Overview

AWX can run on Docker, but only for development and testing — not production. The official AWX project supports Docker Compose as a development-only deployment method.

Ansible AWX is a powerful open source, freely available project that enables organizations to test and use Ansible AWX in a lab, development, or other POC environment.

Install Ansible AWX using Docker Compose

Before starting, you will need to install some required dependency including, Node.js, NPM, Ansible and other on your server.

Firstly install Node.js and NPM using the following command:

sudo apt install nodejs npm -y

Node.js is a runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript code on your computer or a server, rather than just inside a web browser.

Check version : node -v

npm (Node Package Manager) is a tool used to install, share, and manage extra code libraries (called "packages") that you can use in your Node.js projects.

Check version: npm -v

Next, install Python dependency with the following command:

sudo apt install python3-pip git pwgen -y

Following step is to install the Ansible package by running the following command:

sudo apt install ansible -y

Once Ansible is installed, verify the Ansible version using the following command:

ansible --version

Install Docker and Docker Compose

First of all install required dependencies using the following command:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common -y

Next, install a few prerequisite packages which let apt use packages over HTTPS:

sudo apt install ca-certificates curl gnupg

Then add the GPG key for the official Docker repository to your system:

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

Add the Docker repository to APT sources:

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

Following is to update the repository cache with the following command:

sudo apt update -y

After that install the Docker CE and Docker Compose using the following command:

sudo apt install docker-ce -y

sudo apt install docker-compose -y

Now verify the Docker version using the following command:

docker --version

You will get the following output:

Docker version 29.4.3, build 055a478

You can also verify the Docker Compose version using the following command:

docker-compose --version

You should see the following output:

docker-compose version 1.29.2, build unknown

Download Ansible AWX

download the Ansible AWX from the Git Hub repository using the wget command:

wget https://github.com/ansible/awx/archive/17.1.0.zip

Once the AWX is downloaded, unzip the downloaded file with the following command:

unzip 17.1.0.zip

Please navigate to the AWX directory and generate the secret key using the following command:

cd awx-17.1.0/installer

pwgen -N 1 -s 40

You should see the generated key in the following output:

eMyJLuLsDTlqjOinT1mJnZA7u9NkvlqCvAtmmiz3

Install Ansible AWX

Before starting, you will need to edit the Ansible inventory file and define your admin username, password and secret key:

nano inventory

Change the following lines:

admin_user=admin

admin_password=yourpassword

secret_key=eMyJLuLsDTlqjOinT1mJnZA7u9NkvlqCvAtmmiz3 ( Secret which was generated earlier)

Save and close the file when you are finished then install the Ansible AWX using the following command:

sudo ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml

Access Ansible AWX

Setup SSH Key-based Authentication

Ansible uses SSH to connect to each remote server and execute tasks. So you will need to set up an SSH key-based authentication between Ansible control node and manage nodes.

On the Ansible controller node, generate an SSH key pair using the following command:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Provide empty passphrase and hit Enter. You should see the following output:

You can verify the generated SSH key using the following command:

ls -l ~/.ssh/id_rsa*

Next, you will need to copy the public key to both remote hosts:

ssh-copy-id root@172.16.11.146

Next, verify whether you can connect to remote hosts without providing an SSH password:

ssh support@172.16.11.146

If everything is fine, you can log in to remote hosts without providing an SSH password.

Create an Ansible Inventory File

By default, Ansible default configuration file and inventory file is located at /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg and /etc/ansible/hosts respectively. In this section, we will create both files inside /root/project directory. I am using /support/project.

ansible.cfg is a configuration file to tell how ansible should be running.
inventory is a file that stores all configuration information of remote host.

First, create a project directory and ansible.cfg file using the following command:

mkdir project

nano project/ansible.cfg

Add the following lines:

[defaults]

inventory=/root/project/inventory

remote_user=root

host_key_checking=False

become=True

become_user=root

become_ask_pass=False

Save and close the file then create an inventory file:

nano project/inventory

Add your Ansible hosts IP address as shown below:

[webserver]
172.16.11.227

[dbserver]
172.16.11.227

Save and close the file then export the Ansible new configuration path with the following command:

export ANSIBLE_CONFIG=/root/project/ansible.cfg

echo "export ANSIBLE_CONFIG=/root/project/ansible.cfg" >> ~/.profile source ~/.profile

Now, change the directory to project and verify the Ansible new configuration path using the following command:

cd project

ansible --version

You should see the Ansible new configuration path in following output:

Use Ansible’s built-in ping module to run a connectivity test on all remote hosts which you have defined in your inventory file:

ansible -m ping all

Verify Uptime of Ansible Hosts

ansible -m shell -a "uptime" all