Best practice for patching apps

[timlings]

Hi

I'm new to Casper and am wondering what the best way of organising patching apps on a Mac is. I'm coming from using Munki, where once a package has been added to the repo, Munki will install it where it is missing. I could go back to using Munki, but I'd like to try and stick with one tool for managing Macs, if possible.

I'm happy with packaging up apps and understand the idea of smart groups to identify macs that need it installing. But how can I make sure the app isn't running before it's installed?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[davidacland]

Lots of people are using AutoPKGr which might be worth a look for general patching. If you want to make sure a particular app isn't running you'll need to include a pre-install script unfortunately.

[jacopo_pulici]

I use patchoo and Autopkgr.

[kitzy]

You may want to have a look at this session from last year's JNUC: Auto-Update Magic! Keep Mac Apps Current with the Casper Suite and AutoPkgr | JNUC 2014

[bentoms]

@timlings we cache our updates, notify the user that updates are cached & install them at logout.

So that way we're in the user space & with no conflicting processes.

[kitzy]

@bentoms how do you get your users to actually log out?

[timlings]

@bentoms Do you make two policies, one to cache and one to install the policy?

Auto Update Magic is looking quite nice! Need to have a moment to properly investigate further...

[bentoms]

@kitzy We notify them in advance that things need to be installed.. & they can then logout at their leisure.. if not that day it's done by end of the week.

Plus there is some carrot dangling.. "Needs an iTunes update to get Apple Music?" LOGOUT.. "Needs a new app installed for $business_reasons? LOGOUT

@timlings I'll blog it in a few weeks.. but yep.. basically one to cache.. then one to alert that updates are cached

Then another to installed all cached items (apple & JSS).. with the installation being shown via cocoa dialog: