How to deploy a Visual Guard repository or an application

Deploying a Visual Guard repository or application is a key step in moving your security configuration into production or across environments. Visual Guard provides flexible deployment methods that allow you to transfer users, roles, permissions, policies, and MFA settings from one repository to another with ease. Whether you’re setting up a new environment, upgrading existing systems, or synchronizing development and production configurations, Visual Guard’s deployment tools ensure a controlled and reliable process. By using deployment packages or direct repository-to-repository transfers, administrators can maintain consistency, reduce manual effort, and ensure that applications operate with the correct security settings across all environments.

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Steps to Deploy a repository or an application

Step 1: 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.

Step 2: 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.

Step 3: 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.

Step 4: 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

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.

Deployment of the parameters of the repository

Introduction

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)

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 or higher 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 doesnt have one of this information, the deployment will be cancel and a exception will be generated.

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