Image Requirement

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Discussion

An Image Requirement is a machine-processable statement that identifies a characteristic a Machine Image must possess for a defined build, deployment, workload, or operating context.

An Image Requirement may identify an operating-system family and version, processor architecture, capability, security posture, compliance profile, source revision, integrity value, provider compatibility, lifecycle status, or other selection criterion.

Infrastructure can declare Image Requirements without identifying a specific Machine Image. An image-selection process compares those requirements with the characteristics recorded for available images.

Within Crucible, Image Requirements support separation between an Infrastructure Baseline and the Machine Images that may satisfy it.

Definition

machine-processable statement that identifies a characteristic a machine image must possess for a defined build, deployment, workload, or operating context

Source

Generalized from requirements engineering, machine-image management, infrastructure automation, and artifact-selection usage and specialized for the Crucible architecture and operational model.

Note

An Image Requirement identifies a required characteristic rather than a specific image unless the requirement explicitly identifies one.

Several Machine Images may satisfy the same set of Image Requirements. A single Machine Image may satisfy the requirements of several deployments.

Example

An Infrastructure Baseline declares Image Requirements for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 AArch64 image with Kubernetes capability, an approved STIG compliance profile, and a verified integrity value.

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