Dealing with software that needs admin rights

Hi @kjohnston
First, welcome to the forums! You're in the right place to get answers to your questions.
Second, thank you for posting with clarity and detail on your situation and where you are coming from, expertise-wise. This really helps set things off on the right foot and helps people here help you.

So, to answer one question right off, disk images (DMGs) from vendors can't really be used as-is and thrown into Casper as install packages. DMGs from a vendor or more or less like a zip file in that its a container that houses the software, but these are not intended to be used for installing things. I know this is a little confusing, and you are far from the first person coming to Casper that has gotten confused about this, since JAMF's native deployment format is DMG. But only DMGs as created in Composer are really going to work correctly.

As a start for your PHPStorm package, I would install it normally on an admin Mac that you are in control of, then open Composer and drag the app, wherever it installs to, from the Finder, into the Composer sidebar, which will create a new Source to build a package from. In other words, if you just install it normally, then tell Composer where you want it to go, you should, I think, be able to create a successful package. I say "I think" because I honestly don't know anything about PHPStorm. Can you provide some more details on what it is, who makes it, what its used for, etc?

Hi @mm2270

I guess that makes sense with the .dmgs as when i actually run it, it wants me to drag the .app file over. I remember the Jumpstart guy mentioning these things.

In regards to PhPStorm, all i know is that our web developers use it. It is made by JetBrains. I believe it is an IDE framework for coding.

In our windows environment these developers have admin rights on their machiens so these are things we never had any real concern over, but in our process of rolling out Macs we are removing those capabilities (when we roll out windows 10 those admins rights will be removed as well so this is not a Mac thing)

I will try the drag and drop into composer and see what shakes.

Thanks @Kaltsas

When i was shown composer it was basically a "hey you take snapshot, then install and configure then create a package"

But you are eright, i would like to understand the tool so i can use it efficiently if needed.

@kjohnston which, ironically, is about the worst way to use Composer ¯_(ツ)_/¯ unless absolutely necessary. It's fine to figure out what is going where, but you have to be really careful to not include any extra cruft in the sources. Not saying it won't work, a straight snapshot, on a clean machine, 90% of the time won't give you any trouble but I'd be loath to think what an unmodified snapshot for anything would bring along on my primary workstation.

I just downloaded PHPStorm, just to see. Its a standard .app bundle in the DMG from what I can see. Not sure if it attempts to run or install anything else (like a Helper tool) at first launch, but using one of the methods outlined above, you should be able to build either a DMG or PKG you can deploy to install it on client machines.

I agree with @Kaltsas BTW. I don't really know why new clients keep being told to use Composer to do snapshots and little else seems to be taught. Its really not the best way to use the software, especially for someone that doesn't already have an in-depth knowledge of OS X and what gets written to disk. You'll end up capturing a whole bunch of stuff you don't want in your package. Anyway, its one of my pet peeves about how packaging gets taught, and I've ranted on it before, so I'll just stop there.

That being said, if you find that the deployed software is prompting for an admin account name/password on first launch, a snapshot might help determine what's going on, as in, what is getting changed/written to disk on that first launch, and it may help you add that into your final package. So in that respect, a snapshot could be helpful. But I would not do it first, only 2nd (or 3rd, 4th. etc)

@mm2270 @Kaltsas

I did download the simple package creator to get an idea. It does work "so far" as intended.
I just read thorugh the documentation of Composer from JAMF. On the surface it seems pretty straight forward, but as you said without me having any clue as to where files are stored it would be a best guess as to what i actually need to do.

Because the file is a pkg, as a user with rights, i am not allowed to uninstall it (or the drag and drop on trash) without admin rights. I read somewhere that only dmg's can be setup for that... which gets into indexing.

So does this mean in this particular case, i would create the pkg using the simple package creator, add it to Casper Admin, then index it then deploy it and the user should be able to also install and uninstall this pkg?

I am likely running before i can walk, but with all the different methods of getting apps or dmg or pkgs to work is a bit overwhelming and at the same time time critical (we have all been there right! - Suits make the decisions and you rush to try and get by).

I have watched a few of the MacAdmins youtube videos (which started me down the autopkgr and jss importer path) which works good (still tons to learn), but i feel like i need a lot more training. Is there anything that can be recommended?

Anything you put into Self-Service can be installed by your users without admin rights. And indexing a package makes it able to be uninstalled. Just watch what you index, as in only index things you KNOW people will need to uninstall. If it's like an OS or Office, I'd leave it be. Everything you index adds a little more to your database, which is fine, but if you go index-crazy, you can bloat it like a dead goat in the sun.

I highly recommend going to a CCT class. I am a Windows veteran of 18 years and got tossed into the Mac world a few years ago because I didn't yell "Not it" fast enough. (I'm kidding.) But I just got to go to my CCT after being the Mac admin for a few years at a couple different companies and I learned a ton that I didn't know. It was great. I wish I had gone way sooner. What I learned about Composer alone would have saved me so much time in the past. Do it if at all possible.

Also, this site and these forums are awesome and the people are terrific. Ask anything, be specific, and you will get help.

CCT is great for sure, as @sanaumann said. However, I too was shown the "snapshot" route and luckily I had used it enough to know it (for me) almost never did what I wanted.
The others above gave you sound advice on how to use this and yes, I think most people new to Casper/Composer made the same assumptions about a DMG.

Take the CCT. It's the best way to get your feet wet and hopefully not start out with too many bad habits. The nice thing, and the sometimes confusing thing, is that there are many ways to accomplish the same tasks. Here, you will find many kinds guys and gals that know a lot and share a lot. Even if there were a better product for managing Macs out there (I don't know of one), this community alone makes Casper, er, Jamf Pro, worth the investment...

Good luck.