How do you handle reboots required by software installation?

[hkim]

I'd like to get my users up to date with security updates / software updates so we reduce variables in our infrastructure. I know plenty of ways to push updates or have the computer run softwareupdate -i -a, get users to go through Self Service, etc. etc. etc. Sounds like a great plan up until ....

The dreaded question of reboots and how to handle them. How do you handle them if you cannot force one on them? The 5 minute auto restart option is not an option at all. How do you nag them to say, "You're computer just ran software update and it needs to restart, please do it as soon as possible". jamfHelper script in a policy through a smart group that says softwareupdate that requires reboot just ran? I worry that they'll ignore the pop up and just keep clicking OK for days and never reboot and then put the machine in a weird state.

[mm2270]

You could use your Smart Group for reboot required machines (however you want to capture that) and apply it to an every15 triggered policy that would send up a message with jamfHelper or other messaging tools. I would think after receiving the nag message for the 8th time in a 2 hour period that most users will just comply and reboot to get rid of the nags. You could cache the policy so it will still run offline, so no escaping it if they unplug their network connection for any reason.

If you really want to make sure its a good nag they will pay attention to, you could pop up a message with no buttons, but put it in the background, sleep for 1 minute, then disappear by doing a killall jamfHeloer. That way they can't just quickly click the OK button to dismiss. No choice but to be held captive by the message.

The only thing with the above is that you'd need to make sure the Macs fall out of that Smart Group properly upon a reboot so they don't end up getting nagged about something they just did. Possibly a separate Startup trigger policy that would remove whatever file it is that puts the Macs into the group in the first place.

[ImAMacGuy]

@mm2270 - you have a dark side to you, don't you. Keep it up!

[jhalvorson · Accepted solution]

There are a few great scripts posted here that interact with users only if an reboot is needed: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=5404

They all have nearly the same features, but I recommend going with one (sh, perl, python) that you can understand and maintain.

[hkim]

I was JUST about to post that link! Yeah, I'm modifying lisacherie's wonderful Perl logic and use it to my advantage here.