[wpkg-users] Deploying software using AD group membership

[Rainer Meier]

Hi Simon,

simon.begin at institutsmq.qc.ca wrote:
> 
> Does anyone already found a way to deploy software based on an Active
> Directory Group membership ?
> 
> Here we used to use SMS and (hey this is a really good news for WPKG) we
> are currently switching on WPKG for simplicity.
> What we did is to make a Group like "App Deploy XYZ", and put Computer
> objects as member of that group.
> Once configured correctly, The call center here was able to deploy
> software themself without even calling level 2 support - they just add
> another Computer to the AD group!
> 
> I have an idea of scripting this, but I first like to know if it is
> either planned on wpkg.js or if somebody already has done it.

My personal recommendation here would be a script/tool which exports ADS
information to WPKG XML files based on schedule or trigger. However there is a
(yet unsupported) patch for an early WPKG 1.1 version in Bugzilla:
<http://bugzilla.wpkg.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118>

I am still having some concerns integrating it into the official version. Maybe
it will make its way in WPKG 1.2 release (where I plan some bigger internal
re-structurings anyway).

In general I am not a big friend of doing ADS lookup with JScript because of
stability and portability. Moreover most WPKG users (including me) do not have
an ADS running. So integrating ADS support would increase testing effort (each
patch/release would have to be tested in detail by somebody having an ADS). Even
the patch in Bugzilla has never been ported/tested for newer WPKG releases.
So for the stable releases I clearly focus on stability and compatibility for
the majority of WPKG users (using plain shares and XML files).

Having a tool which exports ADS information to XML files would allow ADS users
to run WPKG with ADS "support" while people without ADS are not affected by code
which they will never use.

br,
Rainer