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Subject: Re: ace setup
From: Marcel Offermans <marcel.offermans@luminis.nl>
In-Reply-To: <52B31935.6040703@gmx.de>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 08:38:01 +0100
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To: "<users@ace.apache.org>" <users@ace.apache.org>

Hello Marco,

On 19 Dec 2013, at 17:05 , Marco Westermann <MarWestermann@gmx.de> =
wrote:

> thank you for your answer. Yes, I already watched that video and liked =
the way you are describing in the video. But as you said: there are =
still some questions. I will try to ask concrete questions where I have =
problems.
>=20
> At the moment I think of the following scenario:
>=20
> I setup an OBR like karaf OBR on my server and configure my bundles so =
they are pushed to the OBR.
>=20
> That leads me to my first question: what do I have to do to setup ace =
that it uses repository on server xyz. Or in other words: where do I =
configure ace what repo to use.

> If I'm right pushing to my remote OBR wouldn't be enough as I also =
have to provide ace with meta-informations about my bundle. So I would =
have to tell ace that there is a new artifact available ?! This may be =
done about a gogo shell script ?!

Yes.

Let me start by stating that for ACE, an artifact (bundle, configuration =
file, whatever) is just an object with some metadata. For artifacts, the =
most important properties are the type of artifact and its URL. The =
latter points to where the artifact is stored, and when a target =
requests an update, such URLs are used to fetch the correct artifacts.

So, in theory, anything that provides artifacts via a URL can act as an =
=93OBR=94 for ACE (you can even use file:/// URLs but in general I would =
not recommend that).

To tell ACE about an artifact, you have to define it. Manipulating =
artifacts, features, etc. in general is done by the ACE client, and for =
that client we provide three different interfaces: a WebUI, a REST UI =
and a Gogo Shell UI. We tend to use the shell the most when automating =
things, because the scripting language is quite powerful. If you, =
through any of these client interfaces, fill out the URL and other =
metadata by hand, you don=92t even need to configure an OBR.

Now, the ACE client can be configured to work with an OBR. In the =93conf=94=
 folder (of run-client, if you=92re running ACE from Eclipse, or your =
client distribution otherwise) you can configure where this OBR is. =
Actually, within Eclipse, also look at the client.bndrun as it contains =
a variable for the OBR location. If you do that, for example in the =
WebUI you can upload bundles to such an OBR directly from your browser. =
There is one requirement though, since the OBR specification does not =
specify any way of =93uploading=94 artifacts to an OBR, in ACE we =
extended that spec a bit by adding a REST interface for that. In other =
words, for uploading to work, you need to use =93our=94 OBR. =
Contributions in this area, to make such a feature work for Nexus for =
example, would be welcome.

> If until here everything would work I would have my bundles in ace so =
I can configure features, distributions and targets etc.
>=20
> Then my next problem would be:
>=20
> My OSGI bundles use other external bundles available in maven central =
( my bundles use camel, activemq, cxf etc )
>=20
> is it possible that ace can provide my target(s) with these bundles, =
too without manually adding the bundles to ace. ( maybe by proxying =
maven central with my own obr ?!)

Yes, see above, as long as you can provide an URL to such bundles, you =
can use them.

> And the last question for today:
>=20
> I cannot find detailed instructions on how to tell ace where my =
targets are. I have some instances of karaf running on different =
servers. How would I configure that ace knows how to provide my karaf =
instance. I think I've read that I need to install an ace bundle to the =
target container but I cannot figure out what bundle I need and how to =
configure it.

On the target you need to run a management agent bundle. This is an =
ordinary bundle. It can be configured with, amongst other things, a =
=93target ID=94 (which is the ID that shows up in the target column of =
ACE) and a URL to the ACE server (these properties are called =
identification and discovery and can be provided as system properties).

Technically, the ACE server does not need to know where the targets are, =
as the targets poll the server for updates.

Greetings, Marcel