# Are isolated-nodes a tower feature or is this also available in AWX

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/are-isolated-nodes-a-tower-feature-or-is-this-also-available-in-awx/31912>\
**Category:** AWX Project\
**Tags:** awx\
**Created:** [January 6, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/are-isolated-nodes-a-tower-feature-or-is-this-also-available-in-awx/31912 "2020-01-06T16:03:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Stefan\_Coussens](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/stefan_coussens/32/8432_2.png) [@Stefan\_Coussens](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Stefan_Coussens)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/are-isolated-nodes-a-tower-feature-or-is-this-also-available-in-awx/31912/1 "2020-01-06T16:03:13Z")

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[https://www.ansible.com/blog/ansible-tower-feature-spotlight-instance-groups-and-isolated-nodes](https://www.ansible.com/blog/ansible-tower-feature-spotlight-instance-groups-and-isolated-nodes)

I’m following this guide to test out isolated nodes (Example use case: multiple VPCs) (bastion host is named deploy)

`

[tower]  
localhost ansible\_connection=local

[isolated\_group\_remote]  
deploy controller=tower

`

I ran the installer of awx (docker-compose version)

ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml

And I end up with 2 fully functional AWX deployments.  
This is not what I expected since the guide says:

> An Isolated Node is an Ansible Tower node that contains a small piece of software for running playbooks locally to manage a set of infrastructure.

So are isolated-nodes a tower feature that is not available in AWX? And if so is there an alternative? (ssh connection options)

Kind regards,

Stefan

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**Author:** ![Bill\_Nottingham1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58f4c7/32.png) [@Bill\_Nottingham1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bill_Nottingham1)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/are-isolated-nodes-a-tower-feature-or-is-this-also-available-in-awx/31912/2 "2020-01-06T17:08:18Z")

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Stefan Coussens (stefan.coussens@gmail.com) said:

> [https://www.ansible.com/blog/ansible-tower-feature-spotlight-instance-groups-and-isolated-nodes](https://www.ansible.com/blog/ansible-tower-feature-spotlight-instance-groups-and-isolated-nodes)
> 
> I'm following this guide to test out isolated nodes (Example use case:  
> multiple VPCs) (bastion host is named deploy)

Isolated nodes are not available for container-based deployments. We're  
working on a more general execution node framework that will allow this.

Bill

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**Author:** ![William\_Easton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@William\_Easton](https://forum.ansible.com/u/William_Easton)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 5:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/are-isolated-nodes-a-tower-feature-or-is-this-also-available-in-awx/31912/3 "2020-01-06T17:19:10Z")

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We have security restrictions that don’t allow unsolicited communication from less secure networks into more secure networks.

Do you see the new framework being one where the isolated execution node can pull/poll for jobs and not require an unsolicited inbound connection from the AWX system?

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**Author:** ![Bill\_Nottingham1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58f4c7/32.png) [@Bill\_Nottingham1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bill_Nottingham1)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 6:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/are-isolated-nodes-a-tower-feature-or-is-this-also-available-in-awx/31912/4 "2020-01-06T18:31:27Z")

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William Easton (williamseaston@gmail.com) said:

> We have security restrictions that don't allow unsolicited communication  
> from less secure networks into more secure networks.
> 
> Do you see the new framework being one where the isolated execution node  
> can pull/poll for jobs and not require an unsolicited inbound connection  
> from the AWX system?

That's the plan eventually. See the video from last AnsibleFest (  
[https://www.ansible.com/the-future-of-ansible-tower](https://www.ansible.com/the-future-of-ansible-tower)) for details.

Bill

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stefan\_Coussens](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/stefan_coussens/32/8432_2.png) [@Stefan\_Coussens](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Stefan_Coussens)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 7:41am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/are-isolated-nodes-a-tower-feature-or-is-this-also-available-in-awx/31912/5 "2020-01-07T07:41:33Z")

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Thanks for the clear info. 🙂

So I have 2 options:

Use ansible tower since this this can be deployed in a non containerized way.  
Wait for Receptor to be integrated. (What does seem to be the better technical sollution)

Kind regards,