First, you need to deploy AWX Operator into your cluster. Start by going to https://github.com/ansible/awx-operator/releases and making note of the latest release.

Replace <tag> in the URL below with the version you are deploying:

#> kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/awx-operator/<tag>/deploy/awx-operator.yaml

Then create a file named my-awx.yml with the following contents:

---
apiVersion: awx.ansible.com/v1beta1
kind: AWX
metadata:
  name: awx

The metadata.name you provide, will be the name of the resulting AWX deployment. If you deploy more than one to the same namespace, be sure to use unique names.

Finally, use kubectl to create the awx instance in your cluster:

#> kubectl apply -f my-awx.yml

After a few minutes, the new AWX instance will be deployed. One can look at the operator pod logs in order to know where the installation process is at. This can be done by running the following command: kubectl logs -f deployments/awx-operator.

Once deployed, the AWX instance will be accessible at http://awx.mycompany.com/ (assuming your cluster has an Ingress controller configured).

By default, the admin user is admin and the password is available in the <resourcename>-admin-password secret. To retrieve the admin password, run kubectl get secret <resourcename>-admin-password -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 --decode

You just completed the most basic install of an AWX instance via this operator. Congratulations !

Admin user account configuration

There are three variables that are customizable for the admin user account creation.

Name	Description	Default
tower_admin_user	Name of the admin user	admin
tower_admin_email	Email of the admin user	test@example.com
tower_admin_password_secret	Secret that contains the admin user password	Empty string

⚠️ tower_admin_password_secret must be a Kubernetes secret and not your text clear password.

If tower_admin_password_secret is not provided, the operator will look for a secret named <resourcename>-admin-password for the admin password. If it is not present, the operator will generate a password and create a Secret from it named <resourcename>-admin-password.

To retrieve the admin password, run kubectl get secret <resourcename>-admin-password -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 --decode

The secret that is expected to be passed should be formatted as follow:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: <resourcename>-admin-password
  namespace: <target namespace>
stringData:
  password: mysuperlongpassword

Network and TLS Configuration

Ingress Type

By default, the AWX operator is not opinionated and won't force a specific ingress type on you. So, if tower_ingress_type is not specified as part of the Custom Resource specification, it will default to none and nothing ingress-wise will be created.

The AWX operator provides support for three kinds of Ingress to access AWX: Ingress, Route and LoadBalancer, To toggle between these options, you can add the following to your AWX CR:

Route

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_ingress_type: Route

Ingress

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_ingress_type: Ingress
  tower_hostname: awx.mycompany.com

LoadBalancer

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_ingress_type: LoadBalancer
  tower_loadbalancer_protocol: http

TLS Termination

Route

The following variables are customizable to specify the TLS termination procedure when Route is picked as an Ingress

Name	Description	Default
tower_route_host	Common name the route answers for	Empty string
tower_route_tls_termination_mechanism	TLS Termination mechanism (Edge, Passthrough)	Edge
tower_route_tls_secret	Secret that contains the TLS information	Empty string

Ingress

The following variables are customizable to specify the TLS termination procedure when Ingress is picked as an Ingress

Name	Description	Default
tower_ingress_annotations	Ingress annotations	Empty string
tower_ingress_tls_secret	Secret that contains the TLS information	Empty string

LoadBalancer

The following variables are customizable to specify the TLS termination procedure when LoadBalancer is picked as an Ingress

Name	Description	Default
tower_loadbalancer_annotations	LoadBalancer annotations	Empty string
tower_loadbalancer_protocol	Protocol to use for Loadbalancer ingress	http
tower_loadbalancer_port	Port used for Loadbalancer ingress	80

When setting up a Load Balancer for HTTPS you will be required to set the tower_loadbalancer_port to move the port away from 80.

The HTTPS Load Balancer also uses SSL termination at the Load Balancer level and will offload traffic to AWX over HTTP.

Database Configuration

External PostgreSQL Service

In order for the AWX instance to rely on an external database, the Custom Resource needs to know about the connection details. Those connection details should be stored as a secret and either specified as tower_postgres_configuration_secret at the CR spec level, or simply be present on the namespace under the name <resourcename>-postgres-configuration.

The secret should be formatted as follows:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: <resourcename>-postgres-configuration
  namespace: <target namespace>
stringData:
  host: <external ip or url resolvable by the cluster>
  port: <external port, this usually defaults to 5432>
  database: <desired database name>
  username: <username to connect as>
  password: <password to connect with>
type: Opaque

Migrating data from an old AWX instance

For instructions on how to migrate from an older version of AWX, see migration.md.

Managed PostgreSQL Service

If you don't have access to an external PostgreSQL service, the AWX operator can deploy one for you along side the AWX instance itself.

The following variables are customizable for the managed PostgreSQL service

Name	Description	Default
tower_postgres_image	Path of the image to pull	postgres:12
tower_postgres_resource_requirements	PostgreSQL container resource requirements	requests: {storage: 8Gi}
tower_postgres_storage_class	PostgreSQL PV storage class	Empty string
tower_postgres_data_path	PostgreSQL data path	`/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata`

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_postgres_resource_requirements:
    requests:
      memory: 2Gi
      storage: 8Gi
    limits:
      memory: 4Gi
      storage: 50Gi
  tower_postgres_storage_class: fast-ssd

Note: If tower_postgres_storage_class is not defined, Postgres will store it's data on a volume using the default storage class for your cluster.

Advanced Configuration

Deploying a specific version of AWX

There are a few variables that are customizable for awx the image management.

Name	Description
tower_image	Path of the image to pull
tower_image_pull_policy	The pull policy to adopt
tower_image_pull_secret	The pull secret to use
tower_ee_images	A list of EEs to register

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_image: myorg/my-custom-awx
  tower_image_pull_policy: Always
  tower_image_pull_secret: pull_secret_name
  tower_ee_images:
    - name: my-custom-awx-ee
      image: myorg/my-custom-awx-ee

Privileged Tasks

Depending on the type of tasks that you'll be running, you may find that you need the task pod to run as privileged. This can open yourself up to a variety of security concerns, so you should be aware (and verify that you have the privileges) to do this if necessary. In order to toggle this feature, you can add the following to your custom resource:

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_task_privileged: true

If you are attempting to do this on an OpenShift cluster, you will need to grant the awx ServiceAccount the privileged SCC, which can be done with:

#> oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged -z awx

Again, this is the most relaxed SCC that is provided by OpenShift, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the security concerns that accompany this action.

Containers Resource Requirements

The resource requirements for both, the task and the web containers are configurable - both the lower end (requests) and the upper end (limits).

Name	Description	Default
tower_web_resource_requirements	Web container resource requirements	requests: {cpu: 1000m, memory: 2Gi}
tower_task_resource_requirements	Task container resource requirements	requests: {cpu: 500m, memory: 1Gi}

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_web_resource_requirements:
    requests:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 2Gi
    limits:
      cpu: 2000m
      memory: 4Gi
  tower_task_resource_requirements:
    requests:
      cpu: 500m
      memory: 1Gi
    limits:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 2Gi

Assigning AWX pods to specific nodes

You can constrain the AWX pods created by the operator to run on a certain subset of nodes. tower_node_selector and tower_postgres_selector constrains the AWX pods to run only on the nodes that match all the specified key/value pairs. tower_tolerations and tower_postgres_tolerations allow the AWX pods to be scheduled onto nodes with matching taints.

Name	Description	Default
tower_node_selector	AWX pods' nodeSelector	''
tower_tolerations	AWX pods' tolerations	''
tower_postgres_selector	Postgres pods' nodeSelector	''
tower_postgres_tolerations	Postgres pods' tolerations	''

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_node_selector: |
    disktype: ssd
    kubernetes.io/arch: amd64
    kubernetes.io/os: linux
  tower_tolerations: |
    - key: "dedicated"
      operator: "Equal"
      value: "AWX"
      effect: "NoSchedule"
  tower_postgres_selector: |
    disktype: ssd
    kubernetes.io/arch: amd64
    kubernetes.io/os: linux
  tower_postgres_tolerations: |
    - key: "dedicated"
      operator: "Equal"
      value: "AWX"
      effect: "NoSchedule"

LDAP Certificate Authority

If the variable ldap_cacert_secret is provided, the operator will look for a the data field ldap-ca.crt in the specified secret.

Name	Description	Default
ldap_cacert_secret	LDAP Certificate Authority secret name	''

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  ldap_cacert_secret: <resourcename>-ldap-ca-cert

To create the secret, you can use the command below:

# kubectl create secret generic <resourcename>-ldap-ca-cert --from-file=ldap-ca.crt=<PATH/TO/YOUR/CA/PEM/FILE>

Persisting Projects Directory

In cases which you want to persist the /var/lib/projects directory, there are few variables that are customizable for the awx-operator.

Name	Description	Default
tower_projects_persistence	Whether or not the /var/lib/projects directory will be persistent	false
tower_projects_storage_class	Define the PersistentVolume storage class	''
tower_projects_storage_size	Define the PersistentVolume size	8Gi
tower_projects_storage_access_mode	Define the PersistentVolume access mode	ReadWriteMany
tower_projects_existing_claim	Define an existing PersistentVolumeClaim to use (cannot be combined with `tower_projects_storage_*`)	''

Example of customization when the awx-operator automatically handles the persistent volume could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_projects_persistence: true
  tower_projects_storage_class: rook-ceph
  tower_projects_storage_size: 20Gi

Custom Volume and Volume Mount Options

In a scenario where custom volumes and volume mounts are required to either overwrite defaults or mount configuration files.

Name	Description	Default
tower_extra_volumes	Specify extra volumes to add to the application pod	''
tower_web_extra_volume_mounts	Specify volume mounts to be added to Web container	''
tower_task_extra_volume_mounts	Specify volume mounts to be added to Task container	''
tower_ee_extra_volume_mounts	Specify volume mounts to be added to Execution container	''

Example configuration for ConfigMap

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: <resourcename>-extra-config
  namespace: <target namespace>
data:
  ansible.cfg: |
     [defaults]
     remote_tmp = /tmp
     [ssh_connection]
     ssh_args = -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s
  custom.py:  |
      INSIGHTS_URL_BASE = "example.org"
      AWX_CLEANUP_PATHS = True

Example spec file for volumes and volume mounts

---
    spec:
    ...
      tower_ee_extra_volume_mounts: |
        - name: ansible-cfg
          mountPath: /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
          subPath: ansible.cfg

      tower_task_extra_volume_mounts: |
        - name: custom-py
          mountPath: /etc/tower/conf.d/custom.py
          subPath: custom.py

      tower_extra_volumes: |
        - name: ansible-cfg
          configMap:
            defaultMode: 420
            items:
              - key: ansible.cfg
                path: ansible.cfg
            name: <resourcename>-extra-config
        - name: custom-py
          configMap:
            defaultMode: 420
            items:
              - key: custom.py
                path: custom.py
            name: <resourcename>-extra-config

⚠️ Volume and VolumeMount names cannot contain underscores(_)

Upgrade Notes

From Older Versions

For AWX instances created by the awx-operator<0.0.8, it is required both PostgreSQL statefulset and AWX deployment resources to be deleted and recreated. This is required due to new labels added on both resources and the requirement of the Kubernetes API which enforces selector.matchLabels attributes to be ready-only.

The awx-operator will handle the upgrading both resources. Note that just the statefulset and deployment will be recreated. Therefore, any persistent volume used on any of these 2 resources, shall not be deleted.

Exporting Environment Variables to Containers

If you need to export custom environment variables to your containers.

Name	Description	Default
tower_task_extra_env	Environment variables to be added to Task container	''
tower_web_extra_env	Environment variables to be added to Web container	''

Example configuration of environment variables

  spec:
    tower_task_extra_env: |
      - name: MYCUSTOMVAR
        value: foo
    tower_web_extra_env: |
      - name: MYCUSTOMVAR
        value: foo

Development

Testing

This Operator includes a Molecule-based test environment, which can be executed standalone in Docker (e.g. in CI or in a single Docker container anywhere), or inside any kind of Kubernetes cluster (e.g. Minikube).

You need to make sure you have Molecule installed before running the following commands. You can install Molecule with:

#> pip install 'molecule[docker]'

Running molecule test sets up a clean environment, builds the operator, runs all configured tests on an example operator instance, then tears down the environment (at least in the case of Docker).

If you want to actively develop the operator, use molecule converge, which does everything but tear down the environment at the end.

Testing in Docker

#> molecule test -s test-local

This environment is meant for headless testing (e.g. in a CI environment, or when making smaller changes which don't need to be verified through a web interface). It is difficult to test things like AWX's web UI or to connect other applications on your local machine to the services running inside the cluster, since it is inside a Docker container with no static IP address.

Testing in Minikube

#> minikube start --memory 8g --cpus 4
#> minikube addons enable ingress
#> molecule test -s test-minikube

Minikube is a more full-featured test environment running inside a full VM on your computer, with an assigned IP address. This makes it easier to test things like NodePort services and Ingress from outside the Kubernetes cluster (e.g. in a browser on your computer).

Once the operator is deployed, you can visit the AWX UI in your browser by following these steps:

Make sure you have an entry like IP_ADDRESS example-awx.test in your /etc/hosts file. (Get the IP address with minikube ip.)
Visit http://example-awx.test/ in your browser. (Default admin login is test/changeme.)

Alternatively, you can also update the service awx-service in your namespace to use the type NodePort and use following command to get the URL to access your AWX instance:

#> minikube service <serviceName> -n <namespaceName> --url

Generating a bundle

⚠️ operator-sdk version 0.19.4 is needed to run the following commands

If one has the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) installed, the following steps is the process to generate the bundle that would nicely display in the OLM interface.

At the root of this directory:

Build and publish the operator

#> operator-sdk build registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator:mytag
#> podman push registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator:mytag

Build and publish the bundle

#> podman build . -f bundle.Dockerfile -t registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator-bundle:mytag
#> podman push registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator-bundle:mytag

Build and publish an index with your bundle in it

#> opm index add --bundles registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator-bundle:mytag --tag registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator-catalog:mytag
#> podman push registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator-catalog:mytag

In your Kubernetes create a new CatalogSource pointing to registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator-catalog:mytag

---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: <catalogsource-name>
  namespace: <namespace>
spec:
  displayName: 'myoperatorhub'
  image: registry.example.com/ansible/awx-operator-catalog:mytag
  publisher: 'myoperatorhub'
  sourceType: grpc

Applying this template will do it. Once the CatalogSource is in a READY state, the bundle should be available on the OperatorHub tab (as part of the custom CatalogSource that just got added)

Enjoy

Release Process

There are a few moving parts to this project:

The Docker image which powers AWX Operator.
The awx-operator.yaml Kubernetes manifest file which initially deploys the Operator into a cluster.

Each of these must be appropriately built in preparation for a new tag:

Verify Functionality

Run the following command inside this directory:

#> operator-sdk build quay.io/<user>/awx-operator:test

Then push the generated image to Docker Hub:

#> docker push quay.io/<user>/awx-operator:test

After it is built, test it on a local cluster:

#> minikube start --memory 6g --cpus 4
#> minikube addons enable ingress
#> ansible-playbook ansible/deploy-operator.yml -e operator_image=quay.io/<user>/awx-operator -e operator_version=test
#> kubectl create namespace example-awx
#> ansible-playbook ansible/instantiate-awx-deployment.yml -e tower_namespace=example-awx
#> <test everything>
#> minikube delete

Update version

Update the awx-operator version:

ansible/group_vars/all

Once the version has been updated, run from the root of the repo:

#> ansible-playbook ansible/chain-operator-files.yml

Commit / Create Release

If everything works, commit the updated version, then publish a new release using the same version you used in ansible/group_vars/all.

After creating the release, this GitHub Workflow will run and publish the new image to quay.io.

Author

This operator was originally built in 2019 by Jeff Geerling and is now maintained by the Ansible Team

Languages

Jinja 86%

Makefile 8.5%

Shell 4%

Python 0.9%

Dockerfile 0.6%

README.md

AWX Operator

Table of Contents

Purpose

Usage

Basic Install

Admin user account configuration

Network and TLS Configuration

Ingress Type

TLS Termination

Database Configuration

External PostgreSQL Service

Migrating data from an old AWX instance

Managed PostgreSQL Service

Advanced Configuration

Deploying a specific version of AWX

Privileged Tasks

Containers Resource Requirements

Assigning AWX pods to specific nodes

LDAP Certificate Authority

Persisting Projects Directory

Custom Volume and Volume Mount Options

Upgrade Notes

From Older Versions

Exporting Environment Variables to Containers

Development

Testing

Testing in Docker

Testing in Minikube

Generating a bundle

Release Process

Verify Functionality

Update version

Commit / Create Release

Author