Creating network container blueprints

Network container blueprints are XML files that define the settings used when creating a network container.

To create a new network container blueprint you copy and modify one of the templates that are installed with BMC Network Automation and then importing it into BMC Network Automation. You can also create a pod blueprint using the pod blueprint XML skeleton file and filling in the necessary information. See Creating custom content.

For overview information about network resources, see Network resources overview.

Before starting this procedure, see the types of container blueprint templates described in Overview of pod and container blueprints. You can select one of several blueprints that have been customized for various applications.

For detailed network container blueprint XML tag descriptions, see Container blueprint XML reference and Skeleton network container blueprint file.

The following BMC Communities video (5:08) describes how to create a basic network container blueprint in BMC Network Automation and import it into BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management.

https://youtu.be/iGV5AGJiJ1Q

To create a network container blueprint

1. Review the Container model page (in the BMC Network Automation documentation) to understand the context of network containers and network container blueprints.
2. On the BMC Network Automation host, navigate to BCAN_HOME\public\bmc\bca-networks\csm. The container blueprints that are installed with BMC Network Automation are in subdirectories of this directory.

3. Open a previously created container blueprint XML file or one of the sample container blueprint XML files in an editor.

   Note

   You can also start with the skeleton pod blueprint file, and fill in the portions you require, and comment out the other portions of the file.

4. Modify the new XML container blueprint file as needed.
   For more information, see Container blueprint XML reference.

   Note

   Starting with version 8.7.00 of BMC Network Automation, if you provision a container by using a container blueprint with duplicate rule blueprints, provisioning fails. For successful provisioning, you must export the container blueprint, remove the duplicates, and re-import the container blueprint with a new name.

5. Save the XML file with a unique name that you want to use for this network container blueprint.

6. Import the file into BMC Network Automation by using the import script:

   1. Unzip the bcan-import-export._v.r.mm_.zip file in the BCAN_HOME\public\bmc\bca-networks\extras directory.
      When the file is unzipped, the scripts are in the bin subdirectory. The lib subdirectory contains the libraries needed to run the scripts. Each script is provided as a .bat file for Microsoft Windows and a .sh file for Linux.

   2. From the command line, run the script to import the container blueprint XML file (any container blueprint templates used in the blueprint must be imported before importing the blueprint itself):
      import.bat -url url -user user -password password xml-filename
      For more information about the import script, see Exporting and importing components using a script in the BMC Network Automation documentation.

7. Confirm that the new container blueprint has successfully imported in BMC Network Automation, by logging into the user interface and navigating to Networks > Container Blueprints (under Virtual Data Center on the left column).See Viewing the container blueprint listing  in the BMC Network Automation documentation.

Related topics

Importing network container blueprints
Editing and removing resources