Install Ansible automation portal on VMware vSphere

Deploy the Ansible automation portal appliance on VMware vSphere using the vSphere web client.

Prerequisites

  • VMware vSphere/vCenter with permissions to create VMs and upload files to a datastore.
  • The Ansible automation portal disk image in VMDK format, available from the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform downloads page.
  • Your cloud-init user-data file prepared with Ansible Automation Platform credentials and SSH keys.
  • An SSH key pair for appliance access.
  • genisoimage installed on your local machine (for creating the cloud-init ISO).

Install using the vSphere web client

  1. Upload the VMDK disk image to a datastore:
    1. Open the vCenter web client.
    2. Navigate to Storage > Datastores and select your datastore.
    3. Click Upload Files and upload the Ansible automation portal VMDK file.
  2. Save your cloud-init user-data file as cloud-init-user-data.yaml. Use the cloud-init template from the first boot configuration topic.
  3. Create a cloud-init ISO from your user-data file.

    VMware delivers cloud-init configuration to the VM as a small ISO disk image labeled cidata. Cloud-init expects two files on the ISO: user-data (your configuration) and meta-data (instance identity):

    $ cp cloud-init-user-data.yaml user-data
$ echo "instance-id: automation-portal" > meta-data
$ genisoimage -output cloud-init.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data meta-data
  4. Upload the cloud-init ISO to the same datastore.
  5. Create a virtual machine:
    1. Right-click the cluster or host and select New Virtual Machine > Create a new virtual machine.
    2. Set the following example values. Replace the name, CPU, and memory to match your environment:
      Field Example value
      Name automation-portal
      Guest OS Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (64-bit)
      CPU 6 cores
      Memory 24 GB
      Hard disk Remove the default disk
      Network Select your VM network
    3. Click Next and then Finish.
  6. Attach the VMDK disk and cloud-init ISO to the VM:
    1. Copy the uploaded VMDK and cloud-init ISO to the VM folder on the datastore.
    2. Edit the VM settings.
    3. Click Add New Device > Existing Hard Disk and browse to the copied VMDK.
    4. Click Add New Device > CD/DVD Drive. Select Datastore ISO File and browse to the copied cloud-init ISO.
    5. Select Connect At Power On for the CD/DVD drive.
    6. Save the VM settings.
  7. Power on the VM. First-boot configuration takes 2-3 minutes.

Verification

  • Open the VM console in vSphere or SSH into the VM and confirm that all services are running: 
    $ sudo systemctl status portal postgres devtools
  • Access the portal URL from your browser.