Bug 1313891

Description of problem:
When creating and modifying provisioning templates within the Satellite 6.x web interface there is no easy way (discoverable!!) to test the modifications except repeatedly building systems and watching them fail, then read piles of logs, turn on debugging, etc..   


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 
6.1.5


How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a template.
2. Intentionally create code that fails to build
3. Provision a machine

Actual results:

The kickstart template build fails. Satellite continues provisioning the machine. The system build usually fails. No notification that the system build failed. The system remains stuck in the building state. Someone has to determine that it is a stuck build rather than a slow build. Connect to a console for the system and see why it is stuck. Determine that the template failed to be retrieved. Determine why the template didn't work in the first place. 


Expected results:

The kickstart template build fails. An error is generated. Satellite rolls back the provisioning operation (kind of like when registering/setting up the system in IdM fails).

The user then can see which portion of the template (provisioning/snippet/finish) failed and then use a test template button (maybe beside the Resolve Template button - or better yet on a diagnostics page) and use this to refine templates to meet a build.. Probably better as part of a hostgroup configuration.

Additional info:

Workaround Create a new host and submit the provisioning request. Go to the Compute resource and power off the vm machine. Using the IP address information in the host build tab access:

https://sat6.example.com/unattended/provision?spoof=IPADDR

This will indeed show you exactly which template is causing the problem and give you an as-good-as-it-gets error message.

Documented in an odd place - What's inside provisioning templates. Not listed in troubleshooting templates on the Foreman site. Should also be list in troubleshooting templates.