Synchronizing template repositories

In orcharhino, you can synchronize repositories of job templates, provisioning templates, report templates, and partition table templates between orcharhino 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 plugin and performing exporting and importing tasks.

Enabling the TemplateSync plugin

Procedure

To enable the plugin on your orcharhino Server, enter the following command:
```
# orcharhino-installer --enable-foreman-plugin-templates
```
To verify that the plugin is installed correctly, ensure Administer > Settings includes the TemplateSync menu.

Configuring the TemplateSync plugin

In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Administer > Settings > TemplateSync to configure the plugin. The following table explains the parameters.

Some parameters are used only for importing or exporting.

Table 1. TemplateSync plugin parameters
Parameter	API parameter name	Meaning on importing	Meaning on exporting
Associate	`associate` Accepted values: `always`, `new`, `never`	Associates templates with an operating system, 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

Using repository sources

You can use existing repositories or local directories to synchronize templates with your orcharhino Server.

Synchronizing templates with an existing repository

Use this procedure to synchronize templates between your orcharhino Server and an existing repository.

Procedure

If you want to use HTTPS to connect to the repository and you use a self-signed certificate authentication on your Git server, validate the certificate:
```
# sudo -u foreman git config --global http.sslCAPath Path_To_My_Certificate
```
If you want to use SSH to connect to the repository, perform the following steps:
1. Create an SSH key pair if you do not already have it. Do not specify a passphrase.
  # sudo -u foreman ssh-keygen
2. Configure your version control server with the public key from your orcharhino, which resides in /usr/share/foreman/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
3. Accept the Git SSH host key as the foreman user:
  # sudo -u foreman ssh git.example.com
Configure the TemplateSync plugin 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 git@git.example.com/templates.git.

Synchronizing templates with a local directory

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 orcharhino 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_Provisioning_Template
oses:
- My_first_OS
- My_second_OS
locations:
- My_first_Location
- My_second_Location
organizations:
- My_first_Organization
- My_second_Organization
%>

Procedure

In /var/lib/foreman, create a directory for storing templates:

# mkdir /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir

You can place your templates to a custom directory outside /var/lib/foreman, but you have to ensure that the Foreman service can read its contents. The directory must have the correct file permissions and the foreman_lib_t SELinux label.

Change the owner of the new templates directory to the foreman user:
```
# chown foreman /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir
```
Change the Repo setting on the TemplateSync tab to match the /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir/ directory.

Importing and exporting templates

You can import and export templates using the orcharhino management UI, Hammer CLI, or orcharhino API. orcharhino 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.

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.

The templates provided by orcharhino 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.

Prerequisites

<%#
kind: provision
name: My_Provisioning_Template
oses:
- My_first_OS
- My_second_OS
locations:
- My_first_Location
- My_second_Location
organizations:
- My_first_Organization
- My_second_Organization
%>

To use the CLI instead of the orcharhino management UI, see the CLI procedure. To use the API, see the api Importing Templates.

Procedure

In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Templates > 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 Configuring the TemplateSync plugin.
Click Submit.

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

CLI procedure

To import a template from a repository, enter the following command:
```
$ hammer import-templates \
--branch "My_Branch" \
--filter '.*Template Name$' \
--organization "My_Organization" \
--prefix "[Custom Index] " \
--repo "https://git.example.com/path/to/repository"
```
For better indexing and management of your templates, use --prefix to set a category for your templates. To select certain templates from a large repository, use --filter to define the title of the templates that you want to import. For example --filter '.*Ansible Default$' imports various Ansible Default templates.

API procedure

Send a POST request to api/v2/templates/import:

# curl -H "Accept:application/json" \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-u login:password \
-k https://orcharhino.example.com/api/v2/templates/import \
-X POST

If the import is successful, you receive {"message":"Success"}.

Exporting templates

Use this procedure to export templates to a git repository.

To use the CLI instead of the orcharhino management UI, see the CLI procedure. To use the API, see the API procedure.

Procedure

In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Templates > 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 Configuring the TemplateSync plugin.
Click Submit.

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

CLI procedure

To export the templates to a repository, enter the following command:
```
# hammer export-templates \
--organization "My_Organization" \
--repo "https://git.example.com/path/to/repository"
```
This command clones the repository, makes changes in a commit, and pushes back to the repository. You can use the --branch "My_Branch" option to export the templates to a specific branch.

API procedure

Send a POST request to api/v2/templates/export:

# curl -H "Accept:application/json" \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-u login:password \
-k https://orcharhino.example.com/api/v2/templates/export \
-X POST

If the export is successful, you receive {"message":"Success"}.

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" \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-u login:password \
-k https://orcharhino.example.com/api/v2/templates/export \
-X POST \
-d "{\"repo\":\"git.example.com/templates\"}"

Uninstalling the Foreman templates plugin

Use the following procedure to avoid errors after removing the foreman_templates plugin.

Procedure

Disable the plugin using the orcharhino installer:

# orcharhino-installer --no-enable-foreman-plugin-templates

Clean custom data of the plugin. The command does not affect any templates that you created.
```
# foreman-rake templates:cleanup
```
Uninstall the plugin:
```
# dnf remove foreman-plugin-templates
```

The text and illustrations on this page are licensed by ATIX AG under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International ("CC BY-SA 4.0") license. This page also contains text from the official Foreman documentation which uses the same license ("CC BY-SA 4.0").