How to bulk add hosts in Ansible AWX using API?

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1

Hi,

I have installed the latest Ansible AWX in K3s, following GitHub - kurokobo/awx-on-k3s: An example implementation of AWX on single node K3s using AWX Operator, with easy-to-use simplified configuration with ownership of data and passwords.. It has K3s v1.28.7+k3s1, AWX Operator 2.13.1 and AWX 24.0.0.

On AWX Gui, I know how to add inventory and hosts.

Now I want to find out how to bulk add hosts, for example, 200 hosts.

At first, I tried “awx-manage”:

awx-manage inventory_import --inventory-name myInventory --source myHostsList

But I got error:
WARNING This command is not able to run on kubernetes-based deployment. This action should be done using the API.

Then I found this articles:
https://github.com/ansible/awx/pull/13462

It talks about one could bulk add host as following:

Post to /api/v2/bulk/host_create

POST accepts inventory and hosts desired to create, responds with how many hosts created, and link to inventory

But I still can’t figure out what is the exact curl command to bulk add hosts.
Also does it mean I have to list all my 200 hosts out in the POST command? Will it accept filename with host list inside?

Thanks,
Stellar

2

Hello,

I figured it out. I didn’t realize I can do it on browser. Pretty cool!

So on my browser, I go to:
https://myansible.com/api/v2/bulk/host_create/

and fill in my inventory id and hosts to add:

{
“inventory”: 2,
“hosts”: [{“name”: “myhost01”},{“name”: “myhost02”}]
}

It works!

I guess now I need to figure out how to build the host list for 200 hosts.
Can POST accept filename with host name inside?

Also, I still want to know how to use cURL command line.

I tried this:
#curl -k -X POST https://myansible.com/v2/bulk/host_create/
{“detail”:“Authentication credentials were not provided. To establish a login session, visit /api/login/.”}

So how to specify Authentication in cURL command for Ansible AWX?

Can someone help?

Thanks,
Stellar

3

Hello,

I keep trying and figured out.

  1. Create one host by specifying host on command line

curl -k -u admin:myPassword -H “Content-Type: application/json” -X POST https://myansible.com/api/v2/inventories/2/hosts/ --data ‘{“name”: “myhost01”}’

  1. Create one host by creating payload.json file
    {“name”: “myhost01”}

curl -k -u admin:myPassword -d @payload.json -H “Content-Type: application/json” -X POST https://myansible.com/api/v2/inventories/2/hosts/

(to be continued, because as new user I can only put two links :slight_smile: )

Thanks,
Stellar

4
  1. Create bulk hosts by specifying hosts on command line

curl -k -u admin:myPassword -H “Content-Type: application/json” -X POST https://myansible.com/api/v2/bulk/host_create/ --data ‘{“inventory”: 2, “hosts”: [{“name”: “myhost01”},{“name”: “myhost02”}]}’

  1. Create bulk hosts by creating payload.json file
    {
    “inventory”: 2,
    “hosts”:
    [
    {“name”: “myhost01”},
    {“name”: “myhost02”}
    ]
    }

curl -k -u admin:myPassword -d @payload2.json -H “Content-Type: application/json” -X POST https://myansible.com/api/v2/bulk/host_create/

This payload.json file content can also be used to do posts in a browser.

So now I just need to modify my host list file a little bit (add prefix and surffix to the hostname). Then I can use browser or curl command to add 200 hosts!

Cheers!

Thanks,
Stellar

1 Like
5

Are you able to use the awx.awx Collection, and run Ansible locally to push the changes to your AWX?

There’s a similar topic here where I show how to create an inventory. You could then use awx.awx.host module to create the hosts in the inventories that you created.

6

How can I add multiple hosts with “Description”, “Inventory” and “Variables” of each host using /api/v2/… other any other method?
I tried this template it didn’t work:
{
“name”: “host1”,
“description”: “This is a test host”,
“inventory”: 1,
“enabled”: true,
“variables”: “—\nfavcolor: blue”
}

Also, I have the same problem with adding multiple job template. I’d appreciate it if someone could help me please.

Many Thanks

7

Hello @Komiko,
Are you able to achieve this using the method @zgong describes in this thread?

8

@Komiko - you may also want to see if the official reference docs on using the bulk endpoint helps: 11. AWX API Reference Guide — Ansible AWX community documentation

9

Hello @djyasin
Sorry for my late reply. Unfortunately I’ve faced a problem on my awx server and I can’t test it now. It may take a couple of days to resolve the problem. I’ll give it a go as soon as I can fix the server issue and will post the result here.
Thank you

10

I’ll read it.
Thank you @tvo318

11

Use the bulk_host_create role in the redhat cop controller_configuration collection. See: GitHub - redhat-cop/controller_configuration: A collection of roles to manage Ansible Controller and previously Ansible Tower. Use ansible (or awx) to populate your awx configuration.

12

To bulk add hosts in Ansible AWX via the API, you can use the /api/v2/bulk/host_create/ endpoint with a properly formatted JSON payload. For authentication, include -u admin:myPassword in your cURL command. If you have a large list of hosts, prepare a JSON file with the inventory ID and host details, and then use the --data @payload.json option with cURL. This method is efficient for managing numerous hosts, much like handling multiple shipments with a tool like TraceShipments.

13

Why do AWX developers want to make the simplest, most important tasks so difficult? Just blows my mind.

1 Like
14

Can someone please explain to me what the point of AWX is?
It’s meant to be a GUI for Ansible, right?
But you can’t use the GUI to import a simple inventory file.
Instead, we’re expected to post json to an API endpoint.
What a disgrace.

1 Like
15

The whole thing is bloated and hard. The only thing it brings to the table over using bash scripts is splicing, and that’s achievable yourself. If i need four Execution Node, then I could use four servers with podman.

frustrated,
H

16

Has anyone done bulk imports with the API while adding variables: to hosts. I need to load a couple 100 hosts with multiple variables. I can only get one variable to load. I have this valid JSON that does not work when using the API. This is one way of the multiples attempts I have tried:
{
“inventory”: 11,
“hosts”: [
{
“name”: “abc0017”,
“variables”: [
“vm_name: Dev FM Core 2”,
“primary_ip_address: 10.10.100.53”,
“os_vmware_tools: Ubuntu Linux (64-bit)”,
“ansible_connection: ssh”,
“ansible_port: 99”
]
}
]
}

And I have been trying variations on this for a while :frowning: with no success. Any ideas?? Thanks in advance!
Pdin

18

You could use AWX’s Inventory Sources functionality to add many hosts to AWX.

18. Inventories — Ansible AWX community documentation

This assumes your project is in some SCM and AWX has connectivity to it.

I’ve personally used the Sourced from a Project method where you specify your inventory in an SCM (GitHub, GitLab etc.) and point it to the repository and AWX will handle registering all the hosts, groups and their variables for you.

Here is an example. My project’s inventory on GitHub: home-ops/ansible/inventory at main · dbrennand/home-ops. I then use this playbook home-ops/ansible/playbooks/playbook-awx.yml at main · dbrennand/home-ops which uses the awx.awx collection modules to register the Inventory and associate the Inventory Source with said Inventory.

19

This worked for me, hitting the /api/v2/bulk/host_create/ AWX API endpoint:

{
    "inventory": 7,
    "hosts": [{
      "name": "abc0017",
      "variables": "{\"vm_name\": \"Dev FM Core 2\", \"primary_ip_address\": \"10.10.100.53\", \"os_vmware_tools\": \"Ubuntu Linux (64-bit)\", \"ansible_connection\": \"ssh\", \"ansible_port\": 99}"
      }
    ]
}

The confusion comes from variables: needing to be a string containing json which, because it’s embedded within a json value, must be properly escaped. Apparently.

1 Like
20

It worked in my AWX. Now to get all the data formatted correctly. Thanks so much!

21

Thanks for the suggestion. It’s early in the POC and yes, this SCM connection will be setup later.