
bash-4.4$ awx-manage check_db
Database Version: PostgreSQL 12.7 (Ubuntu 12.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0, 64-bit

List the service port

# kubectl get svc 
NAME                   TYPE        CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)             AGE
kubernetes             ClusterIP   10.152.183.1     <none>        443/TCP             33m
awx-operator-metrics   ClusterIP   10.152.183.243   <none>        8383/TCP,8686/TCP   28m
ums1-service           NodePort    10.152.183.193   <none>        80:30791/TCP        26m

See if the AWX API is responding

# curl -q http://10.152.183.193:80/api/v2/ping -L
{"ha":false,"version":"19.2.0","active_node":"ums1-6bf679c645-zqskm","install_uuid":"5158b1b3-0822-491e-adba-6b609c3c498c","instances":[{"node":"ums1-6bf679c645-zqskm","uuid":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","heartbeat":"2021-06-11T01:27:47.501319Z","capacity":0,"version":"19.2.0"}],"instance_groups":[{"name":"tower","capacity":0,"instances":[]}]}

Install Nginx proxy

Install the software.

# apt install nginx

Add the following to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;
        location / {
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
                proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
                proxy_pass http://10.152.183.193:80/;
        }
}

Restart nginx (and enable it)

# systemctl restart nginx
# systemctl enable nginx

Get the admin password for awx

# kubectl get secret ums1-admin-password -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 --decode

Connect to AWX for the first time

http://192.168.0.65

Data Migration

Todo

Upgrading