How to use ManageIQ to work with Foreman?

Community
#1

Hello,
Currently we use Foreman to do provisioning of Virtual Machines (we created the iso manually and put it on VMware), update the packages and other sort of things.
We want to switch that, because provisioning in foreman for VMs it’s not what he was made for.
ManageIQ seemed like a good idea but also it also misses some features that Foreman has. Either way its not a good thinking try to kill foreman and full invest in manageIQ, I think they would work better if they were together.
I’m just missing where is the documentation to do that implementation and what is it manageable from ManageIQ?

If I said something wrong please, bomb be with the advantages and disavantages of both.

#2

Welcome @PedroPereira

I am trying to understand the problem. What is it that you don’t think Foreman can do?

Foreman has a wide range of virtualization plugins available and the VMware workflows are used by many.

Is it the generation of the .iso that is the issue?

I am not aware of any ManageIQ and Foreman integrations. Perhaps if someone else has, they can reply.

Can you give us a step by step overview of your ideal workflow? If you do, perhaps I can see where are the limitations are. Perhaps then I can better understand.

#3

Hi There,

Thanks for the reply.

Can’t disclosure much of our situation but we have some clients that need specific virtual machines with specific apps, with specific versions.

ManageIQ seemed the better approach since its more focus on virtual infrastructures which is basically 95% of their infrastructure. Also it integrates dockers, and it seems much more user friendly for the end user, since you are able to make your own machine to provision as a normal user (the admin just need to approve after).

Since its mostly provisioning we believe ManageIQ would be easier to manage but we still believe that foreman is necessary.
Foreman offers much more flexibility of the installation using partials to dynamically generate a kickstart based on multiple templates. They also offer the ability to customize the OS after the provision job is complete using puppet to manage the desired state.
Also ManageIQ can’t manage repositories like Foreman Can.

#4

Are you aware of the Katello plugin?

#5

I think that some combination of remote execution and katello, perhaps also lorax composer would help you.

If you something isn’t within the realm of possibility with a combination of these, please let me know.

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