Overview

In this post I will review the process of creating Content Views (CV), Composite Content Views (CCV), publishing each view, and creating lifecycles.

Note that in this post we are working with Red Hat Satellite 6.4, in which there was a major overhaul of the WebUI. You may have noticed that all menus are now situated on in a pane on the left, rather than at the top of each page.

Sync Plans

A sync plan is a constant, scheduled synchronization of updates of a Red Hat Satellite repository and the source repositories. I suggest syncing either daily or weekly in order to minimize the deltas between each sync. When you sync more often, the amount of change between syncs is less and therefore should complete faster than a monthly sync.

Note that this step assumes that you have already setup the correct repositories for RHEL and Red Hat OpenStack.  A list of required repositories can be found in the Red Hat OpenStack Director Installation and Usage Guide.

Navigate to Content > Sync Plans

Here we create a daily sync plan for RHEL 7.

We now add RHEL 7 as the product.

Now we need to create a daily sync plan for Red Hat OpenStack.

Note: you might need to create a sync plan for Ceph as well.  Ensure all plans sync at the same interval.

Create a Content View

Now we need to create our content views. We will create one for RHEL, and one for OSP. If you are using ceph, you will need to create a content view for it as well.

 

Note: I suggest appending CV to content view name for all content views, and appending CCV to all composite content views. 

Here we create a content view for RHEL7, then add repos for RHEL7. Do not create as a Composite view and do not set to “Auto Publish“.

Now we create a content view for Red Hat OpenStack. Add appropriate repos. Do not create as a Composite view and do not set to “Auto Publish“.

Creating a Composite Content View

A Composite Content view (CCV) is a content view that is composed of multiple content views. In this example, we need to create a content view that exposes hosts to RHEL 7 and OSP repos, so we create a content view that encompases both of the content views that we created in the previous steps.

Now create the Composite Content view. Here I select “Composite View” and “Auto Publish”

Now add Content Views to the Composite Content View.

Now Publish your new content views. In this example you will need to publish for your RHEL Content View and Your OSP Content View. Your Composite Content view will be auto-published.

Below I am publishing the TEST-OSP-CV.

Select Publish, as this will publish to Library. This might take a minute.

My status shows red as I have run out of disk space. SAD!

 

Rinse and repeat for the OSP content view – named TEST-OSP-CV in this example.

Lifecycle Environments

In the example below, I have created 3 lifecycles (DEV, Lab, PROD).

All content lives in the Library, until promoted to a lifecycle. In the example below, we have published Version 1.0 of TEST-OSP-CV to our Lab lifecycle. Rinse and repeat for TEST-RHEL7-CV. The composite content view should auto publish

Conclusion

The process that I have outlined above, will allow you to keep your repositories in sync. Each Product contains Repositories. Each Repository is configured to sync daily. Repositories are published as a point-in-time Content View. Multiple content views can be accessible via a composite content view. Content views are published to lifecycles.

This process will allow you to keep your repos up to date, publish new views each of your lifecycles. Start with DEV and promote up to PROD as you test.