AWX on Single Node K3s

An example implementation of AWX on single node K3s using AWX Operator.

• Accessible over HTTPS from remote host

Requirements

• Computing resources
  • Both AMD64 (x86_64) with x86-64-v2 or cpu type Host support bc the DB would not start , and ARM64 (aarch64) are supported.
  • 4 GiB RAM minimum.
  • It's recommended to add more CPUs and RAM (like 4 CPUs and 8 GiB RAM or more) to avoid performance issue and job scheduling issue.
• Storage resources
  • At least 10 GiB for /var/lib/rancher are safe for fresh install.
  • The actual consumption highly depends on your environment and your use case, so you should to pay attention to the consumption and add more capacity if required.

Deployment Instructions

Disable firewalld if enabled if not use kubernetes-firewall first before installing K3S. This is recommended by K3s.

cd firewall
. kubernetes-firewall.sh

Install K3s

Install K3s with --write-kubeconfig-mode 644 to make the config file (/etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml) readable by non-root users.

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io |  sh -s - --write-kubeconfig-mode 644

Also add your subnet in noproxy in:

vim /etc/systemd/system/k3s.service.env
#should look like this 
no_proxy='localhost,127.0.0.1, 10.131.196.0/22'

Install AWX Operator

Clone this repository and change directory.

cd ~
git clone https://gitlab.j551n.com/j551n/awx-operator.git
cd awx-operator

Then copy or create (if needed) a certificate to the kubernetes folder.

PS: is not needed you can also specify the location of the Cert and key.

cd kubernetes
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout yourdomain.key -out yourdomain.crt -subj "/CN=example.com" -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:example.com"

After that you copied the Key and Cert file to the system. You can run the awx.sh script Also look for the AWX-Operator version

chmod +x awx.sh
. awx.sh

By default, the admin user is admin and the password is available in the <resourcename>-admin-password secret. To retrieve the admin password, run:

kubectl get secret odcf-awx-admin-password -n awx -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 --decode ; echo

Troubleshooting

1. Check Resources:

   kubectl -n awx get awx,all,ingress,secrets

2. Create Admin Password Secret (if not created):

   kubectl -n awx create secret generic odcf-awx-admin-password --from-literal=password=<your-admin-password>

3. Verify Ingress:

   kubectl get endpoints -n awx

   Check if the endpoint for odcf-awx-service is available on port 80. If not, update the awx-ingress-tls.yaml script.

Useful Commands

kubectl get namespaces
kubectl -n awx get awx,all,ingress,secrets
kubectl get svc -n <namespace>
kubectl describe pod <pod_name> -n <namespace>
kubectl describe service <service_name> -n <namespace>
kubectl get events -n <namespace>
kubectl -n awx get all
kubectl -n awx logs -f deployments/awx-operator-controller-manager

What's Next?

Congratulations! You've successfully deployed AWX on K3s. Here's what to explore next:

Deployment Timeline - You Are Here! ✅

1. ✅ Prerequisites - Hardware and network setup
2. ✅ K3s Installation - Single node cluster
3. ✅ AWX Operator - Automation platform deployed
4. ⏳ Next: Configure AWX projects and playbooks
5. ⏳ Then: Set up inventory and credentials
6. ⏳ Finally: Create automation workflows

Recommended Next Steps

1. Immediate: Access AWX web interface and change default password
2. Short-term: Create your first project and inventory
3. Long-term: Integrate with your homelab infrastructure automation

Credits: written by Johannes Nguyen
[email protected]