software update not delaying reboot

Hi,

Ive seen it where the message never comes up, i have policy to reboot a client to the netboot server so it can reimage the client, i have run this myself via self service and sometimes ive seen it reboot without the box coming up, maybe a bug

Criss

Criss Myers
Senior Customer Support Analyst (Mac Services)
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5
LIS Business Support Team
Library 301
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
Ex 5054
01772 895054

We were seeing that behavior as well, back in Casper 5 even. But I could
never prove it was happening. The SWU would be pushed out and the machine
restarted, even though I was giving a 5 minute countdown if a user was
logged in. I've now gone to just displaying the "Please Restart" dialog box
but not forcing the restart.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475

Also seeing this, I have mine displaying a message but not forcing a reboot. Doesn't seem to always display the message. I'm going to try and use the
display message script instead of the message in the Reboot tab.
--
Alan Benedict
?
Macintosh Technician
The Integer Group
O: 515-247-2738
C: 515-770-8234
http://www.integer.com

Or u could use AppleScript to display a MSG

I just force a reboot, because that is how I roll...

I think that if perhaps you are handy enough with Apple Script and know
how to program dialog boxes you can make updates interactive. Especially since you can invoke shell from Apple Script via do shell
script command.

I am just starting to teach myself Apple Script in a more advanced
manner and I am working on a project that takes text input from a user
via the dialog box and then places those variables in a file, which a
script will later run.

So, you could feasibly write an Apple Script that says do you wish to
run software update, then have the user click yes or no and loop it so
that if they do click yes they can run any and all custom trigger
policies you create in Casper. I mean the possibilities are pretty much
limitless at that point.

-Tom

I guess my question is, "what's the most reliable way for a user to get a message?"

I thought the message displaying that the jamf binary did basically called applescript. no? if not, would that be more reliable? Users don't really care that they need to reboot, I just want a reliable way to tell them that they need to, that's all.

j
---
Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Infrastructure & Operations
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

Since self service is a web based app, I like to use <strong> tags and
use large fonts with giant red letters that say, this will reboot your
machine.

Writing an interactive Apple Script would be pretty dope though. I am
probably going to do this down the road when I get more time to learn AS
a bit more.

I've taken to doing that on my Self Service pages as well, including placing images in and linking to internal web pages. See the screenshot as an example. The case I'm talking about for user notification though is when they've reached two weeks beyond when I've released updates on the software update server. If they haven't done the updates themselves, I force the install. I don't want to reboot them in the middle of their work, but I'd like a reboot to occur relatively soon. So, perhaps just warning them that they need to reboot but not forcing it is enough.

I've had lots of fun playing around with what Self Service can do... the entire Description box on the Self Service tab is rendered as a webpage. It's slick. I tend to stick to a standard template for making self service items. It includes a big beautiful icon of the item, system requirements, if it's universal and if it requires a reboot. I'll also put down a "be patient" warning if it's a particularly large item (like Office).

j


Has anybody contacted support on this one? This is one I've heard about in our environment rarely also, but have heard about... I think the problem will probably be in reproducing it. I guess I've always dismissed it as people were using their computers they hit a return or other keystroke just as the window came up so it was essentially clicked 'ok'....

John

--
John Wetter
Technology Support Administrator
Educational Technology, Media & Information Services
Hopkins Public Schools
952-988-5373

I'm with you John, I've just dismissed it as a user hitting return just as
the window came up, and since it was way back on version 5, and I've changed
the way updates are done, I've forgotten about it.

Reproducing it will be the difficult part. Maybe that is a good project for
the next few weeks, to try and reproduce.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475

On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 10:46 AM, John Wetter <john_wetter at hopkins.k12.mn.us > wrote:

Actually I've seen first hand that the reboot message will pop up but it will be behind a running app's window. If the user never moves the window or exits that app they wont see it and it will time out and reboot.

eric winkelhake
mundocomww
office 312 220 1669
cell 312 504 5155