JNUC2019 Lab Session I Changing EAs

Hands On, Real-time Classic API Using ruby-jss

Lab Session Contents - 8 - Changing an Extention Attribute for the Computers in a Group

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• Here's something a bit more practical Lets change an extension attribute value for all the members of our group

• This would work for smart groups, as well as static groups.

• First, fetch the group you're interested in, we'll use the group we just created

group = JSS::ComputerGroup.fetch name: grp_name ;0
# => 0

• Put the name and desired value for the ext. attrib. into variables.

  • This EA already exists, so use this one

• Use anything you want for the value

ea_name = 'JNUC-2019-LabUser'
# => "JNUC-2019-LabUser"

ea_value = 'Chris Lasell'
# => "Chris Lasell"

• and now we loop through the group members using each on the array of member_ids from the group

group.member_ids.each do |comp_id|
  computer = JSS::Computer.fetch id: comp_id
  orig_val = computer.ext_attrs[ea_name]
  computer.set_ext_attr ea_name, ea_value
  computer.save
  puts "Changed EA '#{ea_name}' from '#{orig_val}' to '#{ea_value}' for computer '#{computer.name}' "
end
# [ lines of output]
# => [ array of member ids, from 'each' ]

• In the loop, we fetch the computer object by its id

• we store the original value of the EA in a variable, for reporting

  • for us, it will be blank, since we just created these computers

• we then set the EA to the desired value

• and save our changes

• To check our work, re-fetch one of the computers, and look at the value

comp_to_check = JSS::Computer.fetch id: group.member_ids.sample ;0
# => 0

comp_to_check.ext_attrs[ea_name]
# => "Chris Lasell"

• The sample method on an array will return a random item from the array

  • using it with group.member_ids will give us one of the ids from our group

• We use that id to re-fetch the computer object

• then we look at the value of the EA

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