NTFSSecurity/.memory-bank/deployment-notes.md

status	last-verified	owner	source
current	2026-10-10	software-engineer	release gates of 5.0.0 (lab acceptance, OS matrix, publication plan), repository evidence

Deployment notes

Publish the next prerelease (rc7)

State on 2026-10-10 at 11:47 UTC: the whole stack is merged into master, which stands at fa0701b and has the tree of 2b8643f: #116 (rc7, 8a6be9f, 09:10Z), #120 (bdb9981, 10:50Z), #118 (03bef2c, 11:12Z), and #119 (fa0701b, 11:28Z). #117 had been closed without a merge at 09:10:16Z, when the branch deletion after the merge of #116 removed its base branch (Decision 15, operating rule); #120, a new pull request from its head f11ff41, replaced it. The remote head branches were deleted at 11:34Z. The CI run on master at fa0701b passed at 11:40Z (Build and test, Wiki, Publish the wiki; Release skipped, as for any push without a tag). The manifest says 5.0.0 with Prerelease = 'rc7', and $publishedVersions in Tests/Repository.Tests.ps1 lists the versions up to rc6, as it must before rc7 is published. The release notes of a prerelease are the [Unreleased] section of CHANGELOG.md.

rc7 contains everything that is merged: the behavior changes of Phase 2 (#116), the quality-gate paths (#120, #118), and the three module fixes of the matrix (#119, in two commits: 962887a holds two, fdd7a8b one; they don't revert separately, because they conflict in Security2/Win32/Lib.cs and CHANGELOG.md), with the kit, the controller changes, and the record of the operating-system matrix (Decision 24).

1. Tag the commit fa0701b on master with 5.0.0-rc7 and push the tag (lightweight tags, as for rc1 to rc6). The release job checks the tag against the manifest and builds nothing new: it publishes the package that the build job tested. Approve the deployment of the powershell-gallery environment if it asks.
2. Accept the published package (next section): Test-PublishedRelease.ps1, the first lab, and every cell of the matrix.
3. After the publication, add 5.0.0-rc7 to $publishedVersions with the next change that goes to master.

Accept a published package

Local -ModulePath runs are validation; the gate needs the published bytes.

1. Tests/Lab/Acceptance/Test-PublishedRelease.ps1 -Version <version> -OutputPath <folder> (read-only): tag and commit on master, the CI run of the tag, the Gallery's SHA-512 against the downloaded nupkg (ordinal, case-sensitive base64), the nupkg against the GitHub zip file by file, and the identity of the manifest. Dry run on rc6: all checks passed.
2. Tests/Lab/Invoke-NTFSSecurityLabTest.ps1 -Version <version> in the existing lab, both editions, and Tests/Lab/Acceptance/Run-MatrixSequence.ps1 -Version <version> for each cell of the matrix (Decision 24; pass the file servers as one quoted string, -FileServer 'OSFile19,OSFile22,OSFile25', and start OSWin11E shortly before, because its license period ends an hour after each start). Check every role from the result files with Validate-LabResults.ps1, never from the marker DONE of the controller. Dry run of the -Version path of the sequence runner with the published rc6 on OSFile19 (Desktop): the mechanics work, the failing tests are the newer ones that rc6 predates, and the cleanup verdict was CLEAN. The first lab ran the final local candidate through the same stages (readiness, controller, Validate-LabResults.ps1, snapshot, -RemoveFixture, Test-MatrixCleanup.ps1 with the four domain controllers and both machines) in one detached driver.
3. Remove the fixture and check the end state independently with Test-MatrixCleanup.ps1, which takes the lab name and the machine names (-LabName WindowsAccessControlLab -DomainController F1ADC1, F1BDC1, F2DC1, F3DC1 -Machine F1AFile1, F1AFile2 for the existing lab).
4. If the published binary changes, repeat the cells; never combine runs of different binaries into one matrix.

Lab lessons

• AutomatedLab 5.61 can't add machines to an imported lab (Add-LabMachineDefinition throws "Lab is already imported"), and New-LabDefinition under an existing name overwrites its metadata. New machines go into a new lab with its own switch and domain, and -LabName of the controller selects it.
• Install-Lab -NetworkSwitches -BaseImages creates the switch and the base images first; the base images of Server 2019, Server 2022, and Windows 11 Pro took about two to four minutes each from the ISO files. AutomatedLab adds records to the hosts file of the host, which Remove-Lab removes.
• The VMs have no internet: take PowerShell 7 and Pester 5.7.1 from the host (Copy-LabFileItem, Install-LabSoftwarePackage).
• AutomatedLab ignores the exit code of bcdboot when it builds a base image. The Server 2019 image that it built on this Server 2025 host got an empty EFI system partition: the bcdboot of the host fails with exit code 193, "Failure when attempting to copy boot files", on the 2019 boot files, and the VM failed to boot (Hyper-V event 18603, "failed to boot an operating system"; no memory demand, no IP, heartbeat NoContact). Check the EFI system partition of a new base image before the first VM: mount the image read-only (Mount-DiskImage -Access ReadOnly) and look for EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi (the images of Server 2022 and Windows 11 Pro had 140 and 149 files). Repair a VM, not the base: stop the VM, mount its own differencing disk, run the bcdboot.exe of the image (D:\Windows\System32\bcdboot.exe D:\Windows /s H: /f UEFI), copy bootmgfw.efi to EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi, dismount, and start the VM. A changed base image would invalidate its differencing disks.
• The tool output of the agent masks text that looks like a secret, such as -Password $password, in what it shows. Test such a line by parsing the file, and don't repair it from the displayed text.
• A script that a detached process runs needs its own log, an exit marker, and an end-state check of its own; verify cleanup from the end state, not from its marker.
• Extend a deployed lab with one machine like this: in a process that never ran Import-Lab, call Import-LabDefinition, Add-LabMachineDefinition, and Export-LabDefinition, then New-LabBaseImages and New-LabVM -Name <machine>. Install-Lab has no per-machine selector, and Add-LabMachineDefinition throws as soon as Get-Lab returns a lab. Add-OsMatrixMachine.ps1 does it after it copies the lab metadata to C:\ProgramData\AutomatedLab\Backups.
• Windows 11 22H2 (10.0.22621) has the empty EFI system partition problem too (bcdboot exit code 193 on the host); Repair-OsMatrixBoot.ps1 repairs it. After Mount-VHD the host gives the NTFS partition a letter on its own; don't assign a second one.
• Run AutomatedLab processes one after the other. Two Import-Lab calls at the same time corrupt each other (XML errors, "No machines imported").
• Check the secure channel of every domain client before the first run (Test-MatrixReadiness.ps1). Windows 11 26H1 (10.0.28000.1836) joins a Server 2025 domain (10.0.26100.32690) but loses the channel: the client asks NetrLogonGetCapabilities for query level 2, the domain controller answers 0xC0000022, and the client denies the channel. Rejoining doesn't help.
• A process that starts from a remoting session has every privilege enabled and no credentials of its own, so tests that expect disabled privileges fail (eight per edition). Run the suite of a VM as a scheduled task with a batch logon at the highest run level (Register-ScheduledTask -RunLevel Highest -User -Password): that token matches a CI runner. A restricted token (a basic user) can't run Pester's NUnit export, because it asks WMI for the environment, so write the JSON summary first.
• In Windows PowerShell 5.1, $PSScriptRoot is empty in a parameter default of a script that runs with -File; compute it in the body. -File passes an array as one string, so split on commas. With $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop', a line that a native command writes to stderr and that 2>&1 redirects is a terminating error; let the command write its errors to stdout.
• Get-LocalGroupMember fails with "Failed to compare two elements in the array" when the group holds an orphaned SID. Add members with Add-LocalGroupMember and ignore MemberExistsException; read and remove members with net localgroup <name> and net localgroup <name> <SID> /delete. The SIDs of a deleted account can't be found afterwards, so keep fixture-sids.json from before the removal of the organizational unit.
• An account that is deleted and created again with the same name made the remote authorization managers (the client's and the file server's) answer for about ten minutes as if it had no groups, so Get-NTFSEffectiveAccess returned no access; when the accounts are created again within seconds, the Kerberos S4U logons returned the old account on the domain controller and member servers for 7 to 15 minutes. The five remedies tried (a ticket purge, nltest /sc_reset, a DNS flush, a restart of the Kerberos service, and waiting) helped only by waiting. A model with one lifetime (9.95 to 10.25 minutes) fits all 43 Admin-role runs of 27 cells; the replay and the model are in the record of the matrix and in Decision 24. The controller names the account of case 3 anew for each new fixture; a script of your own that recreates accounts needs unique names too.
• Wait-LabVM waits for a heartbeat that a client may not report: retry New-LabPSSession instead of waiting longer. After an unplanned shutdown, test a domain session, not nltest /sc_verify (it stays stale), and repair with Test-ComputerSecureChannel -Repair.
• Restart the evaluation client (OSWin11E) right before a sequence or a suite, not before several: it shuts down an hour after each start. The restart takes about two and a half minutes and may need the repair of the secure channel.