How to enable changes in AWX Containers? - docker

Question

I am trying to install additional python packages in AWX container awx_tasks so that the changes could enable the ansible modules like snow, ec2_elb_facts run (which have pre-requisites as Python modules). I have made the changes in the container using:
# docker exec -it 80ab6bf562a9 bash
where 80ab6bf562a9 is the container id for awx_task container.
and then installed the required packages inside the custom virtual environment (as mentioned in the AWX documentation). Post this, i have made the changes permanent by creating a new image with the container changes using:
# docker commit 80ab6bf562a9 ansible/awx_task:latest
Post this, ran the following command to map the new container with the newly created image with container changes.
# docker run --name awx_task -d 5290f9b3268c
Following are the containers post the above changes. Here, the newly created container which was mapped with the new image with changes in existing container is 968fb2a7da2f.
# docker container ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
968fb2a7da2f 5290f9b3268c "/tini -- /bin/sh -c…" 2 days ago Exited (143) 2 days ago awx_task
80ab6bf562a9 535bb2b8e1f3 "/tini -- /bin/sh -c…" 3 weeks ago Up 2 days 8052/tcp awx_task_OLD
aea2551951d5 b7c261b76010 "/tini -- /bin/sh -c…" 3 weeks ago Up 2 days 0.0.0.0:80->8052/tcp awx_web
e789a4a82a9e memcached:alpine "docker-entrypoint.s…" 3 weeks ago Up 2 days 11211/tcp memcached
a8c74584255c ansible/awx_rabbitmq:3.7.4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 3 weeks ago Up 2 days 4369/tcp, 5671-5672/tcp, 15671-15672/tcp, 25672/tcp rabbitmq
25f6f6ca7766 postgres:9.6 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 3 weeks ago Up 2 days 5432/tcp postgres
Following are my images post above changes. Here, the newly created image (with changes) is 5290f9b3268c.
# docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
ansible/awx_task latest 5290f9b3268c 2 days ago 1.48GB
postgres 9.6 106bdfb062df 8 weeks ago 235MB
ansible/awx_task <none> 535bb2b8e1f3 8 weeks ago 1.07GB
ansible/awx_web <none> b7c261b76010 8 weeks ago 1.04GB
hello-world latest 2cb0d9787c4d 2 months ago 1.85kB
memcached alpine b40e8fa7e3e5 2 months ago 8.69MB
ansible/awx_rabbitmq 3.7.4 e08fe791079e 6 months ago 85.6MB
The new container is properly mapped with the new image (which has got the changes i wanted). The issue now is that when i stop the old container and start the new container AWX doesn't work. I can just view the UI, if i run any tasks like executing templates, it just freezes. It appears like the new container/images are not talking with the other containers like awx_rabbitmq, postgres etc. I have been reading multiple posts regarding this however, i couldn't find any single post which highlights anything regarding this.
I basically want the changes in the awx_task container to work so that i could achieve the goal of making the custom modules work. Could anyone suggest what can be done so that the new awx_task container could take the role of the older awx_task and AWX could work normally?

Answer 1

Since i found the way to do this, i will share the steps to make the required changes.
The python package versions can be controlled from the requirements directory, AWX Task and AWX Web Images related changes can be applied in the Dockerfile.j2 in the roles directory. Once the required changes are applied, we can run the setup using ansible-playbook install.yml -i inventory.

Answer 2

You should use the install.yml to restart the awx_task container, since it ensures the right environment variables are set, the right volumes are mapped, etc. Same command as you've used to install AWX:
ansible-playbook install.yml -i inventory.
See here for a full list of arguments that are used.