RexOps/Rex

Windows support

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#675 opened on May 8, 2015

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 (4 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Perl (671 stars) (218 forks)batch import
help wanted

Description

From time to time people ask for Windows support and the goal is to also support it.

To support windows we have (imho) 2 options:

SSH Server on Windows

There are some ssh servers that can be installed on windows. So the easiest way to support windows would be to install such a sshd server on a windows box and write some modules for Rex to support inventory, services, users, packages, ...

Using Windows Remote Management (WinRM)

This is a SOAP Webservice that ships since Windows 2003 (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384426(v=vs.85).aspx)

With this we don't need to install 3rd party services on a windows box but it would be more work to add support for this.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
devopsinfrastructure
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
PerlWindows system administrationSSH/WinRM knowledge
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
20
Research direction
The issue proposes two approaches for Windows support: using an SSH server on Windows or using Windows Remote Management (WinRM). The first approach requires writing Rex modules for inventory, services, etc. The second involves implementing a SOAP client for WinRM. To proceed, the maintainer should evaluate the feasibility and decide on an approach. Initial research could investigate existing Perl modules for WinRM or SSH on Windows.