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Catalog Operations

This section will describe the catalog system and the tools to use them.

Command Line

The DRP CLI has a section dedicated to catalog operations.

drpcli catalog

This will show the usage for the sections. The subsection item allows you to download, install, and get information about a specific catalog item.

Examples:

  • drpcli catalog items Lists the items
  • drpcli catalog item show drp Shows the possible options for drp
  • drpcli catalog item show callback Shows the possible options for callback
  • drpcli catalog item download drp Downloads the stable DRP install image
  • drpcli catalog item install callback Install the stable callback plugin
  • drpcli catalog item install callback --version=v4.6.2 Install the specific callback version

All the commands can take a web proxy parameter on how to access the outside world, -D

The system will default to the RackN default catalog. Other catalogs can be referenced by using the -c option.

There are three other commands available in the catalog CLI.

The first is show. This dumps the current catalog.

The next is create. This takes a version and returns a catalog that only goes back to that version number. This is useful for building a slimmer catalog than all of RackN's history.

The final command is updateLocal. This takes a catalog and will make a local repo of that catalog in the configured DRP instance. It will download all the contents of the catalog and store it in the files section of the DRP endpoint specified by RS_ENDPOINT and normal creds. An optional version can be specified to restrict the historical items included. updateLocal is also incremental. It will only download new things from the last time it was run. The catalog repository is build in the files/rebar-catalog directory.

This is really useful for use with the manager functionality. A cronjob on the manager can be run nightly against the RackN catalog to update the local repository. Once that is complete, running the command:

drpcli plugins runaction manager buildCatalog

This will build a new local catalog inside the manager. The new catalog file is located at files/rebar-catalog/rackn-catalog.json. This new catalog is loaded into the DRP endpoint as a content pack. This is REQUIRED for the manager to update downstream endpoints.

Example crontab for maintaining a local catalog repo.

drpcli catalog updateLocal --version=v4.6.0
drpcli plugins runaction manager buildCatalog

The first time this runs it could take a while.

Catalog Details

A catalog is a collection of CatalogItem options stored in a content pack format. This allows it to be loaded into DRP as data.

A DRP endpoint running as a manager will use the loaded catalog as the data elements to update downstream DRP endpoints.

The UX will use the catalog as helper for defining available content to update the DRP endpoint. The UX uses the catalog_url parameter in the global profile to define which catalog it should use to update the currently attached DRP endpoint.

A catalog item defines a piece of DRP that can be updated:

  • DRP itself
  • DRP UX
  • Plugins, e.g. raid, bios, ipmi, ...
  • Content Packs, e.g. drp-community-content, task-library, ...

The Catalog Item defines the version and type of item. Additionally, it defines URLs to get the package from. Checksums and other metadata is also stored in the catalog item. For binary items, this will include architecture specific checksums.

This is an example JSON entry for ad-auth version stable.

{
  "ad-auth-stable": {
    "ActualVersion": "v4.6.2",
    "Available": false,
    "ContentType": "PluginProvider",
    "Endpoint": "",
    "Errors": [],
    "HotFix": true,
    "Id": "ad-auth-stable",
    "Meta": {
      "Author": "RackN",
      "CodeSource": "https://gitlab.com/rackn/provision-plugins",
      "Color": "green",
      "Copyright": "RackN",
      "Description": "Extends Digital Rebar Provision Authentication to Active Directory",
      "DisplayName": "Active Directory SSO",
      "DocUrl": "https://provision.readthedocs.io/en/latest/doc/content-packages/ad-auth.html",
      "Icon": "key",
      "License": "RackN",
      "Name": "ad-auth",
      "Order": "1000",
      "Prerequisites": "",
      "RequiredFeatures": "",
      "Tags": "exterprise,experimental,auth,active,directory,security"
    },
    "NOJQSource": "ad-auth-stable:::https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rebar-catalog/ad-auth/v4.6.2",
    "Name": "ad-auth",
    "ReadOnly": false,
    "Shasum256": {
      "amd64/darwin": "d4c64398bad374560e66bd67fca716b24e64c56ae742dc0824239422306a14e6",
      "amd64/linux": "202f8a67d6aefee9cbef9c2de34dfccd4455e378b4622ed5118b40843c953ef8",
      "arm64/linux": "NOTFOUND",
      "ppc64le/linux": "NOTFOUND"
    },
    "Source": "https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rebar-catalog/ad-auth/v4.6.2",
    "Tip": false,
    "Type": "catalog_items",
    "Validated": false,
    "Version": "stable"
  }
}

This object contains the meta of the object for easy of process. This is an example of a special case object. The Id field defines the name/version pair of this object. In this case, the version is stable. This references the stable version of this object when the catalog was built. In this case, the ActualVersion field defines the actual version, v4.6.2. All RackN built or buildCatalog action built catalogs have stable entries for the most recently released objects.

There is an additional version, tip. This is present in RackN catalogs that represent the experimental/developmental branch of the product. This can be installed like other items.

The Catalog Item assumes that the actual version is a SEMVER compatible version, e.g. v4.3.2.

The Shasum256 field defines the shasum256 sum for each arch/os for binary objects. If the object can be referenced for all architectures, the value, any/any is used.

The Source field defines the base path for the object. Depending upon the type of the object, additional data needs to be added:

  • PluginProvider - Source/// - e.g. Source/amd64/linux/ad-auth
  • ContentPackage - Source - No changes needed
  • DRPUX - Source - No Changes needed
  • DRP - Special see below.

The DRP download Source is special. If the release v4.6.0 or before, the Source field is the single DRP install zip file. This contains all arch and OS combinations. For v4.7.0+, the Source field looks like the same thing, but download the image, you need to remove the .zip and replace it with .<arch>.<os>.zip. This will get the specific arch/os version. Additionally, the catalog item has a complete Shasum256 field in v4.7.0+.

Custom Catalogs

RackN provides a catalog built content with a history of 20 or so previous releases. If you need to add additional catalogs, you will need to do one of these methods.

Customized Local Catalog

This is useful for Manager environments. Using the updateLocal and buildCatalog commands, you can make your own local catalog repository. With that in place, additional content packs can be staged in the files/rebar-catalog directory following the common patterns. Once staged, rerunning the buildCatalog command will add those injected items into the catalog. Point the UX at that catalog and it will work.

The layout of the files/rebar-catalog directory works like this. Create a directory for your new content pack with its id. In this example, my-workflows is the name of the content pack. A directory would be created, my-workflows. In that directory, a file for each version would be added in the json format. For example, Version v1.1.1 of the my-workflows would be published by creating the file files/rebar-catalog/my-workflows/v1.1.1.json.

Plugins and DRP itself have different formats, but they should be obvious from the other items.

Once items are loaded in place, re-reun the buildCatalogaction. The new catalog is built and added to the DRP endpoint.

Customized Catalog for UX-Only

Alternatively, the RackN catalog could be downloaded and unbundled, like a content pack. Once unbundled, additional catalog items can be added following the sytnax of the existing items. The Source URL can reference a file server hosting your content. It must follow the Source expansion rules above. Once the items are added, rebundle the content pack use the DRP CLI tools. You can place that new catalog at a place that can be accessed by the UX through the catalog_url parameter.