What is the nature and description of the request?

Need to pull (m2d) 'batches' or 'sets' of operators into separate archive files.  Transfer those archive files and then push (d2m) one or more of them into the mirror registry all at once. 

The flow would look like this:

m2d:
   pull release images into mirror_000000.tar (optional) 
   pull batch of operator images: A,B,C into mirror_000001.tar
   pull another batch of operator images: D,E into mirror_000002.tar 

Now copy all files into the disconnected env.

d2m:
  using a consolidated imageset config file (with release & one or both operator batches):
  push all images (A,B,C,D,E) to the mirror reg. 

This is not possible today, and I get the following error during d2m:

error mirroring image docker://registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.19 error: initializing source docker://localhost:55000/redhat/redhat-operator-index:228003067d955dd79c300703560f5bbf: reading manifest 228003067d955dd79c300703560f5bbf in localhost:55000/redhat/redhat-operator-index: manifest unknown

Why does the customer need this? (List the business requirements here)

Using this method, operators can be combined into single archive files, e.g., each for a specific use case, such as "odf", "virt", "ai", "sec", or "appdev", containing all the required operator images.  The user can then select and load these "operator sets" in any combination into the registry.  This would greatly simplify the operation of managing operator images.  

List any affected packages or components.

oc-mirror and OLM