Hello and welcome to our Getting Started series with Oracle Linux Automation Manager.
This series intends to cover the various benefits and features of this product.
Before we dive into those topics, one of the first things we'll want to do is install it.
So let's get started.
Installing Oracle Linux Automation Manager requires an Oracle Linux 8 system.
For this particular installation, we'll connect to a newly deployed instance in Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure using a private Virtual Cloud Network, or VCN.
The private VCN is not a requirement for installation.
However, it does add another layer of security and further prevents direct access to our
system from the public internet.
Once connected, install the Oracle Linux Automation Manager Repository.
We can either use the package name provided in the documentation or look up the package
name to complete this step.
To look up the package name, query the list of packages using sudo dnf list '*release-el[78]*'.
Oracle Linux uses the release-el naming convention for all repository-related
packages.
From the output listed, we'll use the oraclelinux-automation-manager-release-el8.x86_64 package.
Install the package by typing sudo dnf install -y oraclelinux-automation-manager-release-el8".
Once installed, then enable this repository using sudo dnf config-manager --enable ol8_automation.
Now, we'll query our enabled repositories using sudo dnf repolist --enabled.
And ol-automation is shown in the list.
With the repository installed, we'll set up our firewall rules.
Since Oracle Linux Automation Manager uses the NGINX web server, we'll need access to
that service.
Grant access to the http and https services on ports 80 and 443 by running: sudo firewall-cmd
--add-service=http --permanent and sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=https --permanent.
We're now ready to install the Oracle Linux Automation Manager package since both of those
commands succeeded.
Install the package by running sudo dnf install ol-automation-manager.
Review the list of packages and dependencies to be installed.
These dependencies include the NGINX, PostgreSQL, and Redis module streams.
Accept the list of packages and modules by typing Y.
We'll skip ahead as the install may take a while to complete.
With our software packages installed, we'll complete the rest of the installation tasks.
First, open the /etc/redis.conf file with vi using sudo.
Search for an existing entry containing unixsocket and unixsocketperm.
On a fresh install such as ours, the entries found contain commented-out examples.
Below those examples , add the new entries:
unixsocket /var/run/redis/redis.sock and
unixsocketperm 775.
Once entered, save and close the file.
Next, we'll pre-setup the database by running the supplied init script.
Do that by typing sudo /var/lib/ol-automation-manager/ol-automation-manager-DB-init.sh.
The script shows a few lines of output that indicate the database pre-setup is complete.
In our next steps, we'll prepare the software deployment as the awx user.
Start by switching to the awx user by typing sudo su -l awx -s /bin/bash and then initialize
the database with awx-manage migrate.
This command takes a while, so we'll skip ahead.
Once the database is initialized, we create our admin user account with awx-manage createsuperuser
--username admin --email and your email address.
For this installation, we're using a sample email of admin@example.com.
When running, the command will prompt us to enter and confirm our admin user's password.
Remember this password, as we'll need it later during the login step.
Provided our passwords match, the admin user is created successfully.
Next, we preload sample data into the database using awx-manage create_preload_data.
Then, provision our instance with awx-manage provision_instance --hostname= .
And register a queue with awx-manage register_queue --queuename=tower --hostnames= .
Finish this step by leaving the awx shell by typing exit.
With the software deployed, we'll then configure NGINX, which requires a couple tasks.
The first is generating an SSL certificate.
If this was a production system, we recommend using an actual CA-signed certificate.
Since we're installing a demo system, we'll use and create a self-signed certificate with
the command shown.
" sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 \
-newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/tower/tower.key \
-out /etc/tower/tower.crt "
While generating the certificate, we're asked to enter several pieces of information.
As this is a demo, we'll accept the defaults by hitting Enter on each line.
For more information on working with SSL certificates, check out the Managing Certificates and Public
Key Infrastructure section in the Oracle Linux Documentation.
[https://docs.oracle.com/en/operating-systems/oracle-linux/certmanage/]
The second task is to modify the NGINX default configuration.
The change shown here is based on us only using our NGINX installation for Oracle Linux
Automation Manager.
Customizing the nginx.conf for systems with existing NGINX deployments is outside the
scope of this video.
Open the configuration by typing sudo vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.
Remove the contents and replace them with the configuration shown.
The configuration shown was copied from the Installing section of the Oracle Linux Automation
Manager Documentation.
Save and close the file.
That completes the necessary NGINX configuration changes.
We're almost done.
Next, set the configuration variable CLUSTER_HOST_ID to the by opening
the main settings file.
Type sudo vi /etc/tower/settings.py. and search for the CLUSTER_HOST_ID line.
Make the change, and then save and close the file.
Lastly, we'll start and enable the Oracle Linux Automation Manager service by running
sudo systemctl enable --now ol-automation-manager.service.
Check that the service is active by running sudo systemctl status ol-automation-manager.service.
With the service running, our installation is complete.
We can now access the newly installed server using our desktop browser.
Since the system is on a private VCN, create an SSH local tunnel between the desktop on
port 8444 and the NGINX web server on localhost:443.
Opening a browser and connecting to https://localhost:8444, we're greeted with a security warning due
to the self-signed certificate.
Click Advanced and then Accept.
After accepting the browser security warning, we are shown the Oracle Linux Automation Manager
login prompt.
Enter the username admin and the password chosen during install.
Click the Sign In button.
That's it.
We have successfully installed Oracle Linux Automation Manager.
Thank you for watching, and be sure to check out future videos in this series.
For additional information on Oracle Linux Automation Manager, access the Oracle Linux
Documentation or Oracle Linux Learning Library.