awx/docs/custom_virtualenvs.md

Managing Custom Python Dependencies

awx installations pre-build a special Python virtualenv which is automatically activated for all ansible-playbook runs invoked by awx (for example, any time a Job Template is launched). By default, this virtualenv is located at /var/lib/awx/venv/ansible on the file system.

awx pre-installs a variety of third-party library/SDK support into this virtualenv for its integration points with a variety of cloud providers (such as EC2, OpenStack, Azure, etc...)

Periodically, awx users want to add additional SDK support into this virtualenv; this documentation describes the supported way to do so.

Preparing a New Custom Virtualenv

awx allows a different virtualenv to be specified and used on Job Template runs. To choose a custom virtualenv, first we need to create one. Here, we are using /opt/my-envs/ as the directory to hold custom venvs. But you can use any other directory and replace /opt/my-envs/ with that. Let's create the directory first if absent:

$ sudo mkdir /opt/my-envs

Now, we need to tell Tower to look into this directory for custom venvs. For that, we can add this directory to the CUSTOM_VENV_PATHS setting as:

$ HTTP PATCH /api/v2/settings/system/ {'CUSTOM_VENV_PATHS': ["/opt/my-envs/"]}

If we have venvs spanned over multiple directories, we can add all the paths and Tower will aggregate venvs from them:

$ HTTP PATCH /api/v2/settings/system/ {'CUSTOM_VENV_PATHS': ["/path/1/to/venv/",
                                                            "/path/2/to/venv/",
                                                            "/path/3/to/venv/"]}

Now that we have the directory setup, we can create a virtual environment in that using:

$ sudo virtualenv /opt/my-envs/custom-venv

Multiple versions of Python are supported, though it's important to note that the semantics for creating virtualenvs in Python 3 has changed slightly:

$ sudo python3 -m venv /opt/my-envs/custom-venv

Your newly created virtualenv needs a few base dependencies to properly run playbooks: fact gathering):

$ sudo /opt/my-envs/custom-venv/bin/pip install psutil

From here, you can install additional Python dependencies that you care about, such as a per-virtualenv version of ansible itself:

$ sudo /opt/my-envs/custom-venv/bin/pip install -U "ansible == X.Y.Z"

...or an additional third-party SDK that's not included with the base awx installation:

$ sudo /opt/my-envs/custom-venv/bin/pip install -U python-digitalocean

If you want to copy them, the libraries included in awx's default virtualenv can be found using pip freeze:

$ sudo /var/lib/awx/venv/ansible/bin/pip freeze

One important item to keep in mind is that in a clustered awx installation, you need to ensure that the same custom virtualenv exists on every local file system at /opt/my-envs/. For container-based deployments, this likely means building these steps into your own custom image building workflow, e.g.,

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index aa8b304..eb05f91 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -164,6 +164,10 @@ requirements_ansible_dev:
        $(VENV_BASE)/ansible/bin/pip install pytest mock; \
    fi
 
+requirements_custom:
+ mkdir -p /opt/my-envs
+	virtualenv /opt/my-envs/my-custom-env
+	/opt/my-envs/my-custom-env/bin/pip install psutil
+
diff --git a/installer/image_build/templates/Dockerfile.j2 b/installer/image_build/templates/Dockerfile.j2
index d69e2c9..a08bae5 100644
--- a/installer/image_build/templates/Dockerfile.j2
+++ b/installer/image_build/templates/Dockerfile.j2
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ RUN yum -y install epel-release && \
     pip install virtualenv supervisor && \
     VENV_BASE=/var/lib/awx/venv make requirements_ansible && \
     VENV_BASE=/var/lib/awx/venv make requirements_awx && \
+    VENV_BASE=/var/lib/awx/venv make requirements_custom && \

Once the AWX API is available, update the CUSTOM_VENV_PATHS setting as described in Preparing a New Custom Virtualenv.

Kubernetes Custom Virtualenvs

You can add custom virtual environments without modifying images by including the following variables in your install.yml playbook run. Your variables file must have a variable called custom_venvs with a list of your custom virtualenvs containing the name, python interpreter, ansible version, and a list of modules that should be installed in each one:

# venv_vars.yaml
---
custom_venvs:
  - name: dns_team
    python: python3 # Defaults to python2
    python_ansible_version: 2.8.1
    python_modules:
      - dnspython
      - infoblox-client
  - name: windows_team
    python: python2
    python_ansible_version: 2.8.0
    python_modules:
      - winrm
  - name: vmware_team
    python_ansible_version: 2.7.10
    python_modules:
      - pyvmomi

The virtualenvs will be created in /opt/custom-venvs by default, but you can override that location by setting the variable custom_venvs_path.

You can use the variables file like so:

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml --extra-vars "@venv_vars.yaml"

Once the AWX API is available, you will need to update the CUSTOM_VENV_PATHS setting as described in Preparing a New Custom Virtualenv.

Assigning Custom Virtualenvs

Once you've created a custom virtualenv, you can assign it at the Organization, Project, or Job Template level:

PATCH https://awx-host.example.org/api/v2/organizations/N/
PATCH https://awx-host.example.org/api/v2/projects/N/
PATCH https://awx-host.example.org/api/v2/job_templates/N/

Content-Type: application/json
{
    "custom_virtualenv": "/opt/my-envs/custom-venv/"
}

An HTTP GET request to /api/v2/config/ will provide a list of detected installed virtualenvs:

{
    "custom_virtualenvs": [
        "/opt/my-envs/custom-venv/",
        "/opt/my-envs/my-other-custom-venv/",
    ],
    ...
}