Docker Compose

Install AnsibleForms and MySQL together with docker-compose or podman-compose

1. Prerequisites
2. Choose a location to install
3. Clone the docker-compose project
4. Set proper permissions
5. Install a container engine
6. Customize
7. Start docker-compose project
8. Test the application
9. File structure

---

The docker-compose project (its v6 branch, for AnsibleForms 6) contains both containers, their settings and sample forms, so the only other requirement is Docker or Podman with its compose tool.

---

Prerequisites

Before you start, you need:

• Linux machine : any distribution, with modest CPU and memory
• GitHub access : to download or clone the docker-compose project from GitHub
• Docker or Podman : a container engine, installed below
• A compose tool : Docker Compose or podman-compose, to start AnsibleForms and MySQL from a few configuration files

New to containers? Using Docker and docker-compose for the first time requires some basic Linux skills and some knowledge about containers. Download this document to get started with containers and Docker.

VIDEO: How to install AnsibleForms

---

Choose a location to install

Create a folder for the project; the examples use /srv/apps:

sudo mkdir /srv/apps
cd /srv/apps

---

Clone the docker-compose project

Install Git:

sudo apt-get install -y git

Then clone the v6 branch of the docker-compose project into that folder:

sudo git clone -b v6 https://github.com/ansibleforms/docker.git ansibleforms-docker
cd ansibleforms-docker

---

Set proper permissions

Give the application write access to the data folder:

# write access will be needed on the datafolder
sudo chmod -R u+rwX,g+rwX ./data

---

Install a container engine

Install Docker or Podman, each with its compose tool:

Install Docker Engine with the Compose plugin from Docker’s repository (see the Docker installation manuals):

# Docker's own apt repository
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Then let names resolve inside the containers, and start Docker as a service:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/docker
echo "{\"dns-opts\":[\"ndots:15\"]}" | sudo tee /etc/docker/daemon.json
sudo systemctl enable --now docker

---

Customize

Review the variables in the .env and docker-compose.yml files and adjust them as needed. Learn more about the environment variables

---

Start docker-compose project

Start MySQL and AnsibleForms in the background:

sudo docker compose up -d
# with the older standalone tool : sudo docker-compose up -d

---

Test the application

Once the containers are up, open AnsibleForms in a browser:

• Open https://your_ip (port 443, see WEBAPP_LOCAL_PORT in the .env file)
• Log in as admin / AnsibleForms!123 (or with the password you chose in the .env file)
• Next steps:
  • Create forms by adding YAML files to the data/forms/ folder or by using the built-in designer
  • Add your playbooks to the data/playbooks/ folder
  • Add an LDAP connection
  • Add users and groups
  • Add an AWX connection
  • Add credentials for external connections, such as other MySQL servers or REST APIs, or to pass to Ansible playbooks
  • Connect Git repositories and choose whether your forms and/or playbooks sync with a repository

---

File structure

The docker-compose project has the following folder structure:

.
├── docker-compose.yml # the AnsibleForms and MySQL containers
├── .env # the settings, see the variables below
└── data # everything that must survive an upgrade
    ├── ansible # ansible.cfg, plus roles and collections you install
    ├── forms # 1 or more yaml files with forms
    ├── functions # custom javascript functions
    ├── git # .gitconfig for repository connections
    ├── mysql
    │   ├── my.cnf # MySQL settings
    │   └── db # the database files (created at first start)
    ├── playbooks # your ansible playbooks
    ├── repositories # local clones of your git repositories
    ├── ssh # the client sshkey (created at first start)
    ├── config.yaml # categories, roles and constants
    ├── certificates # self-signed certificates (created at first start) - replace with your own
    ├── logs # the logfiles (created at first start)
    ├── backups # database backups (created when needed)
    └── forms_backups # form backups (created when needed)