[katello-devel] Deployable and System Template Portability

[James Labocki]

Sorry for posting across both lists, but this involves both aeolus and katello.

Last week a few of us were discussing the ability to import/export deployables within aeolus for sharing between differing implementations. 

The attached photo 1.JPG provides a high level diagram of some of the problems we believe exist in achieving this today. Please note that I used enterprise nomenclature, so I think that:

- System Engine     = Katello
- Component Outline = Assembly
- Blueprint         = Deployable
- AppForm           = Deployment

We found the following areas differ between implementations and would need to be accounted for. Note this this was not an exhaustive exercise and I'm sure we missed some areas.

- Providers paths are different in katello
- Certificates are different in system templates
- Repositories are different in system templates
- Deployables and their services are tightly coupled (not shareable)
- Clouds, Cloud Resource Zones, and Catalogs are different in aeolus

There seem to be a few approaches that we can use.

#1 Create an import/export tool that prompts users for various implementation specific areas (repository names, certificate locations, etc).

#2 Use the work Francesco has been doing on templates.aeolusproject.org to solve the problem by having it integrated into aeolus and contain the logic that would abstract environment differences from end users.

#3 Allow users to import/export the corresponding images along with the blueprint (this does not help with ongoing management through katello).

#4 Change the template/image/assembly/deployment model to allow for users to easily create an application blueprint from someone elses environment.

#5 Create some consistency in implementation (share system templates via ACME_Corporation org in katello for example).

I'm curious as to what approaches are being considered in both aeolus and katello to allow for users to share their system templates and deployables with minimal effort. 
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