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Installing Redhat Ansible Automation Platform

This article holds my notes from when I recently tested the Redhat Ansible Automation Platform. I’ve included answers to the questions I had at the start and during my effort to install the system.

You need to install this on a Redhat Enterprise Linux v8.4 server, or newer. You don’t need an active subscription with the Redhat Network. Running “yum” commands will give an error, but the Redhat Ansible Automation Platform system will install without it. My test server was installed in the AWS environment as an m5.large with 40GB disk space. I went with the “bundle” install – where it’s an all-in-one installation, as apposed to having components separated amongst other servers.

You need to register for a test download, or purchase the software. If you just want to test the software, you can download it from “https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/management/ansible”.

TIP: When asked to specify your credentials, use your Redhat credentials. The same credentials that you log into the Redhat portal to register for the trial version of Redhat Ansible Automation Platform.

ssh-keygen

The link provided after completing the registration process (to get the free trial) allows you to download the 863MB .tar file. Copy that file to the Redhat Enterprise Linux server and extract it. The files within look like this:

drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root    17 Dec  1 15:55 bundle
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root    33 Dec  1 15:43 collections
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root    17 Dec  1 15:55 group_vars
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root    87 Dec  1 15:52 images
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  4915 May  5 08:02 inventory
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root  8192 Dec  1 15:43 licenses
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   533 Dec  1 15:39 README.md
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 11804 Dec  1 15:39 setup.sh

You need to update the “inventory” file before starting the installation process. Remember, my install is a stand-alone install. Therefore there’s plenty that doesn’t need to be set. Here’s mine:

[automationcontroller]
localhost ansible_connection=local
[automationcontroller:vars]
peers=execution_nodes
[execution_nodes]
[automationhub]
[database]
[servicescatalog_workers]
[sso]
[all:vars]
admin_password='redhat'
pg_host=''
pg_port=''
pg_database='awx'
pg_username='awx'
pg_password='redhat'
registry_url='registry.redhat.io'
registry_username='myRedhatUserName'
registry_password='myRedhatPassWord'
receptor_listener_port=27199
automationhub_admin_password=''
automationhub_pg_host=''
automationhub_pg_port=''
automationhub_pg_database='automationhub'
automationhub_pg_username='automationhub'
automationhub_pg_password=''
automationhub_pg_sslmode='prefer'
sso_console_admin_password=''

My only changes from the default were:

admin_password='redhat'
registry_username='myRedhatUserName'
registry_password='myRedhatPassWord'

Run the installer:

./setup.sh

On completion, you should see the message:

localhost                  : ok=272  changed=138  unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=147  rescued=0    ignored=6

The setup process completed successfully.

And a log file is generated if you need to troubleshoot. Mine was (factoring in the date):

/var/log/tower/setup-2022-05-05-08:02:36.log

You can now visit your new Redhat Ansible Automation Platform server:

https://ip-address
Username: admin
Password: redhat (or whatever you set in the "inventory" file)

 

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