Otter "reverse" way working

[daniels]

Hi,
We are assessing Otter for provisioning, the way it works sending configuration from a central web to server computers seems to fit perfectly for our testing computers.
However, we also need to provision computers during the manufacturing process, and the technicians don't have access to the central web, they are just allowed to manipulate the servers. So, I was wondering if there is any way to provision a server the other way around, I mean, being the server itself who asks for the configuration to the central web. Something along the lines of ansible pull.

Thank you.

[stevedennis]

Hi @daniels,

This is technically possible, but it's not something that we support out-of-the-box I'm afraid.

The closest way to accomplish something like this would be:

• Use the Otter API to create a server entry with the appropriate roles (similar to what you'd do in the UI)
• Install/run the agent on the computer which will connect to Otter
• Use the Otter API to trigger a job/ remediation
• Optionally, remove the server from Otter and Stop/uninstall the Agent

So it's not easy from the user perspective. However. if Otter and this approach looks like it will work for you, then it's something we can definitely explore together as a user/customer, and build out a use case / case study / etc. That'd be best to start a conversation w/ someone in our customer / sales team on that.

Otherwise, there really hasn't been enough demand for this particular use case, and it's hard enough to market Otter's other use cases, let alone develop build new ones ;)

FYI - note that you can also run the Inedo Agent in outgoing mode:
https://docs.inedo.com/docs/inedoagent-overview#communication-modes

Thanks,
Steve