Chapter 1. Planning your Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installation

You can use this section to help plan your Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installation. Before installation, review information on the setup installer, system requirements, and supported installation scenarios.

1.1. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform system requirements

Use this information when planning your Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installations and designing automation mesh topologies that fit your use case.

Your system must meet the following minimum system requirements to install and run Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

Table 1.1. Base system

 RequiredNotes

Subscription

Valid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

 

OS

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 or later 64-bit (x86)

 

Ansible

version 2.11 required

If Ansible is not already present on the system, the setup playbook will install ansible-core 2.12.

Python

3.8 or later

 

The following are necessary for you to work with project updates and collections:

  • Ensure that the following domain names are part of either the firewall or the proxy’s allowlist for successful connection and download of collections from automation hub or Galaxy server:

    • galaxy.ansible.com
    • cloud.redhat.com
    • console.redhat.com
    • sso.redhat.com
  • SSL inspection must be disabled either when using self signed certificates or for the Red Hat domains.

1.1.1. Automation controller

Automation controller is a distributed system, where different software components can be co-located or deployed across multiple compute nodes. In the installer, node types of control, hybrid, execution, and hop are provided as abstractions to help the user design the topology appropriate for their use case. The following table provides recommendations for node sizing:

Note

On all nodes except hop nodes, allocate a minimum of 20 GB to /home/awx for execution environment storage.

Execution nodes

Required

Notes

RAM

16 GB

 

CPUs

4

  • Runs automation. Increase memory and CPU to increase capacity for running more forks

Control nodes

Required

Notes

RAM

16 GB

 

CPUs

4

  • Processes events and runs cluster jobs including project updates and cleanup jobs. Increasing CPU and memory can help with job event processing.

Hybrid nodes

Required

Notes

RAM

16 GB

 

CPUs

4

  • Runs both automation and cluster jobs, comments for both execution and control nodes apply to this node type.

Hop nodes

Required

Notes

RAM

16 GB

 

CPUs

4

  • Serves to route traffic from one part of the Automation Mesh to another (for example, could be a bastion host into another network). RAM could affect throughput, CPU activity is low. Network bandwidth and latency generally a more important factor than either RAM/CPU.

Disk: service node

40 GB dedicated hard disk space

  • automation controller: dedicate a minimum of 20 GB to /var/ for file and working directory storage
  • Storage volume should be rated for a minimum baseline of 1500 IOPS.
  • Projects are stored on control and hybrid, and for the duration of jobs, also on execution nodes. If the cluster has many large projects, consider having twice the GB in /var/lib/awx/projects, to avoid disk space errors.

Disk: database node

20 GB dedicated hard disk space

  • 150 GB+ recommended
  • Storage volume should be rated for a high baseline IOPS (1500 or more).

Browser

A currently supported version of Mozilla FireFox or Google Chrome

 

Database

PostgreSQL version 12

 

Additional resources

Table 1.2. Automation hub

 RequiredNotes

RAM

8 GB minimum

  • 8 GB RAM (minimum and recommended for Vagrant trial installations)
  • 8 GB RAM (minimum for external standalone PostgreSQL databases)
  • For capacity based on forks in your configuration, see additional resources

CPUs

2 minimum

  • For capacity based on forks in your configuration, see additional resources

Disk: service node

60 GB dedicated hard disk space

  • Storage volume should be rated for a minimum baseline of 1500 IOPS.

Disk: database node

20 GB dedicated hard disk space

  • 150 GB+ recommended
  • Storage volume should be rated for a high baseline IOPS (1500 or more).

Browser

A currently supported version of Mozilla FireFox or Google Chrome

 

Database

PostgreSQL version 12

 
Note
  • All automation controller data is stored in the database. Database storage increases with the number of hosts managed, number of jobs run, number of facts stored in the fact cache, and number of tasks in any individual job. For example, a playbook run every hour (24 times a day) across 250, hosts, with 20 tasks will store over 800000 events in the database every week.
  • If not enough space is reserved in the database, old job runs and facts will need cleaned on a regular basis. Refer to Management Jobs in the Automation Controller Administration Guide for more information

Amazon EC2

  • Instance size of m5.large or larger
  • An instance size of m4.xlarge or larger if there are more than 100 hosts

Additional notes for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform requirements

  • Actual RAM requirements vary based on how many hosts automation controller will manage simultaneously (which is controlled by the forks parameter in the job template or the system ansible.cfg file). To avoid possible resource conflicts, Ansible recommends 1 GB of memory per 10 forks + 2 GB reservation for automation controller, see Automation controller Capacity Determination and Job Impact for further details. If forks is set to 400, 42 GB of memory is recommended.
  • A larger number of hosts can of course be addressed, though if the fork number is less than the total host count, more passes across the hosts are required. These RAM limitations are avoided when using rolling updates or when using the provisioning callback system built into automation controller, where each system requesting configuration enters a queue and is processed as quickly as possible; or in cases where automation controller is producing or deploying images such as AMIs. All of these are great approaches to managing larger environments. For further questions, please contact Ansible support via the Red Hat Customer portal at https://access.redhat.com/.
  • The requirements for systems managed by Ansible Automation Platform are the same as for Ansible. See Getting Started in the Ansible User Guide.

Notable PostgreSQL changes

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform uses PostgreSQL 12.

  • PostgreSQL user passwords will now be hashed with SCRAM-SHA-256 secure hashing algorithm before storing in the database.
  • You will no longer need to provide a pg_hashed_password in your inventory file at the time of installation because PostgreSQL 12 can now store the user’s password more securely. If users supply a password in the inventory file for the installer (pg_password), that password will be SCRAM-SHA-256 hashed by PostgreSQL as part of the installation process. DO NOT use special characters in pg_password as it may cause the setup to fail.
  • Since automation controller and automation hub are using a Software Collections version of PostgreSQL in 3.8, the rh-postgresql10 scl must be enabled in order to access the database. Administrators can use the awx-manage dbshell command, which will automatically enable the PostgreSQL SCL.
  • If you just need to determine if your automation controller instance has access to the database, you can do so with the command, awx-manage check_db.

PostgreSQL Configurations

Optionally, you can configure the PostgreSQL database as separate nodes that are not managed by the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installer. When the Ansible Automation Platform installer manages the database server, it configures the server with defaults that are generally recommended for most workloads. However, you can adjust these PostgreSQL settings for standalone database server node where ansible_memtotal_mb is the total memory size of the database server: 

max_connections == 1024
shared_buffers == ansible_memtotal_mb*0.3
work_mem == ansible_memtotal_mb*0.03
maintenance_work_mem == ansible_memtotal_mb*0.04

Refer to the PostgreSQL documentation for more detail on tuning your PostgreSQL server.

Ansible software requirements

While Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform depends on Ansible Playbooks and requires the installation of the latest stable version of Ansible before installing automation controller, manual installations of Ansible are no longer required.

Upon new installations, automation controller installs the latest release package of Ansible 2.11.

If performing a bundled Ansible Automation Platform installation, the installation program attempts to install Ansible (and its dependencies) from the bundle for you.

If you choose to install Ansible on your own, the Ansible Automation Platform installation program will detect that Ansible has been installed and will not attempt to reinstall it. Note that you must install Ansible using a package manager like yum and that the latest stable version must be installed for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to work properly. Ansible version 2.9 is required for |at| versions 3.8 and later.

1.2. Choosing and obtaining a Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installer

Choose the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installer you need based on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment internet connectivity. Review the scenarios below and determine which Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installer meets your needs.

Note

A valid Red Hat customer account is required to access Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installer downloads on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Installing with internet access

Choose the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installer if your Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment is connected to the internet. Installing with internet access will retrieve the latest required repositories, packages, and dependencies.

  1. Navigate to https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/480
  2. Click Download Now for the Ansible Automation Platform <latest-version> Setup.

  3. Extract the files: 

    $ tar xvzf ansible-automation-platform-setup-<latest-version>.tar.gz

Installing without internet access

Use the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Bundle installer if you are unable to access the internet, or would prefer not to install separate components and dependencies from online repositories. Access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux repositories is still needed. All other dependencies are included in the tar archive.

  1. Navigate to https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/480
  2. Click Download Now for the Ansible Automation Platform <latest-version> Setup Bundle.

  3. Extract the files: 

    $ tar xvzf ansible-automation-platform-setup-bundle-<latest-version>.tar.gz

1.3. Attaching your Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform subscription

You must have valid subscriptions attached on all nodes before installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Attaching your Ansible Automation Platform subscription allows you to access subcription-only resources necessary to proceed with the installation.

Note

Attaching a subscription is unnecessary if you have enabled Simple Content Access Mode on your Red Hat account. Once enabled, you will need to register your systems to either Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) or Satellite before installing the Ansible Automation Platform. See Simple Content Access Mode for more information.

Procedure

  1. Obtain the pool_id for your Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform subscription: 

    # subscription-manager list --available --all | grep "Ansible Automation Platform" -B 3 -A 6

    Example

    An example output of the subsciption-manager list command. Obtain the pool_id as seen in the Pool ID: section: 

    Subscription Name: Red Hat Ansible Automation, Premium (5000 Managed Nodes)
  Provides: Red Hat Ansible Engine
  Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
  SKU: MCT3695
  Contract: ````
  Pool ID: <pool_id>
  Provides Management: No
  Available: 4999
  Suggested: 1

  2. Attach the subscription: 

    # subscription-manager attach --pool=<pool_id>

You have now attached your Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform subscriptions to all nodes.

Verification

  • Verify the subscription was successfully attached: 
# subscription-manager list --consumed

Troubleshooting

  • If you are unable to locate certain packages that came bundled with the Ansible Automation Platform installer, or if you are seeing a Repositories disabled by configuration message, try enabling the repository using the command: 

    subscription-manager repos --enable ansible-automation-platform-2.1-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms

1.4. Supported installation scenarios

Red Hat supports the following installations scenarios for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

1.4.1. Standalone automation controller with a database on the same node, or a non-installer managed database

This scenario includes installation of automation controller, including the web frontend, REST API backend, and database on a single machine. It installs PostgreSQL, and configures the automation controller to use that as its database. This is considered the standard automation controller installation scenario.

See Installing automation controller with a database on the same node in Installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform components on a single machine to get started.

1.4.2. Standalone automation controller with an external managed database

This scenario includes installation of the automation controller server on a single machine and configures communication with a remote PostgreSQL instance as its database. This remote PostgreSQL can be a server you manage, or can be provided by a cloud service such as Amazon RDS.

See Installing automation controller with an external managed database in Installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform components on a single machine to get started.

1.4.3. Standalone automation hub with a database on the same node, or a non-installer managed database

This scenario includes installation of automation hub, including the web frontend, REST API backend, and database on a single machine. It installs PostgreSQL, and configures the automation hub to use that as its database.

See Installing automation hub with a database on the same node in Installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform components on a single machine to get started.

1.4.4. Standalone automation hub with an external managed database

This scenario includes installation of the automation hub server on a single machine, and installs a remote PostgreSQL database, managed by the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform installer.

See Installing automation hub with an external database in Installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform components on a single machine to get started.

1.4.5. Platform installation with a database on the automation controller node, or non-installer managed database

This scenario includes installation of automation controller and automation hub with a database on the automation controller node, or a non-installer managed database.

See Installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform with a database on the automation controller node or non-installer managed database in Installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to get started.

1.4.6. Platform installation with an external managed database

This scenario includes installation of automation controller and automation hub and configures communication with a remote PostgreSQL instance as its database. This remote PostgreSQL can be a server you manage, or can be provided by a cloud service such as Amazon RDS.

See Installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform with an external managed database in Installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to get started.

1.4.7. Multi-machine cluster installation with an external managed database

This scenario includes installation of multiple automation controller nodes and an automation hub instance and configures communication with a remote PostgreSQL instance as its database. This remote PostgreSQL can be a server you manage, or can be provided by a cloud service such as Amazon RDS. In this scenario, all automation controller are active and can execute jobs, and any node can receive HTTP requests.

Note

  • Running in a cluster setup requires any database that automation controller uses to be external—​PostgreSQL must be installed on a machine that is not one of the primary or secondary tower nodes. When in a redundant setup, the remote PostgreSQL version requirements is PostgreSQL 12.

    • See Clustering for more information on configuring a clustered setup.
  • Provide a reachable IP address for the [automationhub] host to ensure users can sync content from Private Automation Hub from a different node.

See Installing a multi-node Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform with an external managed database in Multi-machine cluster installation to get started.