Ascender Pro Installer

The enhanced Ascender installer for subscription customers. It deploys everything the standard installer does, and adds Reaqt, the Ascender Registry, and Depot registry support. You do not need an existing cluster or Kubernetes expertise, since the installer can provision one on your behalf for every supported platform.

Requirements

• Control machine on Enterprise Linux 8 or 9, or Ubuntu/Debian 24, x86_64 only
  • Enterprise Linux covers Rocky, RHEL, Alma, CentOS, and Fedora
  • EL 9 is required when k8s_platform is aks, gke, or eks
  • Ubuntu and Debian are not supported for aks, gke, or eks
• git: sudo dnf install git -y or sudo apt-get install git -y
• ansible-core: installed by setup.sh when missing
• SSH access to ascender_host as a user that can become root
• An existing ~/.kube/config, or kube_install: true to build the cluster
• Depot registry credentials, for pulling the subscription-only images

Installation

Clone the repository onto the control machine:

git clone https://github.com/ctrliq/ascender-pro-install.git
cd ascender-pro-install

Using the installer

Generate a configuration file, point the inventory at your target host, then run the installer:

./config_vars.sh    # interactive; writes custom.config.yml (gitignored)
./setup.sh

config_vars.sh hides advanced questions by default. Pass the advanced flag to be prompted for Reaqt and Registry options.

To change a deployment, edit custom.config.yml and rerun setup.sh. Walkthroughs are in docs/README.md.

Authentication

Two sets of credentials are specific to this installer:

• DEPOT_REGISTRY: the subscription registry holding Ascender Pro images
• k8s_image_pull_secret: Kubernetes secret with login details for that registry
• k8s_ee_pull_credentials_secret: the same, for execution environment images
• REAQT_LISTENER_API_TOKEN: token the Reaqt listener presents to Ascender

Reaqt also takes REAQT_SECRET_KEY, REAQT_SESSION_KEY, and REAQT_DB_PASSWORD. Generate these per install.

Configuration

Two files drive every install, both at the repository root:

File	Purpose
default.config.yml	Every available variable, documented inline by comment
inventory	Defines ascender_host with ansible_host, ansible_user, and ansible_port

The variables that select which components get deployed:

• k8s_platform: k3s, eks, aks, gke, rke2, dkp, ocp, or tkgi
• LEDGER_INSTALL: whether Ledger is deployed alongside Ascender
• PROXY_INSTALL: whether the Galaxy Proxy is deployed
• REAQT_INSTALL: whether Reaqt is deployed, with REAQT_HOSTNAME required
• REGISTRY_INSTALL: whether the Ascender Registry is deployed
• kube_install: whether the installer provisions the cluster itself
• k8s_offline: use bundled images instead of pulling from the internet

Offline installation

On k3s, RKE2, and DKP the installer can run without outside internet access, using either the bundled container images or images you have mirrored into an internal registry. A bundled Ascender Operator is included for the same purpose. See the guide for your platform in docs/installation.

Included content

• 8 platform installers: k3s, EKS, AKS, GKE, RKE2, DKP, OCP, TKGI
• 14 roles, covering everything in the standard installer plus Reaqt and Registry
• Reaqt: listener, web tier with configurable replicas, and its own database
• Ascender Registry: private collection and container registry, TLS terminated
• AWX migration: move an existing AWX deployment onto Ascender in place

The Ascender ecosystem

Repository	Description
ascender	The platform itself: web UI, REST API, and task engine
ascender-install	Installer for Ascender and Ledger, with Galaxy Proxy support
ascender-k8s-install	Kubernetes installer for Ascender, Ledger, and React
ascender-pro-install	Enhanced installer adding Reaqt, Registry, and Galaxy Proxy
ascender-operator	Kubernetes operator that deploys and manages Ascender
ascender-ee	Default execution environment image for Ascender jobs
ascender-kit	The ascender command line client and Python API library
ascender-collection	The ctrliq.ascender Ansible collection for a controller
ascender-ledger	Reporting tool for host facts and playbook changes
ascender-galaxy-proxy	Caching proxy for Ansible Galaxy collection downloads
ascender-playbooks	Example playbooks for use with Ascender

Contributing

• See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, testing, and pull requests.
• Report bugs and feature ideas via GitHub Issues.
• For security vulnerabilities, follow SECURITY.md rather than opening an issue.
• Join the Ascender forum to discuss development topics.

License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.md and COPYRIGHT.md.