Install McAfee

We had problems (didn't save the error messages) so we wrapped a fresh script and the problems went away.

Wouldn't it be nice if McAfee provided a proper PKG package that follows Apple's guidelines, instead of the bloated install.sh script that has an embedded binary that tends to fail. Add them to the list of vendors who need to shake up their development team (and their manager) and hire someone who bothers to read Apple's developer docs.

"We had problems (didn't save the error messages) so we wrapped a fresh script and the problems went away."

How'd you do that Don?

Hi Nils,

If you're using Composer, just create a fresh package. We use Packages.app to put install.sh into /private/tmp and we add a post-installation script to trigger the command.

The install.sh script must've got mangled somehow (well duh, the script is 16MB+ in size -- was the developer smoking crack?!), the new package was done exactly the same as the old package, and worked fine.

Not a fan of folks who stuff binaries into shell scripts...and not a fan of Composer. ;)

http://s.sudre.free.fr/Software/Packages/about.html

JAMF...you guys really, really would do well to partner with this developer. It's a free and easy to build workflows around...would be "very, very awesome" to have it bundled with the Casper Suite tools...and Stéphane Sudre "fits" the JAMF culture. :)

Don

Don, I downloaded Packages based on your recommendation. Maybe I'm missing something, but Composer is just a heck of a lot easier to use, particularly for novices. I've had fairly good success with it. Where I haven't, Iceberg has been a relatively easy-to-understand tool.

I might feel differently if I was a developer and wanted to customize my .pkg more. Most of the people I end up showing Composer to just need to package some files, maybe have a preflight script and/or a postflight script. Not worried about languages, or customizing the GUI.

What features of Packages do you feel that Composer needs? That might be a useful discussion for JAMF/spin off some feature requests...

You're right, if you're distributing simple stuff and logic or workflows don't matter, any tool will work. :)

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If you need to create packages that don't lock you in to a proprietary tool or workflow, Packages.app (Iceberg.app is its predecessor) creates proper PKG installers that can be deployed using Casper Suite as well as ARD/SCP and double-click in Finder. To do the later, you'll need to build requirements checks into your package (etc., etc.)...good luck doing that with Composer. LOL

@makander:
Is your install.sh file executable? I think it has to be in order to get as far as you did, but it's gotta be asked. Also, inside the run command, you don't need to use sudo since it's being run with root privileges already. That could be causing it to fail as it would need to prompt for a password to use with sudo.

@RobertHammen:
I also use Packages and I find it to be incredibly powerful and robust, but it is definitely not as intuitive as Composer. I think that simply comes from being a simpler application that doesn't have as many options. It took me a day or two of playing around with it to get the hang of it, but now that I've figured it out, I think it's great.

@Msblake: Yeah, the script works fine when I use it without having it packaged on my unit. But as soon as I package it and try to distribute it, it fails. Maybe it's because of composer as previously stated. I'm going to try out Packages and see if makes any difference.

@makander
Are you by any chance installing McAfee Security for Mac before the agent?

I ran into the same exact issue last week on the machine I use to test builds but it was not happening on any other machine and the only difference was that I was testing the installation of the AV during the build, which doesn't seem to like to be installed unless there is a user logged in by the way. So I removed the AV install from the build and re-imaged the machine and the agent package began working again.

Sorry for the delay! Well, I tried to package it like Don did with packages into /sbin/ and then ran it with a policy, that worked fine.

But then I get the same issue as @dexterrivera. If I install the AV McAfee Security and then the install.sh script to update the repository. The update wont work and the install.sh script wont update the Repository list. Still troubleshooting it.

@donmontalvo Are you still using this process successfully?

If you're using Composer, just create a fresh package. We use Packages.app to put install.sh into /private/tmp and we add a post-installation script to trigger the command.

I'm trying this as well and it doesn't seem to fully function. I did the chmod +x on it, etc. but when I run from the JPS (10.1.1) on 10.13.3 Macs, it's not ever completing the pull of software.

We are..

1. Store the install script at some hidden location.
2. Custom event to trigger 2nd script to start install script a hidden location.
3. Script 2nd tells agent to start up and call EPO server.
4. Custom event to install McAfee installers for Threat Protection FireWall straight from McAfee.

C

@gachowski - are you referring to this in #3?

/Library/McAfee/agent/bin/cmdagent -p

@scottb

#!/bin/sh

## Install agent
/Users/Shared/install.sh -i > /dev/null 2>&1

## Start agent
/Library/McAfee/cma/scripts/ma start

## Wait 30 seconds
/bin/sleep 30

## Talk to server
/Library/McAfee/cma/bin/cmdagent -p

/bin/sleep 30

## Talk to server
/Library/McAfee/cma/bin/cmdagent -c


exit 0

Thank you, @gachowski - trying this now, using /tmp for the script is the only difference...
Will report back. The version we're running is 10.2.3 (3074) FWIW.

@gachowski - this is looking good! So far, 3/3 have been successful, if you allow for the time it takes for the Console to pick the Macs up it's doable.
Thank you for this (and others). Will report back if anything changes...