Flash + MS Office updates

@LogosCasperAdmin,
Depending upon your workflow, you may want to look at @mm2270's script that can update Flash and Office. Look at https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=12956 for context, plus a link to his github where the script is stored.

Specifically to your question, the process of copying the .app file was needed due to the nature of how Adobe installed Flash, however, in later versions, Adobe actually improved the process and you could just drop the Adobe Flash Player.pkg into Casper Admin. See https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=8616 for details.

Another solution to look into would be AutoPkg, as it can help get Adobe Flash and Office updates automatically loaded into your Casper server for deployment:

https://github.com/autopkg/autopkg/wiki/Getting-Started

There was a session at this past year's JNUC about how to leverage AutoPkg and AutoPkgr (a companion application) to upload (and deploy) software to Casper. It's available here on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bghtRQ3FAIc

Link to AutoPkgr here:

http://www.lindegroup.com/autopkgr/

Thank you all for the quick replies. We will be trying each one of these methods to see if we can get it to work. I applied for the Adobe distribution license and read up on Github/autopkgr. Will keep trying :)

Yay! It worked using the Adobe distribution version. We had to copy the .pkg file from the installer and launch that through casper admin. No need for composer.

The scripts seem a little complicated and time consuming at the moment, but we can see that it offers a lot of customization which is nice.

Have not tried MS Update deployment yet, but looks like there are some useful posts on Jamfnation that we'll be learning from first.

Thanks again!

For office updates I deploy the .pkg downloadable from the bottom of this page: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads
Is this not working for you?

@Matt.Sim

Hmm so when we downloaded the file it has a .dmg extension. Where did you get the .pkg or did you use composer to repackage?

Thanks!

I usually drag the .pkg off of the downloaded .dmg, re-name to remove spaces, then drag that into Casper Admin.

There are also some scripts for installing from .dmg.

@LogosCasperAdmin - Mount the disk image. There's a pkg installer in it.

Best way I have found with the Flash player is signing up for the Adobe Flash distribution and then choosing the DMG file for System Admins (this will be your best route).

As with the Office updates I haven't seen any issues with just downloading the updates from the microsoft office site and then once downloaded; opening the dmg file and grabbing the pkg as is.

That was the key step! Once mounting the .dmg file, dragging the MS Office installer on the computer, renaming it and then putting it in Casper did it. We had no problems with deploying to clients.

Thank you all for your help!

I cannot recommend AutoPkg highly enough. Definitely worth the minimal time required to get familiar.

Rather than signing up, see; http://www.adobe.com/au/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html

Like others, I also just throw the .pkg at machines. If I need to set prefs like no auto-update etc. I capture /Users/$3/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/settings.sol (breathe) as a separate prefs package so that the Flash.pkg can be used for both managed and unmanaged machines.

Long before AutoPKG, I built a Composer template that lets you capture Flash Player and the update settings you define in the Flash Player.prefPane.

I just uploaded the latest version here - it hasn't yet been approved, do not download the old 11.8 version - hopefully approved in the next day or so:

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/packageManifests.html