Posted on Sep 8, 2021

How to install Oracle Linux Automation Manager (aka “Oracle Ansible Tower”)

If you follow the right Oracle people, you probably already know that Oracle just released Oracle Linux Automation Manager:

Your #Ansible automation engine might be already there, included with your Oracle Linux subscription... https://t.co/RPZw37yOvs pic.twitter.com/aQZInFcUsv
— Ludovico Caldara (@ludodba) September 6, 2021

My understanding was that access to it required ULN access, so there was no way to just spin up a quick VM at home and try it out... but I was wrong.

As confirmed by Ludovico, there is public access:

I might have talked too early, it looks like a public repo is also available:https://t.co/XxZhs9oFDi
— Ludovico Caldara (@ludodba) September 7, 2021

I thought I will keep it simple for now, so I just created a VM with Vagrant and confirm you can test it out from home from that public repository.

First, add and enable the Automation public repository to your system:

[root@OracleAuto ~]# dnf config-manager --add-repo http://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/automation/x86_64 Adding repo from: http://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/automation/x86_64 [root@OracleAuto ~]# dnf repolist repo id repo name ol8_UEKR6 Latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 6 for Oracle Linux 8 (x86_64) ol8_appstream Oracle Linux 8 Application Stream (x86_64) ol8_baseos_latest Oracle Linux 8 BaseOS Latest (x86_64) yum.oracle.com_repo_OracleLinux_OL8_automation_x86_64 created by dnf config-manager from http://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/automation/x86_64 [root@OracleAuto ~]# dnf config-manager --set-enabled yum.oracle.com_repo_OracleLinux_OL8_automation_x86_64 [root@OracleAuto ~]# dnf update created by dnf config-manager from http://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/automation/x86_64 108 kB/s | 437 kB 00:04 Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:01 ago on Tue 07 Sep 2021 07:35:18 PM UTC. Dependencies resolved. ===================================================================================================================================================================== Package Architecture Version Repository Size ===================================================================================================================================================================== Installing: kernel-uek x86_64 5.4.17-2102.204.4.4.el8uek ol8_UEKR6 66 M Upgrading: NetworkManager x86_64 1:1.30.0-10.0.1.el8_4 ol8_baseos_latest 2.6 M NetworkManager-libnm x86_64 1:1.30.0-10.0.1.el8_4 ol8_baseos_latest 1.8 M btrfs-progs x86_64 5.12.1-1.el8 ol8_UEKR6 858 k dhcp-client x86_64 12:4.3.6-44.el8_4.1 ol8_baseos_latest 318 k dhcp-common noarch 12:4.3.6-44.el8_4.1 ol8_baseos_latest 207 k dhcp-libs x86_64 12:4.3.6-44.el8_4.1 ol8_baseos_latest 148 k dmidecode x86_64 1:3.2-8.0.2.el8 ol8_baseos_latest 92 k [....] nvme-cli-1.12-4.el8_4.x86_64 openldap-2.4.46-17.el8_4.x86_64 oraclelinux-release-el8-1.0-19.el8.x86_64 procps-ng-3.3.15-6.0.1.el8.x86_64 python3-firewall-0.8.2-7.0.1.el8_4.noarch python3-rpm-4.14.3-14.el8_4.x86_64 rpm-4.14.3-14.el8_4.x86_64 rpm-build-libs-4.14.3-14.el8_4.x86_64 rpm-libs-4.14.3-14.el8_4.x86_64 rpm-plugin-selinux-4.14.3-14.el8_4.x86_64 rpm-plugin-systemd-inhibit-4.14.3-14.el8_4.x86_64 rsyslog-8.1911.0-7.0.1.el8_4.2.x86_64 selinux-policy-3.14.3-67.0.6.el8_4.1.noarch selinux-policy-targeted-3.14.3-67.0.6.el8_4.1.noarch systemd-239-45.0.2.el8_4.3.x86_64 systemd-libs-239-45.0.2.el8_4.3.x86_64 systemd-pam-239-45.0.2.el8_4.3.x86_64 systemd-udev-239-45.0.2.el8_4.3.x86_64 virt-what-1.18-9.el8_4.x86_64 Installed: kernel-uek-5.4.17-2102.204.4.4.el8uek.x86_64 Complete! [root@OracleAuto ~]#

After we update the system, we can search for the automation manager package

[root@OracleAuto ~]# dnf search automation-manager Last metadata expiration check: 0:07:57 ago on Tue 07 Sep 2021 07:35:18 PM UTC. ================================================================= Name Matched: automation-manager ================================================================== ol-automation-manager.src : Oracle Linux Automation Manager, based on AWX, provides a web-based user interface, REST API, and task engine built on top of Ansible. ol-automation-manager.x86_64 : Oracle Linux Automation Manager, based on AWX, provides a web-based user interface, REST API, and task engine built on top of Ansible. oraclelinux-automation-manager-release-el8.src : Oracle Linux Automation Manager yum repository configuration oraclelinux-automation-manager-release-el8.x86_64 : Oracle Linux Automation Manager yum repository configuration [root@OracleAuto ~]#

The automation package installation is fairly simple (for a default/test configuration, of course) and you can see an example below copied from the Oracle documentation:
Installing Oracle Linux Automation Manager

[root@OracleAuto ~]# dnf install ol-automation-manager Last metadata expiration check: 0:09:39 ago on Tue 07 Sep 2021 07:35:18 PM UTC. Dependencies resolved. ===================================================================================================================================================================== Package Architecture Version Repository Size ===================================================================================================================================================================== Installing: ol-automation-manager x86_64 1.0.0-1.el8 yum.oracle.com_repo_OracleLinux_OL8_automation_x86_64 67 M Installing dependencies: aajohan-comfortaa-fonts noarch 3.001-2.el8 ol8_baseos_latest 148 k ansible noarch 2.9.23-1.el8 yum.oracle.com_repo_OracleLinux_OL8_automation_x86_64 17 M bzip2 x86_64 1.0.6-26.el8 ol8_baseos_latest 60 k checkpolicy x86_64 2.9-1.el8 ol8_baseos_latest 346 k emacs-filesystem noarch 1:26.1-5.el8 ol8_baseos_latest 69 k fontconfig x86_64 2.13.1-3.el8 ol8_baseos_latest 274 k fontpackages-filesystem noarch 1.44-22.el8 ol8_baseos_latest 16 k gd x86_64 2.2.5-7.el8 ol8_appstream 144 k [...] redis-5.0.3-2.module+el8.0.0.z+5250+19ca22c8.x86_64 sos-4.0-11.0.1.el8.noarch sshpass-1.06-9.el8.x86_64 supervisor-4.2.2-1.el8.noarch uwsgi-2.0.18-4.0.1.el8.x86_64 xmlsec1-1.2.25-4.el8.x86_64 xmlsec1-openssl-1.2.25-4.el8.x86_64 Complete! [root@OracleAuto ~]#

Next, we need to setup the configuration using AWX user.
Again, just following the documentation example:

[root@OracleAuto ~]# cat /etc/redis.conf [...] unixsocket /var/run/redis/redis.sock unixsocketperm 775 [root@OracleAuto ~]# /var/lib/ol-automation-manager/ol-automation-manager-DB-init.sh * Initializing database in '/var/lib/pgsql/data' * Initialized, logs are in /var/lib/pgsql/initdb_postgresql.log Database pre-setup is completed [root@OracleAuto ~]# [root@OracleAuto ~]# su -l awx -s /bin/bash [awx@OracleAuto ~]$ awx-manage migrate Operations to perform: Apply all migrations: auth, conf, contenttypes, main, oauth2_provider, sessions, sites, social_django, sso, taggit Running migrations: Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK Applying taggit.0001_initial... OK Applying taggit.0002_auto_20150616_2121... OK Applying auth.0001_initial... OK Applying main.0001_initial... OK Applying main.0002_squashed_v300_release... OK Applying main.0003_squashed_v300_v303_updates... OK Applying main.0004_squashed_v310_release... OK Applying conf.0001_initial... OK Applying conf.0002_v310_copy_tower_settings... OK Applying main.0005_squashed_v310_v313_updates... OK Applying main.0006_v320_release... OK Applying main.0007_v320_data_migrations... OK Applying main.0008_v320_drop_v1_credential_fields... OK Applying main.0009_v322_add_setting_field_for_activity_stream... OK [....] Applying social_django.0002_add_related_name... OK Applying social_django.0003_alter_email_max_length... OK Applying social_django.0004_auto_20160423_0400... OK Applying social_django.0005_auto_20160727_2333... OK Applying social_django.0006_partial... OK Applying social_django.0007_code_timestamp... OK Applying social_django.0008_partial_timestamp... OK Applying sso.0001_initial... OK Applying sso.0002_expand_provider_options... OK Applying taggit.0003_taggeditem_add_unique_index... OK

Let's now create the management user and make sure you set the correct hostname/IP address for the "AWX Instance provision"

[awx@OracleAuto ~]$ awx-manage createsuperuser --username admin Email address: admin@test.com Password: Password (again): Superuser created successfully. [awx@OracleAuto ~]$ [awx@OracleAuto ~]$ awx-manage create_preload_data Default organization added. Demo Credential, Inventory, and Job Template added. (changed: True) [awx@OracleAuto ~]$ awx-manage provision_instance --hostname=OracleAuto Successfully registered instance OracleAuto (changed: True) [awx@OracleAuto ~]$ awx-manage register_queue --queuename=tower --hostnames=OracleAuto Creating instance group tower Added instance OracleAuto to tower (changed: True) [awx@OracleAuto ~]$ [awx@OracleAuto ~]$ exit logout

Once that is completed, we need to setup the HTTP server.
Since this is just a test, you can just create a ssl certicate to avoid issues login into your management interface (please, dont do this on your produciton system :) )

[root@OracleAuto ~]# openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/tower/tower.key -out /etc/tower/tower.crt Generating a RSA private key ......+++++ .+++++ writing new private key to '/etc/tower/tower.key' ----- You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated into your certificate request. What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN. There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter '.', the field will be left blank. ----- Country Name (2 letter code) [XX]: State or Province Name (full name) []: Locality Name (eg, city) [Default City]: Organization Name (eg, company) [Default Company Ltd]: Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []: Email Address []: [root@OracleAuto ~]#

I'm sure you can change the web server to your favourite one, but for now, we will setup nginx server that is the default one.
Here, we just made a backup of the default configuration and copied the default configuration from the documentation:

[root@OracleAuto ~]# mv /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.bk [root@OracleAuto ~]# nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf [root@OracleAuto ~]# cat /etc/nginx/nginx.conf user nginx; worker_processes auto; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log; pid /run/nginx.pid; # Load dynamic modules. See /usr/share/doc/nginx/README.dynamic. include /usr/share/nginx/modules/*.conf; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main; sendfile on; tcp_nopush on; tcp_nodelay on; keepalive_timeout 65; types_hash_max_size 2048; include /etc/nginx/mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; # Load modular configuration files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory. # See http://nginx.org/en/docs/ngx_core_module.html#include # for more information. include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; } [root@OracleAuto ~]#

Last steps, just change some information on the tower setting file (just add your hostname/IP into CLUSTER_HOST_ID) and enable/start the Oracle Automation Manager Service with Systemd

[root@OracleAuto ~]# grep -i CLUSTER_HOST_ID /etc/tower/settings.py CLUSTER_HOST_ID = "OracleAuto" [root@OracleAuto ~]# [root@OracleAuto ~]# systemctl enable --now ol-automation-manager.service Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/ol-automation-manager.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/ol-automation-manager.service. [root@OracleAuto ~]#