When installing large numbers of agents, or using virtual machines with a temporary lifespan, it can be helpful to be able to automate the creation of Deployment Manager agents. Here is one way to do so:
First of all, install an agent using the normal manual install process. This will ensure that you know which firewall settings you need to tweak on the target machines, and generate an X509 encryption key which can then be shared among the agents you want to automate.
Note: using this method will allow the agents to impersonate each other if one is compromised. Think carefully before using this technique to share security settings between agents with different levels of security
Using Microsoft's Group Policy, or your organization's preferred equivalent, execute the agent installer silently on the target machine. If using a script to execute the installer, remember to set the /quiet flag for a silent install.
Inside "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Red Gate\Deployment Manager\", set the registry keys "Agent.Security.TrustedDmThumbprints" and "Cert-cn=Red Gate Deployment Agent" to be the values of the equivalent keys on your template machine. This will instruct the agent to use the same x509 encryption certificate to encrypt its messages and identify itself to the server. It will also instruct it to accept incoming instructions from the same server.
If you choose to roll out these registry changes using Microsoft's Group Policy, you may find the following template for a custom policy useful:
CLASS MACHINE CATEGORY "Deployment Manager Agent security" POLICY "Deployment Manager Security" EXPLAIN DmAgentHelp KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Red Gate\Deployment Manager" PART server_thumbprint EDITTEXT VALUENAME "Agent.Security.TrustedDmThumbprints" END PART PART agent_certificate EDITTEXT MAXLEN 8192 VALUENAME "Cert-cn=Red Gate Deployment Agent" END PART END POLICY END CATEGORY [strings] DmAgentHelp="This configures the Deployment Manager Agent security settings; the server it will accept instructions from and the key it will use to identify itself" |
This article about setting up a custom policy in Group Policy may be of help: see part 2: "the hard way" for advice on using the above template.
All that remains now is to tell the server where it can find the new machine. You can do this by making a POST request to:
http://<Deployment Manager server address and port>/api/environments/<EnvironmentId>/machines/add
Set the following URL parameters:
Parameter Name | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
Name | test-agent-01 | The user-facing name for the agent in the Deployment Manager system. |
AgentHostName | agent-01 | The host name the server should use to communicate with the agent. |
AgentPort | 10301 | Unless you've specifically set this differently, it should be 10301. |
Thumbprint | CF8676EE5BEB8AD8864A7AD5D55CBA9B97E86B3E | This should be the value of the thumbprint you used to set up your initial template machine. |
TargetType | Machine | The type of target to create. Allowed values:
|
If you're creating a SQL Server target, the following URL parameters are also required:
Parameter Name | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
ServerName | my-machine\sql2008r2 | The fully qualified address of the SQL Server instance to add. |
AuthMode | Sql | The type of authentication to use when connecting to the SQL Server instance. Allowed values:
|
Login | bob | SQL Server user with sysadmin permissions. Only required when using SQL authentication. |
Password | password1234 | SQL Server password. Only required when using SQL authentication. |
http://localhost:8050/api/environments/DeploymentEnvironments-1/machines/add?Name=MyMachine&AgentHostName=localhost&AgentPort=10301&Thumbprint=3578820162E0121A6B41F67D9B7FE7BD58E9243F&TargetType=Machine |
This PowerShell script adds a new target machine to Deployment Manager:
# Input Variables $DmServer = "localhost" $DmPort = "8050" $DmApiKey = "5K1UMAUGDZWKOHWD1TFMRRHK" $EnvironmentId = "DeploymentEnvironments-1" $Name = "dm-agent-01" $AgentHostName = "localhost" $AgentPort = "10301" $Thumbprint = "3578820162E0121A6B41F67D9B7FE7BD58E9243F" $TargetType = "Machine" # ---------------------------- $RequestURL = "http://${DmServer}:${DmPort}/api/environments/${EnvironmentId}/machines/add" $PostData = "Name=${Name}&AgentHostName=${AgentHostName}&AgentPort=${AgentPort}&Thumbprint=${Thumbprint}&TargetType=${TargetType}" $UrlWithFormData = "${RequestURL}?${PostData}" Write-Host "Sending request to url: $UrlWithFormData" $response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $UrlWithFormData -Method Post -Headers @{"X-RedGateDeploymentManager-ApiKey"="${DmApiKey}"} Write-Host $response |