[chef] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Getting "Access denied" when use mount in recipe and run chef-client remotely via winrm

[o haya < >]

I went back and checked and luckily I still had the test recipes I had been 
using to test using schtasks to get through the reboot, so I tested again, 
and... it worked!!

I'll do more testing with that, and also start looking at using schtasks to 
do the remote running of chef-client.

But, does anyone happen to have the powershell code to calculate 'x' time in 
the future, for the schtasks for running chef-client after a reboot?

Thanks,
Jim




--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 7/2/15, o haya 
<
 >
 wrote:

 Subject: Re: [chef] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Getting "Access denied" when use 
mount in recipe and run chef-client remotely via winrm
 To: 

 
 Cc: 

 
 Date: Thursday, July 2, 2015, 7:22 PM
 
 Hi,
 
 I might go back and try that (schtasks) again later. 
 I'd be happy if that worked, but if you recall from the
 Stackoverflow thread that you posted on 
(http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31058849/is-there-a-way-for-a-chef-recipe-to-continue-after-a-reboot-windows),
 I did try that, but had problems with getting it to work,
 and actually I never got it working, so ended up abandoning
 using that for the Sharepoint installation because it turned
 out I didn't need a mid-installation reboot.  The
 Exchange installation, on the other hand, does require a
 mid-installation reboot, and because I wasn't able to make
 the schtasks approach work earlier, I went with the Chef
 service approach instead.  It would be good if I could
 get the schtasks approach working :(...
 
 Later,
 Jim
 
 
 --------------------------------------------
 On Thu, 7/2/15, Tensibai Zhaoying 
<
 >
 wrote:
 
  Subject: [chef] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Getting "Access
 denied" when use mount in recipe and run chef-client
 remotely via winrm
  To: 

 
  Date: Thursday, July 2, 2015, 5:35 PM
  
  Firing a scheduled task
  remotely is easy and get you rid of the whole credential
  replay needed from winrm. 
  
  This method works since winnt4 (at least) and
  has been used for decades to trigger db stop and then
 server
  Shutdown when there's a power outage and batteries
  lifetime is running low (usually this was part of the
 weekly
  reboot task under nt4 :p)
  
  This gives you the enforcement part on a
  regular basis + the ability to trigger a run on an event
  with a lot of way to trigger it (winrm may not be allowed
 to
  so this that's said, I'm unsure about the latest
  limitations ) 
  
  In brief,
  this could be a way to solve your problem on both sides
  (credentials of the process and on demand ability) 
  
  Le 2 juil. 2015 22:31, o haya 
<
 >
 a
  écrit :
  >
  > Steven
  and Tensibai (et al), 
  >
  > Thanks for the interesting comments and
  discussion. 
  >
  > With
  that, I think that my perspective is probably a little
  (maybe a lot) different, which probably explains the
  differences in opinion.  
  >
  > In our case, we are not looking to
  maintaining an environment or environments over time, but
  rather, our desire is to be able to deploy specified
  environments kind of "on demand", mostly one-time
  events.  That is why the winrm-type approach is/would be
  most attractive (and as I said, "natural") to us.
  
  >
  > Thanks again, 
  > Jim 
  >
  >
  >
  -------------------------------------------- 
  > On Thu, 7/2/15, Steven Murawski 
<
 >
  wrote: 
  >
  > Subject:
  [chef] Re: Re: Re: Re: Getting "Access denied"
  when use mount in recipe and run chef-client remotely via
  winrm 
  > To: 

 
  
  > Date: Thursday, July 2, 2015, 4:08 PM
  
  >
  > So, I wasn't
  referring to 
  > running part of the
  recipe as a scheduled task, but to 
  >
  making the full chef-client run the scheduled 
  > task. 
  >
  > > Understanding that this is
  generically a Windows 
  > problem, it
  still seems like both the scheduled task (if it 
  > worked for me) and the service approaches
  are kind of 
  > "un-natural"
  (read: kludgy) ways to do this, but 
  >
  that's just my opinion.  
  > >The
  
  > general use case for Chef Client is to
  run in the background 
  > on a schedule,
  validating the known good state of the system 
  > and picking up changes when necessary.
   This is usually 
  > accomplished as a
  service (or daemon) or via a scheduled 
  >
  task (or cron job).  On Windows, I find the task
 scheduler
  
  > the better option, as you have more
  flexibility in 
  > determining the
  conditions you can run the task in, it 
  >
  easily supports alternate credentials, can be run on
 demand
  
  > as well, and isn't treated as a
  service 
  > logon. 
  >
  There is an use 
  > case for invoking
  chef-client over winrm (or ssh) via some 
  > orchestration engine rather than running
  on a schedule, but 
  > that means
  you'll have to deal with the limitations of 
  > WinRM.  There are just too many
  "gotchas" in 
  > running in the
  WinRM context.  Many Win32 APIs can't be 
  > called from a non-interactive logon (which
  WinRM is treated 
  > as) and you have the
  credential delegation 
  > problem. 
  > As for 
  > setting up
  Chef to run as a service or scheduled task, the 
  > chef-client cookbook ( 
  > https://supermarket.chef.io/cookbooks/chef-client
  ) can help 
  > with that (though I
  don't think it wires up "on 
  >
  reboot"). 
  > Steven
  MurawskiCommunity Software Development Engineer @ 
  > ChefMicrosoft MVP - PowerShell 
  > http://stevenmurawski.com ;
  >
                                         
  On 7/2/2015 2:44:09 
  > PM, Tensibai
  Zhaoying 
<
 >
  
  > wrote:In my opinion, running chef (or
  any Configuration 
  > management system)
  on demand remotely is an anti-pattern. 
  >
  >
  >
  If you're describing a 
  > state, the
  targeted machine should launch the check by 
  > itself periodically and try to fix itself
  as much as it 
  > can. 
  >
  > It's harder to
  
  > compromise a network from a machine
  who will overwrite your 
  > exploits
  changes every 30 minutes and enforce you to restart 
  > your compromission from scratch over and
  over again. 
  >
  >
  That's just my opinion too 
  > :) 
  >
  > Le 2 juil. 2015
  21:29, 
  > o haya  a écrit : 
  > > 
  > > BTW, I
  should mention that I have a ticket 
  > on
  a slightly "larger" question and this came up 
  > right in the middle of that ticket, so
  I've conveyed 
  > info on what I di to
  the support person (Vikas).  I also 
  >
  was wondering out loud if maybe you guys might make 
  > something like a credential proxy or maybe
  add that 
  > capability to the existing
  Chef Windows service.  
  > > 
  > > Understanding that 
  > this is generically a Windows problem, it
  still seems like 
  > both the scheduled
  task (if it worked for me) and the 
  >
  service approaches are kind of "un-natural" (read:
  
  > kludgy) ways to do this, but
  that's just my opinion. 
  > > 
  > > 
  > > 
  > > 
  > > 
  > > 
  >
  -------------------------------------------- 
  > > On Thu, 7/2/15, o haya  wrote: 
  > > 
  > > Subject:
  Re: [chef] Re: Getting 
  > "Access
  denied" when use mount in recipe and run 
  > chef-client remotely via winrm 
  > > To: 
  > 

 
  
  > > Cc: 
  > 

 
 
  > > Date: Thursday, July 
  > 2, 2015, 3:24 PM 
  >
  > 
  > > 
  > Hi,
  
  > > 
  > > Thanks
  for 
  > the info.  I was just about to
  post 
  > > 
  > that
  I've had some success today, but doing something 
  >
  > > different...
  leveraging the Chef 
  > Windows service. 
  What I 
  > > did was set 
  > the user's credentials in place of
  whatever 
  > > was in that service (in
  my case the 
  > Windows domain 
  > > Administrator) and then 
  > let the service fire off my 
  > > 
  >
  recipe/cookbook.  I have to so some tweaking of the
 design
  
  >
  > > of my
  recipes to prevent them from 
  >
  re-running more than 
  > > once, but I
  was 
  > surprised that it works after
  that. 
  > > 
  > >
  I had seen mention of using 
  > > task
  scheduler/schtasks before, and I 
  >
  would've tried 
  > > that for this
  
  > situation, but when I was looking into
  how to 
  > > do processing across
  reboots, but even 
  > though I was able to
  
  > > get the task 
  > scheduling part done, the recipes appeared
  to 
  > > run into the same type of
  access denied 
  > problems.  I fought 
  > > with that for a 
  >
  couple of days, and finally gave up on it.  
  > > 
  > > 
  > > 
  > In particular,
  I was doing 
  > > a recipe 
  > for deploying Exchange, and it required
  installing 
  > > some prerequisites and
  then a reboot and 
  > then the actual 
  > > installation.  So 
  > back then, I would have the first part of
  
  > > the recipe create a scheduled
  task via 
  > schtasks, for the 2nd 
  > > part, but when 
  >
  the 2nd part, which was what actually ran the 
  > > setup.exe and psconfig.exe, ran, it
  kept 
  > throwing errors 
  > > indicating that 
  >
  something wasn't accessible. 
  > >
  
  > > So, at this point, the service
  
  > > approach is the only approach
  that works 
  > for me. 
  > > 
  > > Thanks 
  > again, 
  > > Jim 
  > > 
  > > P.S.  I
  
  > > kind of 
  >
  guessed that there wasn't something, but I 
  > > posted because the threads, etc I
  found on 
  > the credssp and 
  > > chef were a couple of 
  > years old, and was hoping that 
  > > 
  > there'd be
  something better by now :(... 
  > > 
  > > 
  > > 
  > > 
  >
  -------------------------------------------- 
  > > On Thu, 7/2/15, Steven Murawski  
  > > wrote: 
  > > 
  > >   Subject: [chef] Re: 
  > > Getting "Access denied"
  when use 
  > mount in recipe 
  > > and run chef-client 
  > remotely via winrm 
  >
  >   To: 
  > > 

 
  
  > >   Cc: "o haya"  
  > >   Date: Thursday, July 2, 2015, 3:02
  PM 
  >
  > >   
  > >   
  > >    
      
  > >       
  >                         
  > > 
  >    You are
  hitting one of the 
  > > 
  > > core challenges in dealing with
  Windows 
  > remote 
  >
  > management. 
  > >    The ruby
  WinRM gem, which we 
  > > use for
  knife-windows, 
  > >   doesn't
  support 
  > > CredSSP credential
  delegation (and there 
  >
  > > 
  > > are
  security 
  > concerns with that anyway).
   A better 
  > > 
  >
    workaround would be to create a scheduled task 
  > > that will run 
  >
  >   
  > Chef Client and trigger that
  
  > > from 
  > winrm
  (with schtasks 
  > >   /run).  This
  
  >
  > > gets around
  the logon type and 
  > credential 
  > > 
  > > 
  > delegation issues running in WinRM
  provide. 
  > > 
  >
  > The cause of the 
  > issue is that
  when you 
  > > 
  >
  > land in a remote shell hosted inside WinRM 
  > (either WinRS 
  > >
  or 
  > > 
  >  
  PowerShell Remoting), you're 
  > >
  
  > connecting to a service and 
  > >   that 
  > service
  
  > > does not have the right to 
  > pass on your 
  > >
  
  > > 
  > credentials
  to other services/computers.  So when you 
  > > try 
  > >   to
  mount the 
  > outside resource, it 
  > > attempts to 
  >
  connect as the 
  > >   computer's
  
  > > Network Service account.  The
  path around 
  >
  > >
  
  > > this is either 
  > Kerberos delegation (which has 
  > > 
  > requirements
  
  > >   on the client side and 
  > in 
  > > Active
  Directory) or CredSSP, 
  > >   which
  the 
  > > WinRM 
  >
  gem doesn't handle.  Task scheduler 
  > >   suffers no such problems (and is a
  
  > better way 
  > >
  to run Chef 
  > >   Client - and
  closer to how it 
  > > should run in a
  production 
  > >   context. 
  > >   Steve 
  >
  > >   Steven 
  > >
  
  > MurawskiCommunity Software Development
  Engineer @ 
  > >   ChefMicrosoft MVP -
  PowerShell 
  > >   http://stevenmurawski.com ;
  > >                        
      
  >     
  > >
          On 7/1/2015 9:54:21 
  >
  > >   PM, o haya 
  >
  > 
  >
  > >
  wrote:Hi, 
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   I have been implementing 
  > > some 
  > >  
  
  > recipes/cookbooks for deploying and
  
  > > 
  > configuring
  Sharepoint 
  > >   and Exchange 
  > onto 
  > > our
  Windows servers.  These 
  > servers would
  
  > > 
  > > be 
  > domain mmembers. 
  >
  >   
  > >   
  >
  >   
  > >   I was originally
  testing by 
  > > logging into 
  > >   one 
  > of the
  Windows server and 
  > > then running
  
  > "chef-client 
  > >   -o 
  > >
  myCookbook" and was finally able to 
  > get them working 
  >
  >   this past week. 
  >
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   Both
  sets 
  > > of recipes expect the
  respective 
  > > 
  >
  > installation files to 
  > be shared
  out from the domain 
  > >   
  > controller and the recipes do a 
  > > 
  >
  "mount" to 
  > >  
  "Z:" 
  > drive, 
  > > and then the recipes do 
  > "cd 
  > >  
  z:\" 
  > > and then execute the
  appropriate .exe 
  > inside a 
  > >   powershell_script 
  > resource. 
  > > 
  > > 
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   As I
  
  > > said, I got 
  >
  these recipes working this 
  > > 
  > > week, but in the real world, we would
  want 
  > to trigger the 
  > >   cookbook/recipe 
  > execution remotely using like 
  > > 
  > "knife 
  > >   winrm", so I 
  > started 
  > > testing
  the recipes using 
  > >   "knife
  
  > > 
  > winrm"
  this weekend, and, in both cases, I 
  >
  >   ran into similar problems with both 
  > sets of 
  > >
  recipes.  
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   The first 
  >
  problem was that 
  > > the 
  > >   "mount" would fail with
  
  > > "access denied", 
  > >   so I've 
  >
  > since 
  > tried (a) pre-creating the
  mapped drive 
  > >   outside of Chef
  and also (b) physically 
  >
  > > copying the entire 
  > >   directories of 
  > > 
  > installation
  software to the local C: drive 
  > >
  
  > > and running the 
  > installations off of the local files. 
  > > 
  >   
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   Unfortunately, neither (a) nor (b)
  
  > approach 
  > >  
  worked either.  These 
  > failures occur
  at 
  > > different points of 
  >
  > >   the
  installation, but 
  > > my impression
  is that all the failures 
  > >   are
  
  > > coming down 
  >
  to some kind of access denied or violation. 
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   So,
  I've 
  > spent most of this weekend
  
  > >   testing 
  >
  and researching, which lead me to find 
  >
  > 
  > some older 
  >
  >   threads and information 
  > on 
  > > things like credssp an 
  > >   "2-hop" 
  > > 
  > that seem to
  indicate that these problems 
  > > 
  > > have been around for 
  > awhile, so I was wondering if 
  > >   
  > there's
  some mechanism or configuration 
  > >
  that should fix 
  > >   
  > he problem nowadays? 
  >
  >   
  > >   
  >
  >   
  > >   Also, I should mention
  that I'm 
  > tried 
  > >   setting the WinRM CredSSP to 
  > "true" 
  >
  > on both the 
  > >   server side
  and on my client 
  > > (Chef
  workstation) side, but 
  > >   that
  
  > > hasn't 
  >
  made any difference. 
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   Can anyone 
  >
  > here 
  > tell me how I can get these
  
  > > 
  > >
  cookbooks/recipes to work using 
  >
  "knife winrm"? 
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   
  > >   Thanks, 
  > >
    
  > > 
  > > Jim
  
  > >   
  > >  
  
  > >   
  > >  
            
  >                
        
  > > 
  >
      
  > >   
  >
  >     
  >     
  >
  >                       
  >
            
  > > 
  >
  >
                                        
  
  >
  >
                                          
  
  >
                                         
  
  >