Create Ansible AWX Superuser in Docker: Admin Account Setup (Guide)

How to Create an Ansible AWX superuser in Docker containers?

Ansible AWX superuser has the power to configure all the settings and has unlimited power inside the modern web-UI and API interface. I'm going to show you how to create your first superuser and how to use it. I'm Luca Berton and welcome to today's episode of Ansible Pilot.

See also: Build Ansible AWX in Docker Containers Easily

Links

• Ansible AWX create an admin user

Playbook

How to Create Ansible AWX superuser in Docker containers. I'm going to show you how to create the "sysadmin" superuser in Ansible AWX via Docker containers and how to use it in AWX web-UI and API. Ansible AWX admin user enables you to access the Ansible AWX Web-UI and the Ansible AWX API endpoints that require authentication. The user creation is performed using the docker exec command using the awx-manage utility:

$ docker exec -ti tools_awx_1 awx-manage createsuperuser

A successful execution to create the example user as follows:

[lberton@ansible awx]$ docker exec -ti tools_awx_1 awx-manage createsuperuser
Username: example
Email address: example@example.com
Password: 
Password (again): 
Superuser created successfully.
[lberton@ansible awx]$

Once a superuser is successfully created you can access the Ansible AWX Web-UI and Ansible API autenticated endopoints.

Ansible AWX UI Login

Ansible AWX UI Dashboard

Ansible AWX API Login

The direct API endpoint is https://localhost:8043/api/login/.

Ansible AWX API Authenticated

The current authenticated user is shown in the top Logged in as example.

See also: Run and Stop AWX in Docker Containers: Start, Stop & Manage (Guide)

Conclusion

Now you know how to create an Ansible AWX superuser in Docker containers.

Creating a Superuser in AWX Docker

Find the AWX web container

docker ps | grep awx

Create superuser

docker exec -it awx_web awx-manage createsuperuser

Non-interactive creation

docker exec -it awx_web bash -c "DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME=admin \
  DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL=admin@example.com \
  DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD=SecurePass123 \
  awx-manage createsuperuser --noinput"

See also: Install Ansible AWX Operator for Kubernetes (K8s) and OpenShift (OCP) - Ansible AWX

Reset Existing Admin Password

docker exec -it awx_web awx-manage changepassword admin

AWX on Kubernetes (AWX Operator)

# Find the AWX web pod
kubectl get pods -n awx | grep awx-web
# Create superuser
kubectl exec -it awx-web-xxxxx -n awx -- awx-manage createsuperuser
# Get default admin password (AWX Operator)
kubectl get secret awx-admin-password -n awx -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 -d

Automate with Ansible

- name: Create AWX superuser via Docker
  hosts: awx_host
  tasks:
    - name: Create admin user
      community.docker.docker_container_exec:
        container: awx_web
        command: >
          bash -c "DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME={{ awx_admin_user }}
          DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL={{ awx_admin_email }}
          DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD={{ awx_admin_password }}
          awx-manage createsuperuser --noinput"
      register: result
      failed_when:
        - result.rc != 0
        - "'already taken' not in result.stderr"
      no_log: true

List All Users

docker exec -it awx_web bash -c "echo 'from django.contrib.auth.models import User; \
[print(f\"{u.username} - superuser:{u.is_superuser}\") for u in User.objects.all()]' | awx-manage shell"

Troubleshooting

"That username is already taken"

User already exists. Use changepassword instead.

"No such container: awx_web"

Container names vary. Check with docker ps — might be awx-web or a custom name.

Can't connect to AWX web UI

docker logs awx_web --tail 50
docker port awx_web

FAQ

What's the default AWX admin password?

Docker Compose: check docker-compose.yml or .env for AWX_ADMIN_PASSWORD. AWX Operator: stored in Kubernetes secret -admin-password.

How do I create a non-superuser?

Create via awx-manage shell or through the AWX web UI under Organizations > Users.

Related Articles

• container lifecycle with Ansible • What is Ansible AWX