On Wed, Jun 13, 2018 at 4:04 PM, RabidCicada <rabidcicada@gmail.com> wrote:

All,
I recently tried to used the OVA export/import functionality. It
seems I misunderstood the intentions. I expected OVA export/import to
be reciprocal functionalities. I expected what we export as OVA to be
importable as OVA in ovirt.

What I have found is the following:

* It seems OVA export does export an OVA, though the format is not
spec compliant
* We use 'disk/' in the HostResource xml field instead of '/disk/'
for example in the ovf.
* It seems OVA import is intended specifically for VMWare OVA's?
* I thought I read about export domains being deprecated, and
incorrectly assumed the recently added OVA export/import was to make
things better for one off import/export.

Can anyone clarify the following:
* Is OVA import really just VMWare OVA's?

No, you can provide OVAs that were generated by oVirt as an input as well.

See examples [1] and [2] for doing this via the python-sdk. Doing that from the webadmin is trivial is exactly like importing OVA that was generated by VMware.

[1] https://github.com/oVirt/ovirt-engine-sdk/blob/master/sdk/examples/import_vm_from_ova.py

[2] https://github.com/oVirt/ovirt-engine-sdk/blob/master/sdk/examples/upload_ova_as_vm.py

* Are we really not spec compliant with the OVA/OVF format as my
example above shows? OR do I misunderstand something?

Well, we now use the same code for parsing OVFs that were generated by oVirt and ones that were generated by VMware. So that's an evidence for being compliant with the specification to some degree.

Indeed, there may be things that we don't use when reading the OVF, like the field you mentioned, and therefore there may be some gaps here and there.

Is this the only gap you found so far? if so then I would say we are in a really good place since fixing that should be trivial, see [3]. You are more than welcome to send a patch!

[3] https://github.com/oVirt/ovirt-engine/blob/master/backend/manager/modules/utils/src/main/java/org/ovirt/engine/core/utils/ovf/OvfOvaWriter.java#L179

* After spending my time yesterday, I recall now that the deprecation
of export domain is in favor of detaching and re-attaching ANY data
domain.

Depending what you're looking for.

If you want to *move* your entities (VMs/templates) from one deployment to another then sure, detach the domain (that will cause those entities to be deleted from the source environment), attach the domain to the new deployment and register the entities you want. That is relatively quick operation since no copy is needed.

Export domains/OVAs are targeted for different scenario - when you want to *copy* you entities from one deployment to another. You export them somewhere and than import them from that place.

* What is the purpose of our OVA export if we ourselves indeed cannot
import our own OVA? Or can you tell me how we import our own if I'm
wrong.

Already answered.

Please feel free to overshare details :), as any context will help
prevent more confusion on my part.

~Kyle
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