Documentation

Basic Usage

Installation

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, the AWX CLI can be installed via yum:

yum-config-manager --add-repo https://releases.ansible.com/ansible-tower/cli/ansible-tower-cli-el7.repo
yum install ansible-tower-cli

On CentOS 7, the AWX CLI can be installed via yum:

yum-config-manager --add-repo https://releases.ansible.com/ansible-tower/cli/ansible-tower-cli-centos7.repo
yum install ansible-tower-cli

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, the AWX CLI can be installed via dnf:

dnf config-manager --add-repo https://releases.ansible.com/ansible-tower/cli/ansible-tower-cli-el8.repo
dnf install ansible-tower-cli

On CentOS 8, the AWX CLI can be installed via dnf:

dnf config-manager --add-repo https://releases.ansible.com/ansible-tower/cli/ansible-tower-cli-centos8.repo
dnf install ansible-tower-cli

On all other platforms, it can be installed via pip (python3 or python are required):

pip3 install --user https://releases.ansible.com/ansible-tower/cli/ansible-tower-cli-latest.tar.gz

Synopsis

awx commands follow a simple format:

awx [<global-options>] <resource> <action> [<arguments>]
awx --help

The resource is a type of object within AWX (a noun), such as users or organizations.

The action is the thing you want to do (a verb). Resources generally have a base set of actions (get, list, create, modify, and delete), and have options corresponding to fields on the object in AWX. Some resources have special actions, like job_templates launch.

Getting Started

Using awx requires some initial configuration. Here is a simple example for interacting with an AWX or Red Hat Ansible Tower server:

awx --conf.host https://awx.example.org \
    --conf.username joe --conf.password secret \
    --conf.insecure \
    users list

There are multiple ways to configure and authenticate with an AWX or Red Hat Ansible Tower server. For more details, see Authentication.

By default, awx prints valid JSON for successful commands. Certain commands (such as those for printing job stdout) print raw text and do not allow for custom formatting. For details on customizing awx’s output format, see Output Formatting.

Resources and Actions

To get a list of available resources:

awx --conf.host https://awx.example.org --help

To get a description of a specific resource, and list its available actions (and their arguments):

awx --conf.host https://awx.example.org users --help
awx --conf.host https://awx.example.org users create --help

Note

The list of resources and actions may vary based on context. For example, certain resources may not be available based on role-based access control (e.g., if you do not have permission to launch certain Job Templates, launch may not show up as an action for certain job_templates objects.

Global Options

awx accepts global options that control overall behavior. In addition to CLI flags, most global options have a corresponding environment variable that may be used to set the value. If both are provided, the command line option takes priority.

A few of the most important ones are:

-h, --help

Prints usage information for the awx tool

-v, --verbose

prints debug-level logs, including HTTP(s) requests made

-f, --conf.format

used to specify a custom output format (the default is json)

--conf.host, TOWER_HOST

the full URL of the AWX/Red Hat Ansible Tower host (i.e., https://my.awx.example.org)

-k, --conf.insecure, TOWER_VERIFY_SSL

allows insecure server connections when using SSL

--conf.username, TOWER_USERNAME

the AWX username to use for authentication

--conf.password, TOWER_PASSWORD

the AWX password to use for authentication

--conf.token, TOWER_OAUTH_TOKEN

an OAuth2.0 token to use for authentication