corporate AUS system / corporate add-on repository
Christophe Brocas (mz)
Hello everybody,
It is time to start to use this list, a very good idea from David Ascher
and Mike Kaply.
I would like to know 2 things about corporate infrastructure and
Thunderbird :
* Is there a way to set-up an AUS (automatic update system) for an
internal use inside corporate network ?
* In the same order of things, is there a way to set-up an add-ons
repository inside a corporate network ?
If yes, is it documented ? will it be maintained ?
If no, is it planned to be coded/documented/supported ? If there
already a discussion under progress ?
Typical use case of such implementations :
* be sure that a new version of Thunderbird does not break an internal
use (I have got only one example but TH v1.5 breaks all our LDAP queries
: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323608 )
* be sure that a dependency we have on a particular add-on version will
not be broked with an unmanaged auto-update
Thank you for all informations you can provide,
Christophe
--
Christophe Brocas
CNAMTS - french public healthcare insurance,
Thunderbird: 50.000+ deployed
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David Ascher
> Hello everybody,
>
> It is time to start to use this list, a very good idea from David Ascher
> and Mike Kaply.
>
> I would like to know 2 things about corporate infrastructure and
> Thunderbird :
>
their implementation, but I do understand that for many users (such as
yourself), it's a business problem for Thunderbird use, and not so much
for Firefox use.
> * Is there a way to set-up an AUS (automatic update system) for an
> internal use inside corporate network ?
>
> * In the same order of things, is there a way to set-up an add-ons
> repository inside a corporate network ?
>
> If yes, is it documented ? will it be maintained ?
>
available off of http://wiki.mozilla.org/AUS
I suspect that the main focus for AUS development is to provide support
for the 100M+ users on the internet, so I could imagine that there could
be choices that morgamic's team makes that may be good for that use case
and not as good for a within-enterprise deployment.
In particular, I would imagine that an enterprise AUS would in some ways
be a filter -- you probaly want your internal AUS to be notified very
quickly of upstream patches, but I understand that you'd want the
ability to control downstream distribution.
I wonder - I've heard this kind of request from Thunderbird users, but I
don't know if the same pressure is felt for Firefox usage in
enterprises. I could imagine that in some ways Thunderbird may tie in
more with other internal systems (LDAP, calendaring systems, etc.) than
Firefox. I could also imagine the opposite =).
> * be sure that a new version of Thunderbird does not break an internal
> use (I have got only one example but TH v1.5 breaks all our LDAP queries
> : https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323608 )
>
(Aside: is that problem resolved in 2.x?)
> * be sure that a dependency we have on a particular add-on version will
> not be broked with an unmanaged auto-update
>
Both of those would require QA steps, which I presume would be your
internal responsibility, correct?
--david
Christophe Brocas (mz)
Le 16/01/2008 23:54, David Ascher a écrit :
> Christophe Brocas (mz) wrote:
>> Hello everybody,
>>
>> It is time to start to use this list, a very good idea from David Ascher
>> and Mike Kaply.
>>
>> I would like to know 2 things about corporate infrastructure and
>> Thunderbird :
>>
> Note that neither of the questions below are Thunderbird specific in
> their implementation, but I do understand that for many users (such as
> yourself), it's a business problem for Thunderbird use, and not so
> much for Firefox use.
Thank you for your answer.
For my organisation, the answer is quite simple ... Firefox is not our
corporate web browser :-(
>> * Is there a way to set-up an AUS (automatic update system) for an
>> internal use inside corporate network ?
>> * In the same order of things, is there a way to set-up an add-ons
>> repository inside a corporate network ?
>> If yes, is it documented ? will it be maintained ?
>>
> As far as I know, the current software is documented and its source is
> available off of http://wiki.mozilla.org/AUS
>
> I suspect that the main focus for AUS development is to provide
> support for the 100M+ users on the internet, so I could imagine that
> there could be choices that morgamic's team makes that may be good for
> that use case and not as good for a within-enterprise deployment.
>
> In particular, I would imagine that an enterprise AUS would in some
> ways be a filter -- you probaly want your internal AUS to be notified
> very quickly of upstream patches, but I understand that you'd want the
> ability to control downstream distribution.
It is exactly the things we want to be able to do.
> I wonder - I've heard this kind of request from Thunderbird users, but
> I don't know if the same pressure is felt for Firefox usage in
> enterprises. I could imagine that in some ways Thunderbird may tie in
> more with other internal systems (LDAP, calendaring systems, etc.)
> than Firefox. I could also imagine the opposite =).
Yes, in our organisation, Thunderbird has got links with other parts of
our information system such as LDAP servers or Calendar system. But as I
say before, I can't say anything about Firefox because we do not support
it as our official corporate web browser. And I am (very) sad about this :-(
>> * be sure that a new version of Thunderbird does not break an internal
>> use (I have got only one example but TH v1.5 breaks all our LDAP queries
>> : https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323608 )
>>
> (Aside: is that problem resolved in 2.x?)
It was solved in the 1.5.0.2 version by applying the pre-1.5 LDAP search
filter.
No more problems since.
>> * be sure that a dependency we have on a particular add-on version will
>> not be broked with an unmanaged auto-update
>>
>
> Both of those would require QA steps, which I presume would be your
> internal responsibility, correct?
Totally correct.
> --david
Michael Kaply
look like:
http://www.kaply.com/weblog/2007/03/26/deploying-firefox-2-within-the-enterprise-part-5/
http://www.kaply.com/weblog/2007/05/02/deploying-firefox-in-the-enterprise-part-5-revisited/
But this is an area that is definitely underdocumented....
Mike Kaply
Guy Fraser
> In particular, I would imagine that an enterprise AUS would in some ways
> be a filter -- you probaly want your internal AUS to be notified very
> quickly of upstream patches, but I understand that you'd want the
> ability to control downstream distribution.
A key requirement would be to define the list of /permitted/ add-ons
(and customisation options) and control their rollout, eg. QA must be
performed on any changes before they get distributed out to end-users.
As such the corporate AUS repo would need to not only flag available
updates but retain information on which versions are currently approved,
optionally grouped with known compatible updates and further grouped by
department or job role, etc.
Guy