AWX Operator

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

Table of Contents

• AWX Operator
• Table of Contents
  • Purpose
  • Usage
    • Basic Install
    • Admin user account configuration
    • Network and TLS Configuration
      • Service Type
      • Ingress Type
    • 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
      • Trusting a Custom Certificate Authority
      • Persisting Projects Directory
      • Custom Volume and Volume Mount Options
      • Exporting Environment Variables to Containers
      • Extra Settings
      • Service Account
  • Upgrading
  • Contributing
  • Release Process
    • Verifiy Functionality
    • Update Version
    • Commit / Create Release
  • Author

Purpose

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

⚠️ 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.

For testing purposes, the awx-operator can be deployed on a Minikube cluster. Due to different OS and hardware environments, please refer to the official Minikube documentation for further information.

$ minikube start --addons=ingress --cpus=4 --cni=flannel --install-addons=true \
    --kubernetes-version=stable --memory=6g
😄  minikube v1.20.0 on Fedora 34
✨  Using the kvm2 driver based on user configuration
👍  Starting control plane node minikube in cluster minikube
🔥  Creating kvm2 VM (CPUs=4, Memory=6144MB, Disk=20000MB) ...
🐳  Preparing Kubernetes v1.20.2 on Docker 20.10.6 ...
    ▪ Generating certificates and keys ...
    ▪ Booting up control plane ...
    ▪ Configuring RBAC rules ...
🔗  Configuring Flannel (Container Networking Interface) ...
🔎  Verifying Kubernetes components...
    ▪ Using image docker.io/jettech/kube-webhook-certgen:v1.5.1
    ▪ Using image k8s.gcr.io/ingress-nginx/controller:v0.44.0
    ▪ Using image gcr.io/k8s-minikube/storage-provisioner:v5
    ▪ Using image docker.io/jettech/kube-webhook-certgen:v1.5.1
🔎  Verifying ingress addon...
🌟  Enabled addons: storage-provisioner, default-storageclass, ingress
🏄  Done! kubectl is now configured to use "minikube" cluster and "default" namespace by default

Once Minikube is deployed, check if the node(s) and kube-apiserver communication is working as expected.

$ kubectl get nodes
NAME       STATUS   ROLES                  AGE     VERSION
minikube   Ready    control-plane,master   6m28s   v1.20.2

$ kubectl get pods -A
NAMESPACE       NAME                                        READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
ingress-nginx   ingress-nginx-admission-create-tjk94        0/1     Completed   0          6m4s
ingress-nginx   ingress-nginx-admission-patch-r4pl6         0/1     Completed   0          6m4s
ingress-nginx   ingress-nginx-controller-5d88495688-sbtp9   1/1     Running     0          6m4s
kube-system     coredns-74ff55c5b-2wz6n                     1/1     Running     0          6m4s
kube-system     etcd-minikube                               1/1     Running     0          6m13s
kube-system     kube-apiserver-minikube                     1/1     Running     0          6m13s
kube-system     kube-controller-manager-minikube            1/1     Running     0          6m13s
kube-system     kube-flannel-ds-amd64-lw7lv                 1/1     Running     0          6m3s
kube-system     kube-proxy-lcxx7                            1/1     Running     0          6m3s
kube-system     kube-scheduler-minikube                     1/1     Running     0          6m13s
kube-system     storage-provisioner                         1/1     Running     1          6m17s

Now 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 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/awx-operator/<TAG>/deploy/awx-operator.yaml with the version you are deploying.

$ kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/awx-operator/<TAG>/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

Wait a few minutes and you should have the awx-operator running.

$ kubectl get pods
NAME                            READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
awx-operator-7dbf9db9d7-z9hqx   1/1     Running   0          50s

Then create a file named awx-demo.yml with the suggested content. The metadata.name you provide, will be the name of the resulting AWX deployment. If you deploy more than one AWX instance to the same namespace, be sure to use unique names.

---
apiVersion: awx.ansible.com/v1beta1
kind: AWX
metadata:
  name: awx-demo
spec:
  service_type: nodeport
  ingress_type: none
  hostname: awx-demo.example.com

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

$ kubectl apply -f awx-demo.yml
awx.awx.ansible.com/awx-demo created

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.

$ kubectl get pods -l "app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=awx-operator"
NAME                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
awx-demo-77d96f88d5-pnhr8   4/4     Running   0          3m24s
awx-demo-postgres-0         1/1     Running   0          3m34s

$ kubectl get svc -l "app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=awx-operator"
NAME                TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)        AGE
awx-demo-postgres   ClusterIP   None           <none>        5432/TCP       4m4s
awx-demo-service    NodePort    10.109.40.38   <none>        80:31006/TCP   3m56s

Once deployed, the AWX instance will be accessible by the command minikube service awx-demo-service --url.

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!!!!

For an example using the Nginx Controller in Minukube, don't miss our demo video.

Admin user account configuration

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

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

If 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

Service Type

If the service_type is not specified, the ClusterIP service will be used for your AWX Tower service.

The service_type supported options are: ClusterIP, LoadBalancer and NodePort.

The following variables are customizable for any service_type

---
spec:
  ...
  service_type: ClusterIP
  service_labels: |
    environment: testing

• LoadBalancer

The following variables are customizable only when service_type=LoadBalancer

---
spec:
  ...
  service_type: LoadBalancer
  loadbalancer_protocol: https
  loadbalancer_port: 443
  loadbalancer_annotations: |
    environment: testing
  service_labels: |
    environment: testing

When setting up a Load Balancer for HTTPS you will be required to set the 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.

Ingress Type

By default, the AWX operator is not opinionated and won't force a specific ingress type on you. So, when the ingress_type is not specified, it will default to none and nothing ingress-wise will be created.

The ingress_type supported options are: none, ingress and route. To toggle between these options, you can add the following to your AWX CRD:

• None

---
spec:
  ...
  ingress_type: none

• Generic Ingress Controller

The following variables are customizable when ingress_type=ingress. The ingress type creates an Ingress resource as documented which can be shared with many other Ingress Controllers as listed.

---
spec:
  ...
  ingress_type: ingress
  hostname: awx-demo.example.com
  ingress_annotations: |
    environment: testing

• Route

The following variables are customizable when ingress_type=route

---
spec:
  ...
  ingress_type: route
  route_host: awx-demo.example.com
  route_tls_termination_mechanism: Passthrough
  route_tls_secret: custom-route-tls-secret-name

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 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>
  sslmode: prefer
  type: unmanaged
type: Opaque

It is possible to set a specific username, password, port, or database, but still have the database managed by the operator. In this case, when creating the postgres-configuration secret, the type: managed field should be added.

Note: The variable sslmode is valid for external databases only. The allowed values are: prefer, disable, allow, require, verify-ca, verify-full.

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

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  postgres_resource_requirements:
    requests:
      cpu: 500m
      memory: 2Gi
    limits:
      cpu: 1
      memory: 4Gi
  postgres_storage_requirements:
    requests:
      storage: 8Gi
    limits:
      storage: 50Gi
  postgres_storage_class: fast-ssd

Note: If 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.

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  image: myorg/my-custom-awx
  image_version: latest
  image_pull_policy: Always
  image_pull_secret: pull_secret_name
  ee_images:
    - name: my-custom-awx-ee
      image: myorg/my-custom-awx-ee

Note: The image and image_version are intended for local mirroring scenarios. Please note that using a version of AWX other than the one bundled with the awx-operator is not supported. For the default values, check the main.yml file.

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:
  ...
  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).

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  web_resource_requirements:
    requests:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 2Gi
    limits:
      cpu: 2000m
      memory: 4Gi
  task_resource_requirements:
    requests:
      cpu: 500m
      memory: 1Gi
    limits:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 2Gi
  ee_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. node_selector and postgres_selector constrains the AWX pods to run only on the nodes that match all the specified key/value pairs. tolerations and postgres_tolerations allow the AWX pods to be scheduled onto nodes with matching taints.

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  node_selector: |
    disktype: ssd
    kubernetes.io/arch: amd64
    kubernetes.io/os: linux
  tolerations: |
    - key: "dedicated"
      operator: "Equal"
      value: "AWX"
      effect: "NoSchedule"
  postgres_selector: |
    disktype: ssd
    kubernetes.io/arch: amd64
    kubernetes.io/os: linux
  postgres_tolerations: |
    - key: "dedicated"
      operator: "Equal"
      value: "AWX"
      effect: "NoSchedule"

Trusting a Custom Certificate Authority

In cases which you need to trust a custom Certificate Authority, there are few variables you can customize for the awx-operator.

Trusting a custom Certificate Authority allows the AWX to access network services configured with SSL certificates issued locally, such as cloning a project from from an internal Git server via HTTPS. It is common for these scenarios, experiencing the error unable to verify the first certificate.

Please note the awx-operator will look for the data field ldap-ca.crt in the specified secret when using the ldap_cacert_secret, whereas the data field bundle-ca.crt is required for bundle_cacert_secret parameter.

Example of customization could be:

---
spec:
  ...
  ldap_cacert_secret: <resourcename>-custom-certs
  bundle_cacert_secret: <resourcename>-custom-certs

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

# kubectl create secret generic <resourcename>-custom-certs \
    --from-file=ldap-ca.crt=<PATH/TO/YOUR/CA/PEM/FILE>  \
    --from-fle=bundle-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.

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

---
spec:
  ...
  projects_persistence: true
  projects_storage_class: rook-ceph
  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.

Example configuration for ConfigMap

Default execution environments from private registries

In order to register default execution environments from private registries, the Custom Resource needs to know about the pull credentials. Those credentials should be stored as a secret and either specified as ee_pull_credentials_secret at the CR spec level, or simply be present on the namespace under the name <resourcename>-ee-pull-credentials . Instance initialization will register a Container registry type credential on the deployed instance and assign it to the registered default execution environments.

The secret should be formated as follows:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: <resourcename>-ee-pull-credentials
  namespace: <target namespace>
stringData:
  url: <registry url. i.e. quay.io>
  username: <username to connect as>
  password: <password to connect with>
  ssl_verify: <Optional attribute. Whether verify ssl connection or not. Accepted values "True" (default), "False" >
type: Opaque

Control plane ee from private registry

The images listed in "ee_images" will be added as globally available Execution Environments. The "control_plane_ee_image" will be used to run project updates. In order to use a private image for any of these you'll need to use image_pull_secret to provide a k8s pull secret to access it. Currently the same secret is used for any of these images supplied at install time.

---
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:
    ...
      ee_extra_volume_mounts: |
        - name: ansible-cfg
          mountPath: /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
          subPath: ansible.cfg

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

      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(_)

Exporting Environment Variables to Containers

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

Example configuration of environment variables

  spec:
    task_extra_env: |
      - name: MYCUSTOMVAR
        value: foo
    web_extra_env: |
      - name: MYCUSTOMVAR
        value: foo
    ee_extra_env: |
      - name: MYCUSTOMVAR
        value: foo

Extra Settings

Withextra_settings, you can pass multiple custom settings via the awx-operator. The parameter extra_settings will be appended to the /etc/tower/settings.py and can be an alternative to the extra_volumes parameter.

Example configuration of extra_settings parameter

  spec:
    extra_settings:
      - setting: MAX_PAGE_SIZE
        value: "500"

      - setting: AUTH_LDAP_BIND_DN
        value: "cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com"

Service Account

If you need to modify some ServiceAccount proprieties

Example configuration of environment variables

  spec:
    service_account_annotations: |
      eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::<ACCOUNT_ID>:role/<IAM_ROLE_NAME>

Upgrading

To upgrade AWX, it is recommended to upgrade the awx-operator to the version that maps to the desired version of AWX. To find the version of AWX that will be installed by the awx-operator by default, check the version specified in the image_version variable in roles/installer/defaults/main.yml for that particular release.

Apply the awx-operator.yml for that release to upgrade the operator, and in turn also upgrade your AWX deployment.

Contributing

Please visit our contributing guidelines.

Release Process

There are a few moving parts to this project:

• The awx-operator container image which powers AWX Operator
• The awx-operator.yaml file, which initially deploys the Operator
• The ClusterServiceVersion (CSV), which is generated as part of the bundle and needed for the olm-catalog

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

Update version and files

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

Generate the olm-catalog bundle.

$ operator-sdk generate bundle --operator-name awx-operator --version <new_tag>

This should be done with operator-sdk v0.19.4.

It is a good idea to use the build script at this point to build the catalog and test out installing it in Operator Hub.

Verify Functionality

Run the following command inside this directory:

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

Then push the generated image to Docker Hub:

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

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=<new-version> -e pull_policy=Always
#> kubectl create namespace example-awx
#> ansible-playbook ansible/instantiate-awx-deployment.yml -e namespace=example-awx -e image=quay.io/<user>/awx -e service_type=nodeport
#> # Verify that the awx-task and awx-web containers are launched 
#> # with the right version of the awx image
#> minikube delete

Update changelog

Generate a list of commits between the versions and add it to the changelog.

#> git log --no-merges --pretty="- %s (%an) - %h " <old_tag>..<new_tag>

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