Automate DDS or Absolute Install

sanbornc
New Contributor III

Hello!
Does anyone have a solution for automating the install of DDS? Right now we have to manually run the install package from Absolute in order to have a separate ESN or hardware number associated with the Mac. I tried using Composer...I took a snap shot, installed the DDS package, and took another snap shot to complete the package. The only thing with this method is I think the install is tied to the Mac I installed it on, so pushing this to other Macs will have issues. Also, I was told that you need to use the DDS Info tool to call DDS the first time to initiate the connection. If this tool is not run after the install then DDS never talks. Has anyone else run into this or have a solution for installeding DDS (formally Absolute).

5 REPLIES 5

CorpIT_eB
Contributor II

@sanbornc Hope you figure this out man, this has been the most challenging task by far using JAMF Absolute..aka Computrace LowJack does not look like it might be able to be automated at all and may only stick to a Manual processes.

If you get any where with this it would be awesome to know...FOLLOWED.

SlidewaysF30
New Contributor III

I don't know if your installer is the same one that I had, but this is what my install looks like.2521abae250a46e8b85075ab321976a4

On my machine, I created a temporary folder in the directories listed in the screenshot above and placed the files associated with the Absolute RPCclient.pkg. Then, in a postinstall script, I executed the following:

#!/bin/bash
## postinstall

installer -store -pkg /private/var/tmp/AbsoluteInstall/Absolute_Installer/RPClient.pkg -target /
rm -rf /private/var/tmp/AbsoluteInstall

I did not have to launch the DDSinfo tool to get them to communicate with the Absolute console after this.

CorpIT_eB
Contributor II

@SlidewaysF30 No unfortunately the installation .app file is different for me but for me the installation is not the problem as I was able to create a .pkg that insalls just fine. It's creating a script that can recognize the Unique Identifier of the machines that currently have it installed and to uninstall, Install and then phone home. All without having to restart the machine.

sanbornc
New Contributor III

@SlidewaysF30 Humm interesting! You didn't need to run the DDSInfo.app? Why did you put it in the Absolute_Installer folder then? When you run the RPClient like this does it register properly with a unique identifier on the DDS admin page online?

SlidewaysF30
New Contributor III

I left it there for testing purposes so I can verify on the machine whether it successfully phones home. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the Absolute Admin console as that is managed by our security team, but I verified with them that our devices were registering properly and communicating. So far, I haven't heard any issues from them regarding the UID.