# Managing Windows from Linux via Ruby **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [March 4, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/managing-windows-from-linux-via-ruby/130959 "2008-03-04T20:15:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Glen_H)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/managing-windows-from-linux-via-ruby/130959/1 "2008-03-04T20:15:06Z")
Does anyone know of a reliable way to manage resources on Windows machines from a Linux platform using Ruby? I’m currently using win32api and win32ole to create directories and set permissions on multiple remote Windows machines but would like to migrate my application to a Linux platform. I’m also interacting with AD but that works fine with LDAP. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could go about this, or is it not worth my while? Thanks, Glen – “Hey brother Christian with your high and mighty errand, Your actions speak so loud, I can’t hear a word you’re saying.” -Greg Graffin (Bad Religion) ---
**Author:** ![Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Glen_H)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/managing-windows-from-linux-via-ruby/130959/2 "2008-03-04T22:23:15Z")
On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Glen H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Does anyone know of a reliable way to manage resources on Windows machines > from a Linux platform using Ruby? I’m currently using win32api and win32ole > to create directories and set permissions on multiple remote Windows > machines but would like to migrate my application to a Linux platform. I’m > also interacting with AD but that works fine with LDAP. > > Anyone have any suggestions on how I could go about this, or is it not worth > my while? One reasonably cheap way is to use win32-service to run a drb server that calls your other windows libraries across the network from your linux box. I’ve used this approach quite successfully, albeit for very trivial tasks. I used rubyscript2exe and srvany.exe to make the service, because i was unaware of win32-service at the time; if I had to do it again I’d probably use the latter. martin ---
**Author:** ![Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Glen_H)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/managing-windows-from-linux-via-ruby/130959/3 "2008-03-04T22:34:39Z")
On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Martin DeMello [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > martin Thanks for the idea Martin. It doesn’t sound too horrible. I’ll look into it. – “Hey brother Christian with your high and mighty errand, Your actions speak so loud, I can’t hear a word you’re saying.” -Greg Graffin (Bad Religion) ---
**Author:** ![Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Glen_H)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/managing-windows-from-linux-via-ruby/130959/4 "2008-03-05T21:40:42Z")
If you can access the windows boxes through SSH , you can trigger the execution of any code you may run on the remote machine. Drb is a more elegant solution. ---
**Author:** ![Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Glen_H)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 10:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/managing-windows-from-linux-via-ruby/130959/5 "2008-03-05T10:53:28Z")
> I’ve used this approach quite successfully, albeit for very > trivial tasks. Trivial tasks sound great, it makes understanding them easier 🙂 Do you have a few example scripts for that? Just a few things what is possible like that, snippets and the like. (If you dont, dont worry, I dont intend to steal anyone’s time). I am using Linux mostly, but it would be nice if all the scripts on my Linux box could work on my Windows machine just as well - but with me staying here, and not even connecting via ssh or similar. ---
**Author:** ![Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Glen\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Glen_H)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/managing-windows-from-linux-via-ruby/130959/6 "2008-03-05T22:27:22Z")
On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 1:53 AM, Marc H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > I’ve used this approach quite successfully, albeit for very > > trivial tasks. > > Trivial tasks sound great, it makes understanding them easier 🙂 > > Do you have a few example scripts for that? Just a few things what > is possible like that, snippets and the like. > (If you dont, dont worry, I dont intend to steal anyone’s time). Sorry, no ☹ It was a while ago and I don’t have a windows box any more. The basic setup was very simple, though - I wrote a bunch of code to do stuff, based on the excellent ruby-win32 library, then I created an object that exposed all the methods thro drb, ran the script through rubyscript.exe to create an executable, and then ran anysrv.exe and instsrv.exe from the windows resource kit to install it as a service. One problem is that sometimes stopping the service left a stray ruby.exe process lying around, which is why I said I’d do it using win32-service rather than anyserv if I had to do it again. martin