Help Getting Chocolatey for Automate Going

[Cubert]

Oh Yes!

I am doing final testing now to verify that all things are working. I started working on the "set-up" documentation. It is a work in progress and may have some stuff added as we finalize the first build.

Here is a preview of that document.

ChocolateyForAutomate-3.6_setup_guide.pdf

(1.6 MiB) Downloaded 89 times

We also have a optional document created for how to setup a Chocolatey Proxy for your entire MSP 's client base to use as an alternatives to UNC caching or direct public repo access.

Create_Chocolatey_CacheProxy_for_$7_amonth.pdf

(1.07 MiB) Downloaded 92 times

I am hoping to have Chocolatey For Automate 3.6.0.1 released sometime next week.

[PL-MSTech]

Sounds good... thank you for the update.

[Cubert]

viewtopic.php?t=6302

FYI, We have a first release now available.

Since you will be updating from a previous version, you will need to do a little house cleaning before completing upgrade.

In side the setup guide is several SQL tables that will need to be dropped before continuing. We made several changes to these tables and it was better if we drop them before starting so they get rebuilt nice and clean.

Code: Select all

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS plugin_p4a_chocolatey_applications;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS plugin_p4a_chocolatey_cache;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS plugin_p4a_chocolatey_clients;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS plugin_p4a_chocolatey_enable;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS plugin_p4a_chocolatey_properties;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS plugin_p4a_chocolatey_repos;

The docs project is up for this build now and has some of the basics in it, It is a work in progress.

Also note this is Build 3.6.0.1 which is the first release. I suspect there is going to be a bug or two that will need to be addressed in future releases so post here to the forums with screenshots and detailed descriptions of any issues you want to report. I will hop in and get then fixed ASAP.



Enjoy!

[PL-MSTech]

Link for new dll?

[PL-MSTech]

- Disabled plugin
- Dropped db tables
- Updated plugin
- Restarted db and control center
- enabled servers and workstations and auto install approved apps
- ran set location to use unc cache, set agent as cache manager, updated unc cache - all apps appeared to have executed a command to update
- ran 'update now' - this doesn't seem to execute any scripts or commands, but the 'current' icon is green now - however, there are no applications in managed applications - I will see if this is updated tomorrow morning (but should the managed apps show up fairly immediately?)

Thanks

[Cubert]

Is this on 3.6 ?

As of 3.6 you are working with groups and searches. These groups auto join agents that have met the requirements set down by the EDFs of each agent under management. Group management should be easy to troubleshoot, here is what to look for.

So this is the typical path an agent will take when a client is enabled.

• You select to enable workstations - This sets the EDF Chocolatey Approved to checked for all workstations

• Auto Join sees Chocolatey Approved flag and joins agent to "C4A Deploy Chocolatey", This group invokes a script to install chocolatey to agents every couple hours. Script sets "Chocolatey Installed" EDF when Chocolatey is successfully installed to agent.

• When agent has both Approved and Installed flags set, it will leave "Deploy Chocolatey" and auto join the master group Chocolatey For Automate, This group is responsible for scanning agents for installed packages.

• All agents in master group will get update command run (daily) by default. You can edit client schedule to force weekly or monthly updates instead.

• At any time you can add either a UNC cache share or a different Source like a Chocolatey proxy and set agents to use them. This will cause agents to auto join C4A Manage Sources or Manage UNC groups. This will cause group to update agent source configurations and sets EDF that settings are completed causing agent to leave group afterwards.

• If you want agents to auto install approved packages as part of the service then selecting auto install application in the client console will cause a EDF flag to be set. This causes agent to auto join the Install software packages group where it over a period of 1 day will have agent install software packages approved in App approval list.

Each of the operations are independent but all require that Chocolatey Approved, Chocolatey installed flags are set. Also there is a expected time frame when working with groups.

• Auto Joins happen hourly, that means it takes up to an hour for agent to join a group when flags are set and another hour to leave group once flags are updates.

• Scan Group is set to once daily, if an agent joins this group it may take 24 hours for scan to happen on newly joined agents.

• Auto install group runs 1 time daily, Applications may take 24 hours to show in lists

• Source management is set to every 2 hours as agents should come and go with one script run.

• UNC Cache Management runs once daily

These are all soft settings for script execution in each group. You can freely modify these time schedules to reflect your environment as needed. You would like scans more often? Modify the master groups "Chocolatey For Automate" script run to twice daily.

At any time you want to know where in the process an agent is, have a look at its EDFs under Chocolatey tab to see what groups it should currently be joined to and what activities that group preforms.

[Cubert]

FYI, Build 3.6.2 will/should auto update tonight. Minor typo found in Scan script causing last scan date/time not to be posted accurately.

[PL-MSTech]

You may have fixed this in 3.6.0.2, but when we check the box to update servers and workstations, I see the text at the top saying it is enabling them (the EDFs?) for all the machines on the site, but when we go back in to that client it is not checked/enabled on the chocolatey tab.
The EDFs that are checked are:
- Chocolatey Approved
- Use UNC Cache
- Auto Install Approved Applications

Also, I'm looking at one that shows green for 'Enable' and 'Current' but it doesn't have all of the packages listed that are installed on the cache server.

[PL-MSTech]

Actually, I think I see the problem with the above issues... the search groups are not there.

[PL-MSTech]

Automate got an update today... installed the latest version of C4A to 3.6.0.3
Still no search groups... how do we get this installed correctly?

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