There are 4 methods for deploying a repository:

• Copy the Visual Guard tables and data from the source database to the target database. This solution is simple but you can only copy the full content of the repository and not a part of this repository because Visual Guard stores its data in a binary format.
• Use the Visual Guard Console. The Visual Guard console provides a Wizard that will help you to deploy the full content of your repository or the data corresponding to an application. To do that, you must be connected to your source repository then right-click this repository and select the option "Deploy repository...". This wizard enables you to directly deploy your repository into another one or export data as a deployment configuration file.
• Use the deployment tool. This tool uses the deployment configuration file exported by the console and can be launched as a command line tool. This utility can be used to automate your deployment.
• Use the deployment API. You can use this API to integrate your deployment in a custom program. The classes used by the deployment are located in the namespace 'Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.Deployment' (assembly: vg_deployment.exe). You can contact the Visual Guard support, if you need more information about this API.

How to use the deployment tool

The deployment tool is named vg_deployment.exe and is located in the directory <Visual Guard installation directory>\Bin\2.0. This tool needs the installation of the .Net 2.0 framework on the computer. It can be run as command line utility.

You can run this tool without any command lines argument to run a wizard that will walk you through specifying the connection information and selecting the deployment configuration file.

The following table describes the command line options supported by this tool.

Option	Description
-?	Prints vg_deployment.exe tool Help text in the command window.
-w	Run the tool in Wizard mode. This is the default if no command line arguments are specified.
-t repository type	Specifies the type of the repository (Oracle, SQLServer, File). This option is not necessary. If this option is omitted, the type of the repository is SQLServer.
-s schema name	The Oracle schema name containing the Visual Guard tables. This option is necessary if the type of the repository is Oracle and when the user specified in the connection string is not the owner of Visual Guard tables. This value is case sensitive.
-c connection string	The connection string to the computer running the database where the repository will be deployed. This option is necessary if do not use the option -W. The user specified in the connection string must have the permissions to update and delete data in Visual Guard table. When the type of the repository is File, the value must contain the path of the directory where the repository will be deployed.
-f path	The path of the deployment configuration file used by the tool. This option is not necessary. By default the tool will use the file "deployment.config" located in its directory.

Deploying the repository for the first time

When you deploy a repository, the deployment tool will first check if the database structure is already created. When the structure does not exist, the deployment process will fails. It is necessary to create the database structure before running the deployment tool.

You can create it by using the Visual Guard console to create an empty repository. You can also create it by using the SQL scripts installed with Visual Guard. These scripts are located in the directory <Visual Guard Installation Directory>\VisualGuardConsole\Database\<Repository Type (SQLServer or Oracle)>.

Deployment and license key

When you deploy a complete repository in an empty repository or in a repository without a registered license key (in evaluation mode), Visual Guard considers that you create a new repository.

This repository will have the same license key (with same limitation) as the source repository but you will not be able to add new applications or security actions in this repository. When you need to create new  application or add new security action in the deployed repository or when you need more users than the source repository,  you should request a new license key for this repository.

When you deploy a complete repository in a repository with a registered license key, Visual Guard will keep this license key and will not take into account the license key of the source repository.

When you deploy an application in a repository, the deployment process will fails if the license of the target repository is expired.

 

 

 

 

Deployment of the parameters of the repository

Introduction

This functionality is use to deploy only the parameters of a repository.

What are the parameters of the repository?

• Password Policy,
• Membership setting (“require unique email”, “requires password question and answer”, etc),
• Misc (“Supported authentication mode”, “Allow to rename user”, etc).

Usage

Export in a configuration file

1. Open Visual Guard,
2. Right click on the repository,
3. Select “Deploy repository…”,
4. Click on next button,
5. Select “Export data in a deployment configuration file”,
6. Click on “Next” button,
7. Select “Deploy parameter of the repository,
8. Click on “Next” button,
9. Click on “Finish” button,
10. Save the configuration file.
11. Open the tool “vg_deployment.exe”,
12. Select the configuration file,
13. Select the type of the repository,
14. Enter the complementary information for the repository,
15. Click on “Ok” to begin the deployment.

Export directly in a repository

1. Open Visual Guard,
2. Right click on the repository,
3. Select “Deploy repository…”,
4. Click on next button,
5. Select “Deploy in an existing repository”,
6. Select the repository in the list,
7. Click on “Next” button,
8. Select “Deploy parameter of the repository,
9. Click on “Next” button,
10. Click on “Finish” button,

Requirements

• To use deployment of the parameters of the repository you must have version 2.8 of Visual-Guard.

Restrictions

• If you want to deploy the properties « Requires unique email » and « requires Password, question and answer », all the users of the directory have to have an email address and a question / response. If one the user don’t have one if this information, the deployment will be cancel and a exception will be generate.