Ansible Tower (AWX) Automation for Enterprise IT Operations

Objective

To implement Ansible Tower (AWX) for managing IT infrastructure automation, user role-based access control (RBAC), job templates, and complex workflow automation in an enterprise environment.

Task Implementation Plan

1. Task Scope

• Deploy AWX/Ansible Tower on a dedicated server.
• Automate IT operations, CI/CD, infrastructure provisioning, and compliance.
• Implement RBAC for different teams.
• Configure job templates for automation tasks.
• Integrate with external services (e.g., GitHub, Jenkins, AWS).
• Schedule automated execution and notifications.

2. Infrastructure Setup

2.1 Prerequisites

• Operating System: RHEL 8, CentOS 8, Ubuntu 20.04, or Amazon Linux 2
• Hardware Requirements:
  • CPU: 4 vCPUs
  • RAM: 8GB+
  • Storage: 50GB+
• Software Requirements:
  • Python 3.8+
  • PostgreSQL (for AWX)
  • Docker & Docker Compose (if using AWX)
  • Ansible (latest version)

2.2 Installing Ansible Tower (AWX)

Step 1: Install Required Dependencies

sudo dnf install -y epel-release
sudo dnf install -y git ansible docker docker-compose
sudo systemctl enable --now docker

Step 2: Clone AWX Repository

git clone https://github.com/ansible/awx.git
cd awx/installer

Step 3: Update Ansible Inventory

Edit the inventory file:

vim inventory

Modify:

postgres_data_dir=/var/lib/pgdocker
admin_password='Admin@123'
awx_secret_key='SuperSecretKey'

Step4: Deploy AWX

ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml

Verify by accessing http://<AWX_IP>:80.

3. Configuring Ansible Tower (AWX)

3.1 Create User Roles & Permissions

1. Login to AWX Web UI
2. Navigate to Access Control → Users
3. Create Users: DevOps, SysAdmin, Security, Developer
4. Assign roles:
   • Superuser: Full access
   • Auditor: Read-only
   • Admin: Manage users, jobs, and inventories
   • Execute Only: Run jobs without modification

3.2 Configure Inventories

• Go to Inventories → Add Inventory
• Add hosts manually or via Dynamic Inventory (AWS, Azure)
• Test connectivity:

ansible -i inventory all -m ping

3.3 Create Job Templates

1. Navigate to Templates → Add
2. Configure:
   • Name: Deploy Nginx
   • Inventory: Production
   • Playbook: deploy_nginx.yml
   • Credentials: SSH key-based authentication
3. Enable survey prompts (for user inputs like environment selection)

Example Playbook (deploy_nginx.yml)

---
- name: Deploy Nginx on Servers
  hosts: web_servers
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Install Nginx
      yum:
        name: nginx
        state: present
    - name: Start and Enable Nginx
      service:
        name: nginx
        state: started
        enabled: yes

4. Workflow Automation

4.1 Create a Workflow Template

1. Go to Workflows → Add Workflow
2. Define job sequence:
   • Step 1: Provision EC2 instances (Terraform)
   • Step 2: Deploy application (Ansible)
   • Step 3: Perform health checks
   • Step 4: Notify teams via Slack

4.2 Example Terraform Playbook

---
- name: Create EC2 Instance using Terraform
  hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: Apply Terraform Configuration
      command: terraform apply -auto-approve

5. Integrations

5.1 GitHub Integration for CI/CD

• Go to Settings → Credentials → Add Credential
• Choose GitHub Token
• Add repository for playbook management

5.2 Jenkins Integration

• Configure Jenkins Pipeline to trigger Ansible jobs
• Use API token to execute AWX jobs

curl -X POST "https://awx.example.com/api/v2/job_templates/1/launch/" -H "Authorization: Bearer "

5.3 Slack & Email Notifications

1. Go to Notifications → Add
2. Select Slack
3. Add Webhook URL:

{
  "channel": "#alerts",
  "username": "AWX Bot",
  "text": "Job {{ job.name }} completed successfully!"
}

6. Security & Compliance

• Enable LDAP Authentication for user management
• Implement RBAC to restrict sensitive playbooks
• Enable Logging & Auditing via Splunk/ELK
• Schedule Compliance Checks with Ansible security playbooks

7. Testing & Monitoring

7.1 Run Sample Jobs

ansible -i inventory all -m ping

7.2 Monitor Execution in AWX Dashboard

1. Track job runs, failures, logs
2. Enable auto-retry on failures

8. Deployment & Maintenance

8.1 Deploy AWX in Production

• Run jobs in staging before production
• Use Blue-Green deployment strategy
• Automate backup and recovery for PostgreSQL DB

8.2 Routine Maintenance

• Patch AWX regularly
• Rotate SSH keys for security
• Review RBAC roles every quarter

9. Expected Outcomes

• Centralized automation with Ansible Tower
• Secure access control and compliance enforcement
• Workflow automation for infrastructure provisioning
• CI/CD integration with Jenkins & GitHub
• Enhanced monitoring and logging for jobs

Future Enhancements

• Deploy Kubernetes workloads using AWX
• Implement Ansible Vault for secrets management
• Automate AWS, Azure, GCP infrastructure provisioning