Description of problem: The export of content from a content host and then subsequent import of content into Satellite seems much more convoluted than I would expect it to be. We had to sync content down to the content host (first copy of the data), export the content to tar archives (second copy of the data), move or copy those archives over to the Satellite system (third copy), expand the archives (fourth copy), move them to a better directory, and then go to the Satellite UI and enable the repositories (after reconfiguring the manifest), so that the Satellite server can copy the data to wherever it actually wants it (fifth copy of the data). Syncing the 5 basic repositories needed to allow us to provision a system used way more disc space than we originally anticipated, and took a large amount of time. Why can't we just log into the Satellite UI, point it to the directory that has the tar archives, and let it put the content where it needs it, without having to deal with extracting it, moving it to the right directory, pointing the manifest at it, and then manually syncing content that's already been synced when it was on the content host? Maybe I'm not using the optimal process to set up a disconnected Satellite, but that was what we ended up doing when we were following the documentation. https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Satellite/6.0/html/Installation_Guide/sect-Red_Hat_Satellite-Installation_Guide-Populating_Red_Hat_Satellite_with_Content-Disconnected_Satellite.html When it takes almost 30gb of content to provision a system, and you need to juggle multiple copies of that content simultaneously on the file system, when you don't have huge storage capabilities, it can quickly eat through your allotted disk. In our case, we were using test systems in a lab environment, and had less than 100gb, not realizing we would need so much space for just a few repos, ended up running out space once, and almost ran out of space a second time, if I hadn't been watching it and pushing content around at the last second to prevent it. Seems like the process could be more streamlined. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): katello-utils-1.5.16-1
Since this issue was entered in Red Hat Bugzilla, the release flag has been set to ? to ensure that it is properly evaluated for this release.
The katello-disconnected server synchronization and export functions are being moved into the Satellite server itself. With 6.2, the katello-disconnected command will no longer be delivered and instead will be replaced with a new export and import functions delivered via the UI and hammer CLI. This bug is being closed as "WONTFIX" since it relates only to the existing katello-disconnected tooling. Please check the Satellite docs with the release of Satellite 6.2 on how to use the new content export and import features.