Fun with private Automation Hub – Part 2

In the previous blog post, I provided a brief history on Ansible Content Collections and demonstrated how to upload a Collection to a private Automation Hub. We ended the blog by synchronizing content from Ansible Galaxy and Automation Hub. Today, we will configure Ansible Tower to communicate with private Automation Hub.

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." - Vincent Van Gogh on Ansible Collections

A particular type of credential: "Ansible Galaxy/Automation Hub API Token" is what allows Red Hat Ansible Tower to authenticate and connect to private Automation Hub. Logging into Ansible Tower's GUI, in the left frame under ‘Resources’, let's click on 'Credentials,' then 'Create a new credential' . In the spirit of simplicity, we'll use the same names, URLs and so on as they appear in private Automation Hub under 'Repo Management / Local.' The credentials below would be used to connect to the 'published' (our proprietary) Collections. Remember that loading a new token in private Automation Hub will delete your old token.

Creating credentials to connect Ansible Tower directly to 'Automation Hub' or 'Ansible Galaxy' will not be described here, as the scope of this blog is limited to Continue reading

Fun with private Automation Hub – Part 1

With the introduction of Ansible Automation Platform 1.2 at AnsibleFest 2020, Ansible released private Automation Hub. This enables a means to deliver, manage and curate Ansible Automation Platform Certified Content via a central on-premises, self-hosted solution for use by internal automation communities.

This sparked my interest in digging deeper into what private Automation Hub is and how I could leverage it. My initial perception went from a mysterious black box to viewing it as the perfect Ansible Automation Platform sidecar.

I learned quite a bit on how I could optimize it for my environments and wanted to share my findings. Before we start, a brief history of Ansible content and Ansible Content Collections may be helpful.

"Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World." - Christopher Columbus on Ansible Collections

During 2017, the number of modules, roles and content under Ansible's GitHub repository surged. The backlog of issues started to increase as the inflow of new content for different platforms and network appliances/devices outpaced the growth of the Ansible Core team. Various YouTube videos and blog posts provided commentary and insights from the Ansible community. The rapid growth of Ansible content led to the birth Continue reading