AWX Operator

An Ansible AWX operator for Kubernetes built with Operator SDK and Ansible.

Table of Contents

• Purpose
• Usage
  • Basic Install
  • Admin user account configuration
  • Network And TLS Configuration
    • Ingress Type
    • TLS Termination
  • Database Configuration
    • External PostgreSQL Service
    • Managed PostgreSQL Service
  • Advanced Configuration
    • Deploying a specific version of AWX
    • Privilged Tasks
    • Containers Resource Requirements
• Development
  • Testing
    • Testing in Docker
    • Testing in Minikube
• Release Process
  • Build a new release
  • Build a new version of the operator yaml file
• Author

Purpose

This operator is meant to provide a more Kubernetes-native installation method for AWX via an AWX Custom Resource Definition (CRD).

Note that the operator is not supported by Red Hat, and is in alpha status. For now, use it at your own risk!

Usage

Basic Install

This Kubernetes Operator is meant to be deployed in your Kubernetes cluster(s) and can manage one or more AWX instances in any namespace.

First you need to deploy AWX Operator into your cluster:

#> kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/awx-operator/devel/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

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

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 two kind of Ingress to access AWX: Ingress and Route, To toggle between these two 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

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

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

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 two variables that are customizable for awx the image management.

Name	Description	Default
tower_image	Path of the image to pull	ansible/awx:15.0.0
tower_image_pull_policy	The pull policy to adopt	IfNotPresent

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  tower_image: myorg/my-custom-awx
  tower_image_pull_policy: Always

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

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:

1. Make sure you have an entry like IP_ADDRESS example-awx.test in your /etc/hosts file. (Get the IP address with minikube ip.)
2. 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

Release Process

There are a few moving parts to this project:

1. The Docker image which powers AWX Operator.
2. 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:

Build a new release

Run the following command inside this directory:

#> operator-sdk build quay.io/ansible/awx-operator:$VERSION

Then push the generated image to Docker Hub:

#> docker push quay.io/ansible/awx-operator:$VERSION

Build a new version of the operator yaml file

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

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

#> minikube start --memory 6g --cpus 4
#> minikube addons enable ingress
#> kubectl apply -f deploy/awx-operator.yaml
#> kubectl create namespace example-awx
#> kubectl apply -f deploy/crds/awx_v1beta1_cr.yaml
#> <test everything>
#> minikube delete

If everything works, commit the updated version, then tag a new repository release with the same tag as the Docker image pushed earlier.

Author

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