Shepherd-ing your security updates
Manage a bunch of sites? Hate having to check each site for the security updates? Let the Shepherd module round up your flock and tell you which sites need an update.
Shepherd's goal is to allow maintainers of multiple websites to view the status of the security updates pending for each website. This alleviates the need to check each site individually for the current update status. When new security updates are released the maintainer will be able to see quickly which sites are affected.
Shepherd operates in a simple client / server model. It has two components. Any combination of components can be enabled, client-only, server-only, or both.
The Shepherd server enables a callback that allows a POST from clients on an IP whitelist. It also provides the 'Flock Report' of tracked clients. It can be installed on a current drupal instance, or separately as part of a stand-alone drupal instance.
The Shepherd client (a sheep), checks for and reports pending security releases to the shepherd server.
To facilitate the client information, sheep nodes are created, saved, and updated over time. They have node ids, but rely on a hash key generated from the client site name, ip address, and base url / vhost information. The sheep nodes can be deleted at any time if needed. They will repopulate on the next cron run of the client. If using drush to run cron, see drush notes below.
The server provides a shepherd flock report, out of the box, that details all reporting clients and the modules reporting security necessary updates.
This module is currently available as a dev release. I want to add a few more things to it, and also see if any Drupal community members have some input.
Now, there are a few modules that already do this, so its not a new concept. However, most of these include more comprehensive solutions with a variety of monitoring options. We are shooting for slim, quick, simple. It does one thing well.
Check the Shepherd project page for current releases, issues, and documentation.
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