Setup of the RedHat Ansible Automation Platform (AAP)
This post shows how to install the current version (2.6) of the RedHat Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) on Linux.
Table of Contents
There a different types of installation scenarious possible. On a production server multiple virtual environments or even multiple physical machines should be used. For this test environment we can install all into one VirtualBox VM running RedHat Enterprise Linux 9.7. The installation steps for setting up the VM is described in this blog post.
Increasing the memory of the VM
In the default configuration our VM is configured to have 8 GB of RAM. To increase the RAM to 16 GB we can run the following command on the host system.
set "VHOST="
(set /p VHOST=Enter VM name ^(e.g. lin1^):
call vboxmanage controlvm %VHOST% shutdown &rem Power down the VM and wait
timeout /T 10 /NOBREAK
call vboxmanage modifyvm %VHOST% --memory=16384 &rem Set the VM RAM to 16 GB
call vboxmanage startvm %VHOST%) &rem Power up the Virtual Machine
Downloading the Installation Files
We need to download the “AAP Containerized Setup Bundle” version 2.6 for RHEL 9 from this page. To be able to download the software we can create a free RedHat Developer account here.
Starting the Installation
The following steps need to be run as root on the VM:
# install the Ansible Core package
dnf -y install ansible-core
# create the user which runs the installation and application processes
adduser -G vboxsf aap
echo 'aap:changeme'|chpasswd
# allow the user aap to run commands as root (with sudo)
echo 'aap ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' > /etc/sudoers.d/aap
chmod 440 /etc/sudoers.d/aap
Sample Output (click to expand):
[root@lin2 ~]# # install the Ansible Core package
dnf -y install ansible-core
# create the user which runs the installation and application processes
adduser -G vboxsf aap
echo 'aap:changeme'|chpasswd
# allow the user aap to run commands as root (with sudo)
echo 'aap ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' > /etc/sudoers.d/aap
chmod 440 /etc/sudoers.d/aap
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Last metadata expiration check: 7:17:53 ago on Wed 22 Apr 2026 01:31:21 PM CEST.
Dependencies resolved.
=========================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
=========================================================================================================================
Installing:
ansible-core x86_64 1:2.14.18-1.el9 rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 2.6 M
Installing dependencies:
git-core x86_64 2.47.3-1.el9_6 rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 4.7 M
python3-cffi x86_64 1.14.5-5.el9 rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 257 k
python3-cryptography x86_64 36.0.1-5.el9_6 rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 1.2 M
python3-packaging noarch 20.9-5.el9 rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 81 k
python3-ply noarch 3.11-14.el9 rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 111 k
python3-pycparser noarch 2.20-6.el9 rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 139 k
python3-resolvelib noarch 0.5.4-5.el9 rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 38 k
Transaction Summary
=========================================================================================================================
Install 8 Packages
Total download size: 9.2 M
Installed size: 39 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/8): python3-pycparser-2.20-6.el9.noarch.rpm 134 kB/s | 139 kB 00:01
(2/8): python3-cffi-1.14.5-5.el9.x86_64.rpm 236 kB/s | 257 kB 00:01
(3/8): python3-ply-3.11-14.el9.noarch.rpm 94 kB/s | 111 kB 00:01
(4/8): python3-packaging-20.9-5.el9.noarch.rpm 378 kB/s | 81 kB 00:00
(5/8): python3-cryptography-36.0.1-5.el9_6.x86_64.rpm 2.2 MB/s | 1.2 MB 00:00
(6/8): ansible-core-2.14.18-1.el9.x86_64.rpm 5.2 MB/s | 2.6 MB 00:00
(7/8): python3-resolvelib-0.5.4-5.el9.noarch.rpm 38 kB/s | 38 kB 00:01
(8/8): git-core-2.47.3-1.el9_6.x86_64.rpm 4.7 MB/s | 4.7 MB 00:01
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 3.5 MB/s | 9.2 MB 00:02
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Installing : git-core-2.47.3-1.el9_6.x86_64 1/8
Installing : python3-packaging-20.9-5.el9.noarch 2/8
Installing : python3-resolvelib-0.5.4-5.el9.noarch 3/8
Installing : python3-ply-3.11-14.el9.noarch 4/8
Installing : python3-pycparser-2.20-6.el9.noarch 5/8
Installing : python3-cffi-1.14.5-5.el9.x86_64 6/8
Installing : python3-cryptography-36.0.1-5.el9_6.x86_64 7/8
Installing : ansible-core-1:2.14.18-1.el9.x86_64 8/8
Running scriptlet: ansible-core-1:2.14.18-1.el9.x86_64 8/8
Verifying : python3-cffi-1.14.5-5.el9.x86_64 1/8
Verifying : python3-ply-3.11-14.el9.noarch 2/8
Verifying : python3-pycparser-2.20-6.el9.noarch 3/8
Verifying : python3-cryptography-36.0.1-5.el9_6.x86_64 4/8
Verifying : python3-resolvelib-0.5.4-5.el9.noarch 5/8
Verifying : python3-packaging-20.9-5.el9.noarch 6/8
Verifying : ansible-core-1:2.14.18-1.el9.x86_64 7/8
Verifying : git-core-2.47.3-1.el9_6.x86_64 8/8
Installed products updated.
Installed:
ansible-core-1:2.14.18-1.el9.x86_64 git-core-2.47.3-1.el9_6.x86_64 python3-cffi-1.14.5-5.el9.x86_64
python3-cryptography-36.0.1-5.el9_6.x86_64 python3-packaging-20.9-5.el9.noarch python3-ply-3.11-14.el9.noarch
python3-pycparser-2.20-6.el9.noarch python3-resolvelib-0.5.4-5.el9.noarch
Complete!
[root@lin2 ~]#
Now we extract the installer files, adjust the Ansible Playbook and start the installation. As the aap (important: establish a full login session (dont use su) with: ssh aap@`hostname` ) user run:
# extract the install files
tar xzf /sw/ansible-automation-platform-containerized-setup-bundle-2.6-7-x86_64.tar.gz
cd ansible-automation-platform*
# adjust the inventory-growth file
cp inventory-growth inventory-growth.orig
# set all hostnames to the FQDN of the VM
sed -i s/aap.example.org/`hostname`/g inventory-growth
# set all passwords to: password
sed -i s/'<set your own>'/password/g inventory-growth
# start the installation (runs for about 30 minutes)
ansible-playbook -i ./inventory-growth ansible.containerized_installer.install
Sample Output (abbreviated) (click to expand):
[aap@lin2 ~]$ # extract the install files
tar xzf /sw/ansible-automation-platform-containerized-setup-bundle-2.6-7-x86_64.tar.gz
cd ansible-automation-platform*
# adjust the inventory-growth file
cp inventory-growth inventory-growth.orig
# set all hostnames to the FQDN of the VM
sed -i s/aap.example.org/`hostname`/g inventory-growth
# set all passwords to: password
sed -i s/'<set your own>'/password/g inventory-growth
# start the installation (runs for about 90 minutes)
ansible-playbook -i ./inventory-growth ansible.containerized_installer.install
[WARNING]: running playbook inside collection ansible.containerized_installer
PLAY [Preflight checks] *******************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Gather facts] ***********************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [ansible.containerized_installer.common : Test for ostree-based OS] ******************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [ansible.containerized_installer.common : Set ostree-based OS fact] ******************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [ansible.containerized_installer.preflight : Include core checks] ********************************************************************
included: /home/aap/ansible-automation-platform-containerized-setup-bundle-2.6-7-x86_64/collections/ansible_collections/ansible/containerized_installer/roles/preflight/tasks/core.yml for localhost
TASK [ansible.containerized_installer.preflight : Assert ansible-core version] ************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "All assertions passed"
}
...
TASK [ansible.containerized_installer.automationhub : Include vars for automation hub] ****************************************************
skipping: [lin2.fritz.box]
TASK [Execute automation hub resource configuration] **************************************************************************************
skipping: [lin2.fritz.box]
PLAY [Delete the ansible base shared secret] **********************************************************************************************
TASK [Delete the ansible base shared secret] **********************************************************************************************
ok: [lin2.fritz.box]
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************************************
lin2.fritz.box : ok=624 changed=231 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=302 rescued=0 ignored=0
localhost : ok=34 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=63 rescued=0 ignored=0
[aap@lin2 ansible-automation-platform-containerized-setup-bundle-2.6-7-x86_64]$
Accessing the GUI
After the installation has finished we can log into the system using the username: admin and the password: password. We need to enter our RedHat account in the “Username and Password” tab and accept the License Agreement. The main screen looks like this:
Have fun 🙂
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