I/We Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for migrating configurations of a software-
defined network (SDN) component from a source computing environment to a
destination computing environment, the method comprising:
fetching configurations of the SDN component at the source computing environment;
finding dependencies of the SDN component in the configurations of the SDN component that correspond to dependency keywords in a configurable dictionary, the configurable dictionary including the dependency keywords and paths to find dependencies corresponding to the dependency keywords;
for each dependency found in the configurations of the SDN component, calculating a correlation key for the dependency, adding the correlation key for the dependency to a metadata section of a configuration export file, and adding a reframed configuration of the dependency with at least one reference to the correlation key in the metadata section to a templates section of the configuration export file;
substituting at least some correlation-key references within reframed configurations in the templates section of the configuration export file with correlation-key replacements for the destination computing environment; and
applying the reframed configurations with the correlation-key replacements to a target SDN component in the destination computing environment.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration export file includes a user-provided correlation-key replacement for a particular correlation key in the templates section of the configuration export file.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user-provided correlation-key replacement is located in the metadata section of the configuration export file.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the paths in the metadata section are XPaths.
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5. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration export file is a Java Script Object Notification (JSON) file.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the metadata section occupies at most ten percent of the total space of the JSON file.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a user prompt when one of the correlation keys in the configuration export file does not correspond to any subject in the destination computing environment, wherein the user prompt allows a user to ignore, fix or supply a replacement for that correlation key.
8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing program instructions for method for migrating configurations of a software-defined network (SDN) component from a source computing environment to a destination computing environment, wherein execution of the program instructions by one or more processors of a computer system causes the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:
fetching configurations of the SDN component at the source computing environment;
finding dependencies of the SDN component in the configurations of the SDN component that correspond to dependency keywords in a configurable dictionary, the configurable dictionary including the dependency keywords and paths to find dependencies corresponding to the dependency keywords;
for each dependency found in the configurations of the SDN component, calculating a correlation key for the dependency, adding the correlation key for the dependency to a metadata section of a configuration export file, and adding a reframed configuration of the dependency with at least one reference to the correlation key in the metadata section to a templates section of the configuration export file;
substituting at least some correlation-key references within reframed configurations in the templates section of the configuration export file with correlation-key replacements for the destination computing environment; and
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applying the reframed configurations with the correlation-key replacements to a target SDN component in the destination computing environment.
9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the configuration export file includes a user-provided correlation-key replacement for a particular correlation key in the templates section of the configuration export file.
10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the user-provided correlation-key replacement is located in the metadata section of the configuration export file.