Install Ansible Navigator And Execution Environment

Last Updated on 3 weeks by Sachin G

This article provides step-by-step instructions for installing Ansible Navigator and setting up the Execution Environment on Linux systems. It covers the installation of necessary tools like Podman or Docker, setting up Python’s pip, and configuring environment variables. The article emphasizes how Ansible Navigator simplifies managing various Ansible components and how the Execution Environment ensures consistency by encapsulating dependencies within a containerized setup.

Ansible Navigator is a tool and a part of the Ansible Automation Platform, which helps in creating playbooks. The content navigator can install it via the Python pip method. we can say the automation platform is a combination of different components like Ansible core and automation execution environment. The playbook run functionality is provided by core packages. Through the core package, ansible provides a large number of modules.
Here I am discussing two major components of the Automation Platform. The Content Navigator and Execution Environment installation and setup.

Ansible Navigator and Execution Environment

Navigator is a utility, which manages the work of different Ansible components like ansible-playbook, ansible-config, and inventory. The execution environment is a container form image that consists of different components like libraries, core packages, and ansible collections, which need to run your playbooks.

How do navigator and execution environments work?

This environment is used for processing modules, collections, and libraries. I have created a diagram to show how it is working.

Installing ansible-navigator with an execution environment ( ee ) on Linux

Installing a navigator on the main control system machine allows me to manage remote hosts. The execution environment requires a container image. Podman or Docker.  This process works for various Linux-based operating systems. Named CentOS Stream, Rocky AlmaLinux and Oracle Linux  Ubuntu. Only one of the utilities will be install.

For the Docker, utility, Follow the Docker for Linux installation instructions.

OR

1. The below command will install the Podman utility.

 # sudo dnf install podman

For Ubuntu : 

 # sudo apt-get install podman 

2. Now navigator package will be installed. The Python package manager is through the pip utility.

# sudo dnf install python3-pip

Below command is for Ubuntu Users:

# sudo apt install python3-pip

3. Installing navigator :

# python3 -m pip install ansible-navigator --user

4. Now add the installation path :

# echo 'export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile

5. Refresh the environment variable.

#source ~/.profile

6. Verify that the automation content navigator .

# ansible-navigator --version

7. The execution environment container image will be downloaded. Installing through the ansible-navigator image command will download the image.

# ansible-navigator images

Press Esc to exit from the container images. Or you can execute only the ansible-navigator command to only install the container image.

# ansible-navigator

When setting up Ansible Navigator with EE for a large enterprise project, the main challenge was team adoption. Initially, some engineers tried bypassing the EE, which led to inconsistencies.
Once we enforced EE use via CI/CD pipelines and provided a custom EE image with pre-installed collections, onboarding became almost instant—new hires could run automation workflows in under 15 minutes.

FAQ Section

Sachin G

I’m Sachin Gupta — a freelance IT support specialist and founder of techtransit.org. I’m certified in Linux, Ansible, OpenShift (Red Hat), cPanel, and ITIL, with over 15 years of hands-on experience. I create beginner-friendly Linux tutorials, help with Ansible automation, and offer IT support on platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and PeoplePerHour. Follow Tech Transit for practical tips, hosting guides, and real-world Linux expertise!

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