In this video we will learn what is Ansible, AWACS, what are the features and benefits of AWACS and
how can we go about installing it?
AWACS stands for Ansible Work X.
AWP is a web application or a GWI that provides user interface rest API and task engine for Ansible.
It allows you to manage Ansible playbooks, inventories, run reports and schedule jobs.
Ansible is an open source, community driven management tool.
It is the upstream product, which means all the changes are done on a first before it get to assemble
tower and Ansible Tower is the second product which manage Ansible which we will cover later on.
The A project is hosted on GitHub and Red Hat always welcomes community contributions toward GitHub.
The project uses GitHub for its issue tracking as well.
So if you have an issue, you could file your issue right on this URL.
But of course, it depends on the response time and availability of the developers, how fast they could
get back to you.
Whereas in Ansible Tower you have a defined SLA.
All right, a red hat and does not recommend a poor production environment.
Of course, they will recommend you to go with Ansible Tower.
All right, so assemble a pros and cons.
Let's take a look.
So what are the pros?
Full enterprise features and functionality of tower.
Yes.
Whatever that you see on Ansible Tower.
All the functions, the benefits that it has, all the bells and whistles the tower has.
You could find the same features in a as well.
This is available for free download and use, so you could just get it from anywhere.
More specifically from Ansible website and you could download it or there's a certain procedure, you
could download it through a container and you could and it is free to use.
It is not limited to the number of nodes to be added.
So at certain times you have to pay Ansible Tower based on the number of nodes that you will be managing.
So with this one there is no limit.
It is great for POC, which is a proof of concept for developing environmental lab or queue environments.
All right.
Let's take a look at cons.
There is no technical support for AWACS by Red Hat.
Multiple releases in a single day are possible.
Depends on what is broken.
There are so many contributors to in building this software, so it is possible you could have many
releases in a single day.
It is not recommended by Red Hat to be used in production environment.
All right.
So let's take a look at Ansible installed now please note eight is deployed from the Docker container.
I'm going to go through step by step instruction, but I will not actually go through the actual or
technical deployment or installation on my Linux machine because it requires a certain memory.
At least eight giga memory, certain requirement and prerequisite has to be has to meet resource requirement
in order for you to install in your environment, which I don't have right now.
So we'll just go through a run a dry run install.
All right.
So very first thing you have to do is update your system.
So it simply do DNF or Yum update.
And once your system, Linux system is updated, you can reboot it.
And by the way, this the list that I have at here, I have it.
The installation instruction is four, Santos eight, version eight.
Or it could be applicable on seven as well, but more specifically, Santos eight.
All right.
So once you reboot, it comes back up.
By the way, one one more thing I would recommend before you do anything, please take a snapshot of
your virtual machine where you are installing X.
So in case something goes wrong, you could revert back to its original state.
All right, so right here, you rebooted the system.
Then once it rebooted, then you come down and and run this command jam or DNF either or install EPL
release.
This is to install FPL, release a repository.
Then we will install additional package which are needed by RW X.
And here is a list of all the packages starting from Git ending with Python three pip.
Then we will add a docker repository.
Hurry because as I said, A.W. is deployed from the Docker container, so we have to install Docker.
So before we install Docker we have to have its repository added.
So we'll do DNF config manager add repo and here is the URL for the repository.
Once that is attached, then we will install Docker and for that we'll use DNF, install Docker, dash,
AC.
And you could use the dash dash no best option minus Y to say yes to every problem.
If for some reason this doesn't work, you could use the exact same command and followed by dash dash
allow erasing, which is basically going to erase certain packages that are not needed or certain updating
of packages or removing or certain packages.
So anyway, this will allow you to go and complete the Docker install.
You could check if your Docker installs completed successfully by running the command docker space dash
dash version.
All right.
Once you see the version, beautiful, then you come down and you'll start the Docker, which is sys
CTL, start Docker, and then you enable the Docker at boot.
So it will start a boot.
Then we need to install Docker dash compose package as well and you need a python php three command
to install the docker dash compose.
What's once that is installed, you could do the same command docker version with docker dash compose
command to verify his version.
All right.
So now you have Docker installed already.
You have Docker dash compose package install already.
Very good.
Now set Python command to use Python three.
And for that you have to run this exact same command.
All alternatives dash, dash, set, python and the path.
All right, once that is set and straightforward, now it's time to download the latest version of Ansible
eight from the GitHub repository.
And the exact URL is right here and the command will be get space, clone space, the entire URL.
All right, then once we have that downloaded, we'll generate a secret key for encryption of the inventory
file and copy that output to a text file.
So when you run that command, I want you to open up your text file and copy and paste the output of
this command to your notepad.
So because you will be needing that output.
All right.
Where are you going to be needing?
I'll tell you in a second.
Then the next command is that you change the directory and added the inventory file.
Now if you are installing an older version of X, then you could you could find the installer directory
inside of a exe.
So a directory is is where you have installed or downloaded your A.W. exe package.
So if you are in slash, it will be in Slash.
If you are in slash root, then it would be in slash route slash slash installer.
Now for the newer version of X or there are certain changes that have been made recently.
Today you have to go to a different directory, which is a slash tools, slash Docker, compose, and
you will find the inventory file in that directory instead of installer directory.
All right.
Anyway, either way, check if this is the correct directory or that is the correct directory, you
will find the inventory file in there, then we will edit it and we will add or modify the following
parameters.
Make sure the compose directory it has the correct path.
PostgreSQL data directory waas lib pkg docker.
You just take that and put it in there.
We will create that directory.
If the if doesn't exist, the rest stays the same except you see right here says secret underscore key
equal and this entire key, this key should be replaced with the key that you got by running the open
command, open SSL command and you copy paste that into your notepad, you should copy that again and
paste it right here.
The rest you could take it as is and add or modify there.
Once it is there, you could save the file, then come down and create the directory of PostgreSQL,
which we define in that inventory file.
So make directory one pkg docker.
Then the last thing is install a w x and the command to do that is ansible dash playbook because the
install.
A YAML file has all the instructions to install the exe, so make sure you define the inventory which
is minus inventory and then space install the GMO and.
Most likely, I would say 99% of the time, if you follow this entire instruction, you will have a
running a W X environment or the software.
Then all you have to do is simply go to your browser within your Linux machine and put in local host
in your Firefox browser, and it should pull up UAW.
Now, if you are trying to pull that from a different machine, then make sure the machine that you
have installed on has AC Linux disabled firewall is disabled or it has a port enabled.
All right.
So anyway, these are very simple instructions.
If you get stuck anywhere, I would highly recommend you that you look it up online with the error message
that you received.
And I am very hopeful you'll find your answer and your troubleshooting tips which will help you get
to the successful installation of a x.
Once you have completed the Ansible installation successfully, you could open up any browser and put
the IP address of that machine where you have a installed and it will show you this dashboard.
Of course you have to enter the credentials, username and password and you'll come to this dashboard.
This is the guy.
This is the web interface of Ansible.
And you could see on the left hand side we have a navigation toolbar where you could go to a dashboard
job, schedule jobs, you could create templates, credentials, projects, inventories and so much
more.
Everything that you pretty much do on the command line can be managed through this URL, this gooey.
Ansible Tower, which is the exact same product as Ansible AWACS.
So Ansible Tower is a commercial Ansible management product by RedHat, which comes with support from
RedHat as well.
So Red Hat Ansible Tower is available in two editions that are differentiated by support and its features.
Pricing is based on the number of nodes, systems, hose instances, VMS, containers or devices that
you are managing.
So there are two types of editions.
One is the standard edition, and the second one is the premium edition.
If you want to know side by side comparison of each of these editions, you could go to dub, dub,
dub ansible, slash products, slash pricing.
And that's where you will find.
Exactly.
Apples to apples or apples to oranges comparison.
All right.
So Ansible tower pros and cons, let's take a look at them.
So first thing is pros, you will get 24 hours full technical support from RedHat.
If you are going with Ansible management tool and data tower and the release cycles, there will be
a release cycle at a dedicated time frame or with the dedicated cycles, meaning you might get every
15 days, every 30 days, every quarter.
So there will be cycles of the release.
It's not going to be like a w x where you do not know whether it's released today or released twice
in a day.
Another pro is it is fully tested for quality and engineering issues before release.
Then the install and upgrades for Ansible Tower are well documented and supported.
Now let's take a look at the cons.
It is expensive.
Of course you have to pay for this product if you want to use it and you may need more than ten nodes
for a dev or PSC environment.
So it is actually being sold by the number of nodes that you will be using.
So if you have ten nodes, you could go with the basic one or maybe you could get a trial version as
well.
But what if you have more than ten servers to manage in your dev environment or CPU environment, then
you really cannot use this product in a trial version either.
All right.
Another thing is maybe it's overkill for what you are trying to do.
So maybe Ansible Tower is used for higher and larger enterprises.
And if you are a smaller company, I would say definitely look into Ansible first and see if it is suffices
your requirement.
All right.
Let's take a look at the installation, the Ansible Tower installation.
The the steps are pretty much the same as Ansible, except a very slight differences which you could
find on this URL.
You could go to access dot redhead, dot com slash product slash aspell dash tower, dash red hat.
And I'm sure if you just simply Google it and just type it at Ansible Tower installation, you will
find the right documentation from Red Hat, which will help you go through the installation process
of Ansible Tower.
All right.
So here is what you will see when you complete the Ansible Tower installation.
This dashboard looks very similar, I would say exactly similar to Ansible.
And if you pay close attention to the left hand side, you'll see all that navigation menu the tool
is on the left side would have the same labels and the dashboard looks very similar.
The only difference is that right here you have a tower and an AWACS.
It would say a, w x.