Chapter 12. Synchronizing Template Repositories
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
To enable the plug-in on your Satellite Server, enter the following command:
# satellite-installer --enable-foreman-plugin-templates
- 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.
Parameter | API parameter name | Meaning on importing | Meaning on exporting |
---|---|---|---|
Associate |
Accepted values: | Associates templates with OS, Organization, and Location based on metadata. | N/A |
Branch |
| Specifies the default branch in Git repository to read from. | Specifies the default branch in Git repository to write to. |
Dirname |
| Specifies the subdirectory under the repository to read from. | Specifies the subdirectory under the repository to write to. |
Filter |
| Imports only templates with names that match this regular expression. | Exports only templates with names that match this regular expression. |
Force import |
| Imported templates overwrite locked templates with the same name. | N/A |
Lock templates |
| 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 |
Accepted values: | N/A | Defines how metadata is handled when exporting:
|
Negate |
Accepted values: | Imports templates ignoring the filter attribute. | Exports templates ignoring the filter attribute. |
Prefix |
| Adds specified string to the beginning of the template if the template name does not start with the prefix already. | N/A |
Repo |
| Defines the path to the repository to synchronize from. | Defines the path to a repository to export to. |
Verbosity |
Accepted values: | 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
- In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Sync Templates.
- Click Import.
- 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”.
- 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
- In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Sync Templates.
- Click Export.
- 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”.
- 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
Clone a local copy of your Git repository:
$ git clone https://github.com/theforeman/community-templates /custom/templates
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
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
- Configure a version control system that uses SSH authorization, for example gitosis, gitolite, or git daemon.
Configure the TemplateSync plug-in settings on a TemplateSync tab.
- Change the Branch setting to match the target branch on a Git server.
-
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 intossh://git@git.example.com/templates.git
.
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.Create an SSH key pair if you do not already have it. Do not specify a passphrase.
# sudo -u foreman ssh-keygen
-
Configure your version control server with the public key from your Satellite, which resides in
/usr/share/foreman/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
. 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"}
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 toyes
or add theforce
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
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
-
Change the Repo setting on the TemplateSync tab to match the export directory
/usr/share/templates_dir/
. 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"}
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 toyes
or add theforce
parameter-d '{ "force": "true" }’
to the import command.
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:
Disable the plug-in using the Satellite installer:
# satellite-installer --no-enable-foreman-plugin-templates
Clean custom data of the plug-in. The command does not affect any templates that you created.
# foreman-rake templates:cleanup
Uninstall the plug-in:
# satellite-maintain packages remove foreman-plugin-templates