Install Rundeck on Rocky Linux

This tutorial will take you through how to install Rundeck on Rocky Linux. Rundeck is an opensource runbook automation tool. It enables the creation of automated workflows from existing tools or scripts. Such workflows can be triggered from the Web GUI, API, CLI, or by schedule.

Install Rundeck on Rocky Linux

Hardware Requirements

Ensure that your system has at least 2 CPUs, 4GB of RAM and 20GB of disk space.

Install Java 8 or Java 11

Rundeck is a Java-Servlet based server and therefore requires the Java runtime. We are using Java 11 in this setup.

Check how to install Java 11 in the guide below;

Install Java 11 on Rocky Linux

java --version

openjdk 11.0.15 2022-04-19 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.15+9-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.15+9-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)

Set JAVA_HOME environment variable if not already set;

echo $JAVA_HOME

/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-11.0.15.0.9-2.el8_5.x86_64/bin/java

Install MySQL Database for Rundeck

MySQL 8 is the recommended version for Rundeck, as of this writing. Follow through this guide to learn how to install MySQL 8 on Rocky Linux

Install MySQL 8 on Rocky Linux 8

Create database and database User for Rundeck. The names of database/user used here are not standard. Use any names!

mysql -u root -p

create database rundeckdb;

create user rundeckadmin@localhost identified by 'ChangeME';

grant all on rundeckdb.* to rundeckadmin@localhost;

flush privileges;
quit

Install Rundeck

Install Rundeck YUM Repository on Rocky Linux


cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/rundeck.repo << 'EOL'
[rundeck]
name=rundeck
baseurl=https://packages.rundeck.com/pagerduty/rundeck/rpm_any/rpm_any/$basearch
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://packages.rundeck.com/pagerduty/rundeck/gpgkey
sslverify=1
sslcacert=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
metadata_expire=300
EOL

Next, install Rundeck;

dnf install rundeck -y

Configure Rundeck server url;

vim /etc/rundeck/framework.properties

# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# Rundeck server connection information
# ----------------------------------------------------------------

framework.server.name = rundeck
framework.server.hostname = rundeck.kifarunix-demo.com
framework.server.port = 4440
framework.server.url = http://rundeck.kifarunix-demo.com:4440
...

vim /etc/rundeck/rundeck-config.properties

# change hostname here
#grails.serverURL=http://localhost:4440
grails.serverURL=http://rundeck.kifarunix-demo.com:4440

Configure MySQL Database Backend

Open the Rundeck configuration file and update the database connection details;

#dataSource.dbCreate = none
#dataSource.url = jdbc:h2:file:/var/lib/rundeck/data/rundeckdb;DB_CLOSE_ON_EXIT=FALSE;NON_KEYWORDS=MONTH,HOUR,MINUTE,YEAR,SECONDS
grails.plugin.databasemigration.updateOnStart=true
dataSource.driverClassName = org.mariadb.jdbc.Driver
dataSource.url = jdbc:mysql://localhost/rundeckdb?autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false
dataSource.username = rundeckadmin
dataSource.password = ChangeME
...

Running Rundeck on Rocky Linux

Start and enable Rundeck on Rocky Linux;

systemctl start rundeckd

systemctl enable rundeckd

Check the status;

systemctl status rundeckd


● rundeckd.service - SYSV: rundeckd, providing rundeckd
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/rc.d/init.d/rundeckd; generated)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-05-11 16:47:18 EDT; 11s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
 Main PID: 17022 (runuser)
    Tasks: 0 (limit: 11256)
   Memory: 1.6M
   CGroup: /system.slice/rundeckd.service
           ‣ 17022 runuser -s /bin/bash -l rundeck -c java -Drundeck.jaaslogin=true            -Djava.security.auth.login.config=/etc/rundeck/jaas-loginmodule.conf        >

May 11 16:47:17 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting SYSV: rundeckd, providing rundeckd...
May 11 16:47:18 localhost.localdomain rundeckd[17012]: Starting rundeckd: [  OK  ]
May 11 16:47:18 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Started SYSV: rundeckd, providing rundeckd.

You can also check the logs;

tail -f /var/log/rundeck/rundeck.log

Accesing Rundeck Web User Interface

Rundeck listens on port 4440/tcp for HTTP and 4443 for HTTPS web services.

ss -altnp | grep 44

LISTEN 0      50                 *:4440             *:*    users:(("java",pid=1482,fd=131))

Open this port on firewall to allow external access to Rundeck;

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 4440 -j ACCEPT

firewall-cmd --add-port=4440/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Default username as admin and password as admin.

You can change the password in the /etc/rundeck/realm.properties file.

Rundeck dashboard;

And that is it on how to install Rundeck.

Install Rundeck on Rocky Linux