# AWX: Understanding pods, containers and their images

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/awx-understanding-pods-containers-and-their-images/38003>\
**Category:** AWX Project\
**Tags:** awx, ee, kubernetes\
**Created:** [May 17, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/awx-understanding-pods-containers-and-their-images/38003 "2023-05-17T20:37:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vivek\_shete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/48db29/32.png) [@vivek\_shete](https://forum.ansible.com/u/vivek_shete)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/awx-understanding-pods-containers-and-their-images/38003/1 "2023-05-17T20:37:47Z")

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I am pretty new to Kubernetes and installing the AWX tower for the first time with K8s.

I am really confused which images are used for which containers and which pods these containers belongs to and what are their respective images? Please correct if my understanding below is right.

AWX operator spins up following pods with resp images in their links

**pod1** : awx-task; **containers** : [web](https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx?tab=tags&tag=19.5.1), [rsyslog](https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx?tab=tags&tag=19.5.1), redis  
**pod2** : awx-web; **containers** : redis, [task](https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx?tab=tags&tag=19.5.1), rsyslog, [ee](https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx-ee?tab=tags&tag=latest)

And I have following defined in my custom resource file

ee\_images:

- name: {name}  
image: [https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx-ee?tab=tags&tag=latest](https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx-ee?tab=tags&tag=latest)

init\_container\_image: {[https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx-ee?tab=tags&tag=latest](https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx-ee?tab=tags&tag=latest)}  
init\_container\_image\_version: latest

control\_plane\_ee\_image: {[https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx-ee?tab=tags&tag=latest](https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx-ee?tab=tags&tag=latest)}

image: {[https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx?tab=tags&tag=19.5.1](https://quay.io/repository/ansible/awx?tab=tags&tag=19.5.1)}  
image\_version: {tag}

Your help is really appreciated. TIA

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AWX\_Project](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@AWX\_Project](https://forum.ansible.com/u/AWX_Project)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/awx-understanding-pods-containers-and-their-images/38003/2 "2023-06-09T17:34:08Z")

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good question!

awx-task\* pod has a container awx-task, and this uses “image” and “image\_version” (default is [quay.io/ansible/awx:latest](http://quay.io/ansible/awx:latest))  
awx-web\* pod has container awx-web, and this also uses “image” and “image\_version”

awx-task\* pod has a container awx-ee, and this uses “control\_plane\_ee\_image”

ee\_images just preloads AWX with additional execution environments (on top of the default execution environment)

the init\_container\_image is the container that runs on startup for both awx-task\* and awx-web\* pods]

hope that helps,

AWX Team

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek\_shete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/48db29/32.png) [@vivek\_shete](https://forum.ansible.com/u/vivek_shete)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2023, 7:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/awx-understanding-pods-containers-and-their-images/38003/3 "2023-06-12T19:49:34Z")

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Thanks for explaining this. Is init container required at all? I am using awx-ee image in my manifest for init\_container\_image . init container inside task pod didnt come up. However my task and web pods are up and I am able to login to tower UI.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AWX\_Project](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@AWX\_Project](https://forum.ansible.com/u/AWX_Project)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/awx-understanding-pods-containers-and-their-images/38003/4 "2023-06-14T18:40:48Z")

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Hi,

The init container(s) are required for normal functionality:

[https://github.com/ansible/awx-operator/blob/devel/roles/installer/templates/deployments/web.yaml.j2#L76](https://github.com/ansible/awx-operator/blob/devel/roles/installer/templates/deployments/web.yaml.j2#L76)

[https://github.com/ansible/awx-operator/blob/devel/roles/installer/templates/deployments/task.yaml.j2#L75](https://github.com/ansible/awx-operator/blob/devel/roles/installer/templates/deployments/task.yaml.j2#L75)

You can look at the commands here to see the exact steps performed.

Thanks,

AWX Team