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Chapter 12. Synchronizing Template Repositories

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In Satellite, you can synchronize repositories of job templates, provisioning templates, report templates, and partition table templates between Satellite Server and a version control system or local directory. In this chapter, a Git repository is used for demonstration purposes.

This section details the workflow for:

  • installing and configuring the TemplateSync plug-in
  • performing exporting and importing tasks

12.1. Enabling the TemplateSync plug-in

  1. To enable the plug-in on your Satellite Server, enter the following command:

    # satellite-installer --enable-foreman-plugin-templates
  2. To verify that the plug-in is installed correctly, ensure Administer > Settings includes the TemplateSync menu.

12.2. Configuring the TemplateSync plug-in

In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings > TemplateSync to configure the plug-in. The following table explains the attributes behavior. Note that some attributes are used only for importing or exporting tasks.

Table 12.1. Synchronizing Templates Plug-in configuration
ParameterAPI parameter nameMeaning on importingMeaning on exporting

Associate

associate

Accepted values: always, new, never

Associates templates with OS, Organization, and Location based on metadata.

N/A

Branch

branch

Specifies the default branch in Git repository to read from.

Specifies the default branch in Git repository to write to.

Dirname

dirname

Specifies the subdirectory under the repository to read from.

Specifies the subdirectory under the repository to write to.

Filter

filter

Imports only templates with names that match this regular expression.

Exports only templates with names that match this regular expression.

Force import

force

Imported templates overwrite locked templates with the same name.

N/A

Lock templates

lock

Do not overwrite existing templates when you import a new template with the same name, unless Force import is enabled.

N/A

Metadata export mode

metadata_export_mode

Accepted values: refresh, keep, remove

N/A

Defines how metadata is handled when exporting:

  • Refresh — remove existing metadata from the template content and generate new metadata based on current assignments and attributes.
  • Keep — retain the existing metadata.
  • Remove — export template without metadata. Useful if you want to add metadata manually.

Negate

negate

Accepted values: true, false

Imports templates ignoring the filter attribute.

Exports templates ignoring the filter attribute.

Prefix

prefix

Adds specified string to the beginning of the template if the template name does not start with the prefix already.

N/A

Repo

repo

Defines the path to the repository to synchronize from.

Defines the path to a repository to export to.

Verbosity

verbose

Accepted values: true, false

Enables writing verbose messages to the logs for this action.

N/A

12.3. Importing and Exporting Templates

You can import and export templates using the Satellite web UI, Hammer CLI, or Satellite API. Satellite API calls use the role-based access control system, which enables the tasks to be executed as any user. You can synchronize templates with a version control system, such as Git, or a local directory.

12.3.1. Importing Templates

You can import templates from a repository of your choice. You can use different protocols to point to your repository, for example /tmp/dir, git://example.com, https://example.com, and ssh://example.com.

Prerequisites

  • Each template must contain the location and organization that the template belongs to. This applies to all template types. Before you import a template, ensure that you add the following section to the template:

    <%#
    kind: provision
    name: My Kickstart File
    oses:
    - RedHat 7
    - RedHat 6
    locations:
    - First Location
    - Second Location
    organizations:
    - Default Organization
    - Extra Organization
    %>

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Sync Templates.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Each field is populated with values configured in Administer > Settings > TemplateSync. Change the values as required for the templates you want to import. For more information about each field, see Section 12.2, “Configuring the TemplateSync plug-in”.
  4. Click Submit.

The Satellite web UI displays the status of the import. The status is not persistent; if you leave the status page, you cannot return to it.

For CLI Users

  • To import a template from a repository, enter the following command:

    $ hammer import-templates \
        --prefix '[Custom Index] ' \
        --filter '.*Template Name$' \
        --repo https://github.com/examplerepo/exampledirectory \
        --branch my_branch \
        --organization 'Default Organization'

    For better indexing and management of your templates, use --prefix to set a category for your templates. To select certain templates from a large repository, use --filter to define the title of the templates that you want to import. For example --filter '.*Ansible Default$' imports various Ansible Default templates.

12.3.2. Exporting Templates

You can export templates to a version control server, such as a Git repository.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Sync Templates.
  2. Click Export.
  3. Each field is populated with values configured in Administer > Settings > TemplateSync. Change the values as required for the templates you want to export. For more information about each field, see Section 12.2, “Configuring the TemplateSync plug-in”.
  4. Click Submit.

The Satellite web UI displays the status of the export. The status is not persistent; if you leave the status page, you cannot return to it.

For CLI Users

  1. Clone a local copy of your Git repository:

    $ git clone https://github.com/theforeman/community-templates /custom/templates
  2. Change the owner of your local directory to the foreman user, and change the SELinux context with the following commands:

    # chown -R foreman:foreman /custom/templates
    # chcon -R -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /custom/templates
  3. To export the templates to your local repository, enter the following command:

    hammer export-templates --organization 'Default Organization' --repo /custom/templates

12.3.3. Synchronizing Templates Using the Satellite API

Prerequisites

  • Each template must contain the location and organization that the template belongs to. This applies to all template types. Before you import a template, ensure that you add the following section to the template:

    <%#
    kind: provision
    name: My Kickstart File
    oses:
    - RedHat 7
    - RedHat 6
    locations:
    - First Location
    - Second Location
    organizations:
    - Default Organization
    - Extra Organization
    %>

Procedure

  1. Configure a version control system that uses SSH authorization, for example gitosis, gitolite, or git daemon.
  2. Configure the TemplateSync plug-in settings on a TemplateSync tab.

    1. Change the Branch setting to match the target branch on a Git server.
    2. Change the Repo setting to match the Git repository. For example, for the repository located in git@git.example.com/templates.git set the setting into ssh://git@git.example.com/templates.git.
  3. Accept Git SSH host key as the foreman user:

    # sudo -u foreman ssh git.example.com

    You can see the Permission denied, please try again. message in the output, which is expected, because the SSH connection cannot succeed yet.

  4. Create an SSH key pair if you do not already have it. Do not specify a passphrase.

    # sudo -u foreman ssh-keygen
  5. Configure your version control server with the public key from your Satellite, which resides in /usr/share/foreman/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
  6. Export templates from your Satellite Server to the version control repository specified in the TemplateSync menu:

    $ curl -H "Accept:application/json,version=2" \
    -H "Content-Type:application/json" \
    -u login:password \
    -k https://_satellite.example.com/api/v2/templates/export \
    -X POST
    
    {"message":"Success"}
  7. Import templates to Satellite Server after their content was changed:

    $ curl -H "Accept:application/json,version=2" \
    -H "Content-Type:application/json" \
    -u login:password \
    -k https://_satellite.example.com/api/v2/templates/import \
    -X POST
    
    {“message”:”Success”}

    Note that templates provided by Satellite are locked and you cannot import them by default. To overwrite this behavior, change the Force import setting in the TemplateSync menu to yes or add the force parameter -d '{ "force": "true" }’ to the import command.

12.3.4. Synchronizing Templates with a Local Directory Using the Satellite API

Synchronizing templates with a local directory is useful if you have configured a version control repository in the local directory. That way, you can edit templates and track the history of edits in the directory. You can also synchronize changes to Satellite Server after editing the templates.

Prerequisites

  • Each template must contain the location and organization that the template belongs to. This applies to all template types. Before you import a template, ensure that you add the following section to the template:

    <%#
    kind: provision
    name: My Kickstart File
    oses:
    - RedHat 7
    - RedHat 6
    locations:
    - First Location
    - Second Location
    organizations:
    - Default Organization
    - Extra Organization
    %>

Procedure

  1. Create the directory where templates are stored and apply appropriate permissions and SELinux context:

    # mkdir -p /usr/share/templates_dir/
    # chown foreman /usr/share/templates_dir/
    # chcon -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /usr/share/templates_dir/ -R
  2. Change the Repo setting on the TemplateSync tab to match the export directory /usr/share/templates_dir/.
  3. Export templates from your Satellite Server to a local directory:

    $ curl -H "Accept:application/json,version=2" \
    -H "Content-Type:application/json" \
    -u login:password \
    -k https://_satellite.example.com/api/v2/templates/export \
    -X POST \
    
    {"message":"Success"}
  4. Import templates to Satellite Server after their content was changed:

    $ curl -H "Accept:application/json,version=2" \
    -H "Content-Type:application/json" \
    -u login:password \
    -k https://_satellite.example.com/api/v2/templates/import \
    -X POST
    
    {“message”:”Success”}

    Note that templates provided by Satellite are locked and you cannot import them by default. To overwrite this behavior, change the Force import setting in the TemplateSync menu to yes or add the force parameter -d '{ "force": "true" }’ to the import command.

Note

You can override default API settings by specifying them in the request with the -d parameter. The following example exports templates to the git.example.com/templates repository:

$ curl -H "Accept:application/json,version=2" \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-u login:password \
-k https://satellite.example.com/api/v2/templates/export \
-X POST \
-d "{\"repo\":\"git.example.com/templates\"}"

12.4. Advanced Git Configuration

You can perform additional Git configuration for the TemplateSync plug-in using the command line or editing the .gitconfig file.

Accepting a self-signed Git certificate

If you are using a self-signed certificate authentication on your Git server, validate the certificate with the git config http.sslCAPath command.

For example, the following command verifies a self-signed certificate stored in /cert/cert.pem:

# sudo -u foreman git config --global http.sslCAPath cert/cert.pem

For a complete list of advanced options, see the git-config manual page.

12.5. Uninstalling the plug-in

To avoid errors after removing the foreman_templates plugin:

  1. Disable the plug-in using the Satellite installer:

    # satellite-installer --no-enable-foreman-plugin-templates
  2. Clean custom data of the plug-in. The command does not affect any templates that you created.

    # foreman-rake templates:cleanup
  3. Uninstall the plug-in:

    # satellite-maintain packages remove foreman-plugin-templates
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