Centralize export/import documentation

[jrafanie]

Export/import is buried in the documentation for each feature. I cannot find a high level page showing what can and cannot be exported/imported for upgrade or testing purposes.

I did find these locations:

% git grep -i -E "\#+.+export"
_includes/export-generic-objects.md:        # bin/rake evm:export:generic_object_definitions -- --directory tmp/generic_object_definitions
_includes/import-export-custom-buttons.md:            # rake evm:export:custom_buttons -- --directory /tmp/custom_buttons
general_configuration/_topics/configuration.md:##### Importing and Exporting Schedules
managing_providers/cloud_providers/_topics/enabling_gce_events.md:## Configuring Google Compute Engine to Export Events
monitoring_alerts_and_reporting/_topics/exporting_a_widget.md:### Exporting a Widget
monitoring_alerts_and_reporting/_topics/importing_and_exporting.md:## Importing and Exporting
monitoring_alerts_and_reporting/_topics/importing_and_exporting_policies_policy_profiles_and_alerts.md:### Importing and Exporting Policies, Policy Profiles, and Alerts
monitoring_alerts_and_reporting/_topics/to_export_a_policy_policy_profile_or_an_alert.md:### Exporting a Policy, Policy Profile, or an Alert
monitoring_alerts_and_reporting/_topics/to_export_a_report.md:### Exporting a Report
policies_and_profiles_guide/_topics/exporting_and_importing_analysis_profiles.md:### Exporting and Importing Analysis Profiles
provisioning_virtual_machines_and_hosts/_topics/catalogs_and_services.md:#### Exporting Generic Objects
provisioning_virtual_machines_and_hosts/_topics/catalogs_and_services.md:##### Exporting Service Dialogs
scripting_actions/_topics/chap_automation_model.md:### Importing, Exporting, and Resetting the Datastore
scripting_actions/_topics/to_export_all_classes_classes1.md:#### Exporting All Datastore Classes

Some things are documented and in the UI or CLI as shown above. The CLI options mostly come from:

https://github.com/ManageIQ/manageiq/blob/master/lib/tasks/evm_export_import.rake

We have exports for:

• automation domain and classes and children
• alerts
• custom buttons
• customization templates
• generic objects
• policies/policy profiles
• provision dialogs
• reports
• user roles (RBAC)
• scan profiles / analysis profiles
• schedules
• service dialogs
• tags
• widgets

I'm not sure if this is it or I'm missing some.

We should have an index page that possibly links to the existing documentation wherever it's currently located or possibly move the export/import of each section to one central location. We should open issues for things that should be exportable but not yet done.

All I found for TODO items was ManageIQ/manageiq#19587 and ManageIQ/manageiq#19588.

[jrafanie]

@Fryguy do we have an issue for the service catalog / catalog items export/import? I know it's hard but not sure if those difficulties are written up anywhere.

[jrafanie]

In chatting with others, I wonder if it makes sense to have a Data Management section with the hope we can add/move documentation for import/export, data retention/purging and settings, and possibly getting into database management such as some items on ensuring postgres autovaccuum/autoanalyze is running, table sizes and detecting sizing issues, etc. But for now, a page that gives a high level of what is exportable would be a great start.

[Fryguy]

@Fryguy do we have an issue for the service catalog / catalog items export/import? I know it's hard but not sure if those difficulties are written up anywhere.

Yes. ManageIQ/manageiq#19588

The roadmap has a number of Import/Export issues: Roadmap (view)