Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Release Notes

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.2

New features, enhancements, and bug fix information

Red Hat Customer Content Services

Abstract

A summary of new features, enhancements, and bug fix information for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. We are beginning with these four terms: master, slave, blacklist, and whitelist. Because of the enormity of this endeavor, these changes will be implemented gradually over several upcoming releases. For more details, see our CTO Chris Wright’s message.

Chapter 1. Overview

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform simplifies the development and operation of automation workloads for managing enterprise application infrastructure lifecycles. It works across multiple IT domains including operations, networking, security, and development, as well as across diverse hybrid environments. Simple to adopt, use, and understand, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform provides the tools needed to rapidly implement enterprise-wide automation, no matter where you are in your automation journey.

1.1. What’s included in Ansible Automation Platform

Ansible Automation PlatformAutomation controllerAutomation hubAutomation services catalogInsights for Ansible Automation Platform

2.2

4.2

  • 4.5
  • hosted service
  • 1.0 Private (Technology Preview)
  • hosted service (Retired)

hosted service

1.2. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform life cycle

Red Hat publishes a product life cycle page that identifies the levels of maintenance for each Ansible Automation Platform release. See Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Life Cycle for additional information.

1.3. Upgrading Ansible Automation platform

Use installer to perform upgrades to maintenance versions of Ansible Automation Platform. The installer performs all necessary actions required to upgrade to the latest versions of Ansible Automation Platform, including Ansible Tower and Private Automation Hub.

Important

Do not use yum update to run upgrades. Use installer instead.

Additional resources

Chapter 2. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.2

This release includes a number of enhancements, additions, and fixes that have been implemented in the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

2.1. Ansible Automation Platform 2.2

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform simplifies the development and operation of automation workloads for managing enterprise application infrastructure lifecycles. It works across multiple IT domains including operations, networking, security, and development, as well as across diverse hybrid environments. Simple to adopt, use, and understand, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform provides the tools needed to rapidly implement enterprise-wide automation, no matter where you are in your automation journey.

2.1.1. Enhancements

  • Added the Automation Services Catalog as an on-prem component for the Ansible Automation Platform. Automation Services Catalog is is a Technology Preview supported feature in Ansible Automation Platform 2.2.
  • Added support for RHEL 9 for automation controller, private automation hub, and private services catalog.
  • Components of the Ansible Automation Platform now run with python 3.9 runtime.
  • Ansible Automation Platform now deploys with PostgreSQL 13, Nginx 1.20 and Redis 6.
  • The Ansible Automation Platform installer will now use certificates signed by a common certificate authority (CA) when certificates are not provided.
  • The Ansible Automation Platform installer is now provided as a package in the automation platform channels, allowing users to retrieve the installer without leaving their server using the dnf install command.
  • Added Korean localization in the UI for automation controller, automation hub, and services catalog.
  • Added ansible-core 2.13 to the ee-minimal and ee-supported containers.
  • Added collection signing and verification as Technology Preview supported features in Ansible Automation hub.
  • Ansible Builder now supports the verification of signatures in collection content when building execution environments (Technology Preview)

Other noteworthy developer tooling updates include the following:

  • Automation content navigator v2.0 now includes more features to create content more easily. See New features and changes for ansible-lint for more information.
  • An updated VS Code extension provide language support for creating Ansible content, including smart auto-completion of related playbook content, syntax highlighting, jinja helpers, and direct integrations with supported tooling. See New features and enhancements for vscode-ansible for more information.

2.1.2. Technology Preview

Some features in this release are currently classified as Technology Preview. Technology Preview features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process. Note that Red Hat does not recommend using technology preview features for production, and Red Hat SLAs do not support technology preview functions.

Following are the technology preview features: * Added functionality for collection signing and verification in Ansible Builder.

  • Added ansible-lint, a command-line tool that further enhances the content creation experience by proven practices, patterns, and behaviors. See New features and changes for ansible-navigator for more information.
  • Added Automation Services Catalog, which provides an easy way to extend automation in your Ansible controller to a broader user base. See Automation Services Catalog for more information.

Additional resources

2.2. Ansible Automation Platform 2.2.1

Enhancements

  • Modified installer to include the ansible-builder image
  • Updated the openshift-clients to 4.10.x
  • Enabled users to use certificates located on destination nodes
  • Updated the version to pulpcore-selinux 1.3.2
  • Updated the version to pulp_installer 3.18
  • Enhanced the copy process of execution environments so that they require less space in the /tmp directory
  • Updated RSA key strength for Ansible Automation Platform certificates
  • Removed redhat.rhv collection from supported execution environments due to Python dependencies
  • Modified the base images of execution environments so that controller backups are executed in the container
  • Added the capability to configure LDAP with private automation hub

Bug fixes

  • Fixed an issue where package dependencies were missing on execution nodes
  • The setup log now gets updated when it is run as non-root on bastion host
  • The pulp resource manager now gets removed when the Ansible Automation Platform is upgraded from 2.1 to 2.2
  • The receptor.service now restarts as expected when you run the automation-controller-service commands
  • The installer no longer fails with permission errors in the /home/pulp directory
  • The receptor no longer fails in FIPS mode
  • Installer no longer fails with error in installing the semanage dependency
  • Updated the default configuration of GALAXY_COLLECTION_SIGNING_SERVICE to ansible-default instead of TRUE
  • Installation no longer fails due to conflicting ansible-builder Python packages
  • Upgrade from Ansible Tower to Ansible Automation Platform 2.1 no longer fails due to non-root user error
  • Controller database no longer gets unpacked on all nodes and cause disk space issues
  • Installation of high availability automation hub no longer fails on a shared Netapp storage
  • Ansible Automation Platform 1.2 to 2.1 upgrade no longer fails with 502 error due to wrong SELinux content set on nginx
  • Installer no longer fails to generate SSO key pair for IPV6
  • The group permissions editor can now be used to set permissions for the group when external authorization is enabled
  • While using automation hub 4.5.0 with central authentication, the hub user interface no longer turns unresponsive when the group permissions are modified
  • Added localization support for Modules, Roles, Plugins, and Dependencies counter in container list for both card and list view
  • The Deprecated label now appears immediately after an action click or after the page reload on automation hub UI
  • Upon clicking the Undeprecate button for a collection on automation hub UI, an alert is displayed stating that the task has started with a link of the task
  • After syncing the Red Hat certified collections and their versions in private automation hub, the UI now correctly displays the release date of the collection and not the synchronization date
  • Updated the default namespace logo to make it appear similar to the Ansible product logo
  • Automation hub UI now displays the selected collection similar to the rest of the selections
  • Reenabled the Deprecate button for collections in Insights mode on automation hub UI

2.3. Automation Hub

Automation Hub allows you to discover and utilize new certified automation content from Red Hat Ansible and Certified Partners. On Ansible Automation Hub, you can discover and manage Ansible Collections, which is supported automation content developed by both partners and Red Hat for use cases such as cloud automation, network automation, security automation, and more.

Enhancements

  • Added functionality for collection signing and verification in Ansible Builder.
Note

Collection signing and verification are Technology Preview supported features.

2.4. Automation Services Catalog

Automation Services Catalog provides an easy way to extend automation in your Ansible controller to a broader user base. It offers multi-level approval to ensure extending automation is done safely. And, Role Based Access allows you to restrict automation access to specified users. Automation Services Catalog is the shop window into the Ansible Automation Platform.

Note

Automation Services Catalog is a Technology Preview supported feature.

The following languages are supported for internalization:

  • English
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Dutch
  • Chinese

Enhancements

  • Private Automation Services Catalog can now be installed. Installation must be on a physical/virtual instance.
  • Red Hat Single Sign-On can now be installed. Installation must be on a separate physical/virtual instance.
  • Added role-based access for users and groups.
  • Added ability to order products that contain job templates or workflows within portfolios.
  • Extended metadata to describe products.
  • Added functionality for an admin to share Portfolios to users.
  • Added functionality to copy products and portfolios.
  • Added option for multi-level approval process before a product can be executed.
  • Added the approver role, who can approve, deny, or memo approval requests in a queue.
  • Added ability to email approval requests.
  • Added re-branding functionality to allow customers to change the default product icons and logos to match their organization.

2.5. Automation Controller

Automation controller replaces Ansible Tower. Automation controller introduces a distributed, modular architecture with a decoupled control and execution plane. The name change reflects these enhancements and the overall position within the Ansible Automation Platform suite.

Automation controller provides a standardized way to define, operate and delegate automation across the enterprise. It also introduces new, exciting technologies and an enhanced architecture that enables automation teams to scale and deliver automation rapidly to meet ever-growing business demand.

Enhancements

  • Introduced the mesh visualizer feature that generates a visual representation of your mesh topology
  • Automation controller now automatically mounts the system trust store in execution environments during job runs for VM-based installs
  • Added log format for 4XX errors to allow customization of 4xx error messages that are produced when the API encounters an issue with a request
  • Added ability to use labels in inventory files
  • Added ability to flag users as superusers and auditors in SAML integration
  • Automation controller now uses Python 3.9

See automation controller Release Notes for 4.x for a full list of new features and enhancements.

2.6. Automation Platform Operator

The Ansible Automation Platform Operator provides cloud-native, push-button deployment of new Ansible Automation Platform instances in your OpenShift environment.

Deprecated functionality

  • The image_pull_secret (string) variable has been deprecated and will no longer be supported in a future release. You should now use the image_pull_secrets (array) variable on the spec when creating an Automation Hub or Automation Controller custom resource. This new variable allows you to specify multiple pull secrets as an array, for example: 
spec:
  image_pull_secrets:
    - redhat-operators-pull-secret
    - my-other-pull-secret

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