Chapter 3. Installing the Ansible plug-ins with the Operator on OpenShift Container Platform
The following procedures describe how to install Ansible plug-ins in Red Hat Developer Hub instances on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform using the Operator.
3.1. Prerequisites
Red Hat Developer Hub installed on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
- For Helm installation, follow the steps in the Installing Red Hat Developer Hub on OpenShift Container Platform with the Helm chart section of Installing Red Hat Developer Hub on OpenShift Container Platform.
- For Operator installation, follow the steps in the Installing Red Hat Developer Hub on OpenShift Container Platform with the Operator section of Installing Red Hat Developer Hub on OpenShift Container Platform.
- A valid subscription to Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
- An OpenShift Container Platform instance with the appropriate permissions within your project to create an application.
- The Red Hat Developer Hub instance can query the automation controller API.
- Optional: To use the integrated learning paths, you must have outbound access to developers.redhat.com.
3.2. Recommended RHDH preconfiguration
Red Hat recommends performing the following initial configuration tasks in RHDH. However, you can install the Ansible plug-ins for Red Hat Developer Hub before completing these tasks.
Red Hat provides a repository of software templates for RHDH that uses the publish:github
action. To use these software templates, you must install the required GitHub dynamic plugins.
3.3. Adding a sidecar container for Ansible development tools to the RHDH Operator Custom Resource
Add a sidecar container for Ansible development tools in the Developer Hub pod. To do this, you must modify the base ConfigMap for the Red Hat Developer Hub deployment.
- In the OpenShift console, select the Topology view.
- Click More actions ⋮ on the developer-hub instance and select Edit backstage to open the Backstage details page.
- Select the YAML tab.
In the editing pane, add a
containers
block in thespec.deployment.patch.spec.template.spec
block:apiVersion: rhdh.redhat.com/v1alpha3 kind: Backstage metadata: name: developer-hub spec: deployment: patch: spec: template: spec: containers: - command: - adt - server image: registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform-25/ansible-dev-tools-rhel8:latest imagePullPolicy: always ports: - containerPort: 8000 protocol: TCP terminationMessagePolicy: file
- Click .
If you want to add extra environment variables to your deployment, you can add them in the spec.application.extraEnvs
block:
spec: application: ... extraEnvs: envs: - name: <env_variable_name> value: <env_variable_value>
3.4. Downloading the Ansible plug-ins files
-
Download the latest
.tar
file for the plug-ins from the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Product Software downloads page. The format of the filename isansible-backstage-rhaap-bundle-x.y.z.tar.gz
. Substitute the Ansible plug-ins release version, for example1.0.0
, forx.y.z
. Create a directory on your local machine to store the
.tar
files.$ mkdir /path/to/<ansible-backstage-plugins-local-dir-changeme>
Set an environment variable (
$DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR
) to represent the directory path.$ export DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR=/path/to/<ansible-backstage-plugins-local-dir-changeme>
Extract the
ansible-backstage-rhaap-bundle-<version-number>.tar.gz
contents to$DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR
.$ tar --exclude='*code*' -xzf ansible-backstage-rhaap-bundle-x.y.z.tar.gz -C $DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR
Substitute the Ansible plug-ins release version, for example
1.0.0
, forx.y.z
.
Verification
Run ls
to verify that the extracted files are in the $DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR
directory:
$ ls $DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-backend-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-backend-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity
The files with the .integrity
file type contain the plugin SHA value. The SHA value is used during the plug-in configuration.
3.5. Creating a registry for the Ansible plug-ins
Set up a registry in your OpenShift cluster to host the Ansible plug-ins and make them available for installation in Red Hat Developer Hub (RHDH).
Procedure
- Log in to your OpenShift Container Platform instance with credentials to create a new application.
Open your Red Hat Developer Hub OpenShift project.
$ oc project <YOUR_DEVELOPER_HUB_PROJECT>
Run the following commands to create a plug-in registry build in the OpenShift cluster.
$ oc new-build httpd --name=plugin-registry --binary $ oc start-build plugin-registry --from-dir=$DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR --wait $ oc new-app --image-stream=plugin-registry
Verification
To verify that the plugin-registry was deployed successfully, open the Topology view in the Developer perspective on the Red Hat Developer Hub application in the OpenShift Web console.
Click the plug-in registry to view the log.
(1) Developer hub instance
(2) Plug-in registry
- Click the terminal tab and login to the container.
In the terminal, run
ls
to confirm that the.tar
files are in the plugin registry.ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-backend-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz
The version numbers and file names can differ.
3.6. Installing the dynamic plug-ins
To install the dynamic plugins, add them to your ConfigMap for your RHDH plugin settings (for example, rhaap-dynamic-plugins-config
).
If you have not already created a ConfigMap file for your RHDH plugin settings, create one by following the procedure in the Creating and using config maps section of the OpenShift Container Platform Nodes guide.
The example ConfigMap used in the following procedure is called rhaap-dynamic-plugins-config
.
Procedure
- Select ConfigMaps in the navigation pane of the OpenShift console.
-
Select the
rhaap-dynamic-plugins-config
ConfigMap from the list. -
Select the YAML tab to edit the
rhaap-dynamic-plugins-config
ConfigMap. In the
data.dynamic-plugins.yaml.plugins
block, add the three dynamic plug-ins from the plug-in registry.-
For the
integrity
hash values, use the.integrity
files in your$DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR
directory that correspond to each plug-in, for example useansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity
for theansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz
plug-in. Replace
x.y.z
with the correct version of the plug-ins.kind: ConfigMap apiVersion: v1 metadata: name: rhaap-dynamic-plugins-config data: dynamic-plugins.yaml: | ... plugins: - disabled: false package: 'http://plugin-registry:8080/ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz' integrity: <SHA512 value> # Use hash in ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity pluginConfig: dynamicPlugins: frontend: ansible.plugin-backstage-rhaap: appIcons: - importName: AnsibleLogo name: AnsibleLogo dynamicRoutes: - importName: AnsiblePage menuItem: icon: AnsibleLogo text: Ansible path: /ansible - disabled: false package: >- http://plugin-registry:8080/ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-backend-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz integrity: <SHA512 value> # Use hash in ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-backend-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity pluginConfig: dynamicPlugins: backend: ansible.plugin-backstage-rhaap-backend: null - disabled: false package: >- http://plugin-registry:8080/ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz integrity: <SHA512 value> # Use hash in ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity pluginConfig: dynamicPlugins: backend: ansible.plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap: null - ...<REDACTED>
-
For the
- Click .
To view the progress of the rolling restart:
- In the Topology view, select the deployment pod and click View logs.
-
Select
install-dynamic-plugins
from the list of containers.
Verification
- In the OpenShift console, select the Topology view.
- Click the Open URL icon on the deployment pod to open your Red Hat Developer Hub instance in a browser window.
The Ansible plug-in is present in the navigation pane, and if you select Administration, the installed plug-ins are listed in the Plugins tab.
3.7. Adding a custom ConfigMap
Create a Red Hat Developer Hub ConfigMap following the procedure in the Creating and using config maps section of the OpenShift Container Platform Nodes guide. The following examples use a custom ConfigMap named app-config-rhdh
.
To edit your custom ConfigMap, log in to the OpenShift UI and navigate to
3.8. Configuring the Ansible Dev Tools Server
The creatorService
URL is required for the Ansible plug-ins to provision new projects using the provided software templates.
Procedure
-
Edit your custom Red Hat Developer Hub config map,
app-config-rhdh
, that you created in Adding a custom ConfigMap. Add the following code to your Red Hat Developer Hub
app-config-rhdh.yaml
file.kind: ConfigMap apiVersion: v1 metadata: name: app-config-rhdh ... data: app-config-rhdh.yaml: |- ansible: creatorService: baseUrl: 127.0.0.1 port: '8000' ...
3.9. Configuring Ansible Automation Platform details
The Ansible plug-ins query your Ansible Automation Platform subscription status with the controller API using a token.
The Ansible plug-ins continue to function regardless of the Ansible Automation Platform subscription status.
Procedure
- Create a Personal Access Token (PAT) with “Read” scope in automation controller, following the Applications section of Access management and authentication.
-
Edit your custom Red Hat Developer Hub config map, for example
app-config-rhdh
. Add your Ansible Automation Platform details to
app-config-rhdh.yaml
.-
Set the
baseURL
key with your automation controller URL. -
Set the
token
key with the generated token value that you created in Step 1. Set the
checkSSL
key totrue
orfalse
.If
checkSSL
is set totrue
, the Ansible plug-ins verify whether the SSL certificate is valid.data: app-config-rhdh.yaml: | ... ansible: ... rhaap: baseUrl: '<https://MyControllerUrl>' token: '<AAP Personal Access Token>' checkSSL: true
-
Set the
You are responsible for protecting your Red Hat Developer Hub installation from external and unauthorized access. Manage the backend authentication key like any other secret. Meet strong password requirements, do not expose it in any configuration files, and only inject it into configuration files as an environment variable.
3.10. Adding Ansible plug-ins software templates
Red Hat Ansible provides software templates for Red Hat Developer Hub to provision new playbooks and collection projects based on Ansible best practices.
Procedure
-
Edit your custom Red Hat Developer Hub config map, for example
app-config-rhdh
. -
Add the following code to your Red Hat Developer Hub
app-config-rhdh.yaml
file.
data: app-config-rhdh.yaml: | catalog: ... locations: ... - type: url target: https://github.com/ansible/ansible-rhdh-templates/blob/main/all.yaml rules: - allow: [Template]
For more information, refer to the Managing templates section of the Administration guide for Red Hat Developer Hub.
3.11. Configuring Role Based Access Control
Red Hat Developer Hub offers Role-based Access Control (RBAC) functionality. RBAC can then be applied to the Ansible plug-ins content.
Assign the following roles:
-
Members of the
admin:superUsers
group can select templates in the Create tab of the Ansible plug-ins to create playbook and collection projects. -
Members of the
admin:users
group can view templates in the Create tab of the Ansible plug-ins.
The following example adds RBAC to Red Hat Developer Hub.
data: app-config-rhdh.yaml: | plugins: ... permission: enabled: true rbac: admin: users: - name: user:default/<user-scm-ida> superUsers: - name: user:default/<user-admin-idb>
For more information about permission policies and managing RBAC, refer to the Authorization guide for Red Hat Developer Hub.
3.12. Optional configuration for Ansible plug-ins
3.12.1. Enabling Red Hat Developer Hub authentication
Red Hat Developer Hub (RHDH) provides integrations for multiple Source Control Management (SCM) systems. This is required by the plug-ins to create repositories.
Refer to the Enabling authentication in Red Hat Developer Hub chapter of the Administration guide for Red Hat Developer Hub.
3.12.2. Configuring Ansible plug-ins optional integrations
The Ansible plug-ins provide integrations with Ansible Automation Platform and other optional Red Hat products.
To edit your custom ConfigMap, log in to the OpenShift UI and navigate to
3.12.2.1. Configuring OpenShift Dev Spaces
When OpenShift Dev Spaces is configured for the Ansible plug-ins, users can click a link from the catalog item view in Red Hat Developer Hub and edit their provisioned Ansible Git projects using Dev Spaces.
OpenShift Dev Spaces is a separate product and it is optional. The plug-ins will function without it.
It is a separate Red Hat product and is not included in the Ansible Automation Platform or Red Hat Developer Hub subscription.
If the OpenShift Dev Spaces link is not configured in the Ansible plug-ins, the Go to OpenShift Dev Spaces dashboard link in the DEVELOP section of the Ansible plug-ins landing page redirects users to the Ansible development tools home page.
Prerequisites
- A Dev Spaces installation. Refer to the Installing Dev Spaces section of the Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces Administration guide.
Procedure
-
Edit your custom Red Hat Developer Hub config map, for example
app-config-rhdh
. Add the following code to your Red Hat Developer Hub
app-config-rhdh.yaml
file.data: app-config-rhdh.yaml: |- ansible: devSpaces: baseUrl: >- https://<Your OpenShift Dev Spaces URL>
-
Replace
<Your OpenShft Dev Spaces URL>
with your OpenShift Dev Spaces URL. -
In the OpenShift Developer UI, select the
Red Hat Developer Hub
pod. - Open Actions.
- Click Restart rollout.
3.12.2.2. Configuring the private automation hub URL
Private automation hub provides a centralized, on-premise repository for certified Ansible collections, execution environments and any additional, vetted content provided by your organization.
If the private automation hub URL is not configured in the Ansible plug-ins, users are redirected to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console automation hub.
The private automation hub configuration is optional but recommended. The Ansible plug-ins will function without it.
Prerequisites:
A private automation hub instance.
For more information on installing private automation hub, refer to the installation guides in the Ansible Automation Platform documentation.
Procedure:
-
Edit your custom Red Hat Developer Hub config map, for example
app-config-rhdh
. Add the following code to your Red Hat Developer Hub
app-config-rhdh.yaml
file.data: app-config-rhdh.yaml: |- ansible: ... automationHub: baseUrl: '<https://MyOwnPAHUrl>' ...
-
Replace
<https://MyOwnPAHUrl/>
with your private automation hub URL. -
In the OpenShift Developer UI, select the
Red Hat Developer Hub
pod. - Open Actions.
- Click Restart rollout.
3.13. Full app-config-rhdh ConfigMap example for Ansible plug-ins entries
kind: ConfigMap ... metadata: name: app-config-rhdh ... data: app-config-rhdh.yaml: |- ansible: creatorService: baseUrl: 127.0.0.1 port: '8000' rhaap: baseUrl: '<https://MyControllerUrl>' token: '<AAP Personal Access Token>' checkSSL: <true or false> showCaseLocation: type: file target: '/tmp/aap-showcases/' # Optional integrations devSpaces: baseUrl: '<https://MyDevSpacesURL>' automationHub: baseUrl: '<https://MyPrivateAutomationHubURL>' ... catalog: locations: - type: url target: https://github.com/ansible/ansible-rhdh-templates/blob/main/all.yaml rules: - allow: [Template] ...