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 09:59 UTC: #116 (rc7, head d25647d) is merged into master (merge commit 8a6be9f, 09:10:12Z). #117 (head f11ff41, base ai/release-5.0.0-rc7) was closed without a merge at 09:10:16Z: the --delete-branch of gh pr merge 116 deleted its base branch, and GitHub closed it (events base_ref_deleted, then closed) instead of retargeting it. Nothing is lost: ai/quality-gate-coverage is intact at f11ff41, and master still lacks its change (25 files). #118 (draft, head 83149ee, base ai/quality-gate-coverage) and #119 (draft, head 49734ef, base ai/quality-gate-paths) are open and green. A simulated merge chain (git merge-tree --write-tree, no ref written) with merge commits (Decision 15) is conflict-free at every step: the coverage branch into master gives the tree of f11ff41, #118 then gives b1dc006, and #119 gives 62aa1ae, the tree of the matrix branch. 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 branch ai/quality-gate-lab-matrix (draft #119) is stacked on #118. It holds three fixes of the module in two commits (962887a has two, fdd7a8b one). fdd7a8b reverts cleanly on its own; 962887a doesn't revert while fdd7a8b stays (the two conflict in Security2/Win32/Lib.cs and CHANGELOG.md), and its two fixes go together. The branch also holds the kit of the operating-system matrix, the changes of the live controller, and the record (Decision 24). rc7 contains the module fixes only if the branch is merged after #118 and before the tag; otherwise they go to the next prerelease. The maintainer decides.

Do not delete a head branch while another open pull request uses it as its base. On 2026-10-10 the deletion through gh pr merge --delete-branch closed #117 instead of retargeting it. The open reports cli/cli#1168 and cli/cli#14223 show the same two events and say that GitHub retargets only when the branch is deleted with the button on the pull request page. The latter also reports, and this was not tried here, that gh pr edit --base refuses a closed pull request and that gh pr reopen refuses while the base branch is missing. A new pull request from the same head is the repair.

1. Open a new pull request from ai/quality-gate-coverage to master (it replaces #117, same head and title), wait for its CI, and merge it with Create a merge commit. Do not delete the branch yet.
2. Retarget #118 (gh pr edit 118 --base master), mark it ready, and merge it the same way. Then do the same for #119 if its module fixes go into rc7. A retarget doesn't start CI again (pull_request in ci.yml has the default event types), and the merge result is the tree that CI tested.
3. Delete the head branches only after the last pull request that uses one as its base is merged or retargeted.
4. Tag the merge commit on master with 5.0.0-rc7 and push the tag. 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.
5. 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 (see techContext.md). 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.
• 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.