A template of an operating system is a set of disk images and installation scripts that consist of a distribution and other data for OS deployment. This article describes how to create a custom repository of OS templates.
The repository directory must contain the following files:
- the metadata.xml file is the main file describing a repository. It is used for getting information about templates.
- A tar.gz file with template archives. the file also includes the metainfo.xml template description file.
metadata.xml — the XML-file with the elem elements for each template. Every elem contains a simplified description from metainfo.xml from the template.
The elements within the elem element:
- osname — a template name ;
- support — a group of elem elements with names of software products that can use this template;
- tags — template tags;
- version — template API version required for this template;
- filename — a template file name;
- utcmtime — template modification time.
Example of the metadata.xml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<doc>
<elem>
<osname>FreeBSD-9-amd64</osname>
<support>
<elem>VMmgr</elem>
<elem>DCImgr</elem>
</support>
<tags>freebsd,unix,freebsd9</tags>
<version>5.57</version>
<type>ostemplate</type>
<filename>FreeBSD-9-amd64-5.57.tar.gz</filename>
<utcmtime>2016-12-27 05:12:25</utcmtime>
</elem>
<elem create-metainfo="yes">
<osname>Ubuntu-16.04-x86_64</osname>
<support>
<elem>VEmgr</elem>
</support>
<tags>ubuntu,linux,unix,ubuntu1604,xenial</tags>
<version>5</version>
<externals>
<elem>
<url>http://mirror.yandex.ru/mirrors/download.openvz.org/template/precreated/ubuntu-16.04-x86_64.tar.gz</url>
</elem>
</externals>
<utcmtime>2016-11-27 05:08:59</utcmtime>
</elem>
<osname>Windows-Server-2008-R2</osname>
<support>
<elem>VMmgr</elem>
</support>
<tags>windows,windows2008r2</tags>
<version>5</version>
<type>ostemplate</type>
<filename>Windows-Server-2008-R2-Web.tar.gz</filename>
<utcmtime>2016-07-14 03:48:32</utcmtime>
</elem>
<elem>
<osname>Windows Server 2012 R2 Clean</osname>
<support>
<elem>DCImgr</elem>
</support>
<tags>windows,windows2012r2</tags>
<version>5</version>
<type>ostemplate</type>
<filename>WindowsServer-2012-R2-Clean.tar.gz</filename>
<utcmtime>2016-08-23 04:58:23</utcmtime>
</elem>
<elem>
<osname>CentOS-7-amd64</osname>
<support>
<elem>VMmgr</elem>
<elem>DCImgr</elem>
</support>
<tags>centos,linux,unix,centos7</tags>
<version>5.57</version>
<type>ostemplate</type>
<filename>CentOS-7-amd64-5.57.tar.gz</filename>
<utcmtime>2016-12-27 06:44:33</utcmtime>
</elem>
</doc>