Windows Keys Plugin and Hosts Product Key Field Coexistence, who wins?

[x23piracy]

Hi,

i just like to ask how the windows keys plugin deals with a host that has a windows key in it’s windows key field stored while an image with associated key from the windows keys plugin should be deployed.

Which key is used then, does the windows keys plugin win or will it use the hosts key?

Please let me know. @tom-elliott @george1421
I am missing a readme that explains how the plugin acts, possibly i am to stupid to find it, so don’t slap me :).

Regards X23

[george1421]

@x23piracy Its been a while, and my memory is fuzzy and old…

The idea was to create a table of keys and then to assign fog group to an entry in the table. If I remember correctly, if the key is blank the value from the keys table is copied to the host. If the hostkey exists then the host is skipped. The logic was if someone had manually entered a key, that was by design and the developers didn’t want an automated process to overwrite the key to crush the decision of the person who put the key there.

I didn’t code the plugin so the developers may have taken a different approach in the code. But the discussion at the time was to only update blank fields.

[Tom Elliott]

https://github.com/FOGProject/fogproject/blob/master/packages/web/lib/plugins/windowskey/config/plugin.config.php

From what I’m reading of the description, the thought works as is:

If an image is associated to a key, hosts using that image will use the key that is associated to that particular image over the one that’s stored in the product key field on the host. The Image’s associated key will overwrite the host’s product key field.

[x23piracy]

@tom-elliott i need to bring it to the point. Overwrite means it uses the assigned key by the plugin but doesnt replace the key in the host definition right?

The entered key in the host definition is still there and for the case another image without assigned key is deployed the stored host key is used correct?

[Tom Elliott]

@x23piracy No, it overwrites the key in the host. This is because, using the plugin, you’re associating the key to an image, something like a VLK. The fog client uses the host product key to perform the activation steps, so overwriting the host key is less error prone than trying to change the key on the way to pass the information.

[x23piracy]

@tom-elliott hmm okay but i am still interested in knowing the bios key while i am using a vl key to activate it. I would loose this information when i activate a key for an image that a host uses where i already collected the bios key.

I would more appreaciate if the vl key would be used for an activation rather then overwriting it but i understand that this will brings a lot more codes changes with it even in the client.

[Tom Elliott]

@x23piracy It wouldn’t be changing the client code itself, it’s the backend that would need to be re-written for it to work right, but it would be a lot of changes and there could be some serious mistakes. Hooking into the client backend stuff isn’t that hard, but it’s also not something we should be “playing” with. We’ve all seen how hard it can be to make a very small mistake in the server code.

[x23piracy]

This can be marked as solved.