How to deploy Office 2016 via self service using Jamf Pro 10.3.0?

[sastie]

Hello everyone,
Please forgive me as I am completely new at this, I want to allow users to install Office 2016 via self-service.
I have successfully created and installed packages for Atom, Jetbrains IntelliJ.
I am hitting a roadblock with Office 2016, I grabbed the SKU-less package from https://macadmins.software/ put it in JAMF Pro, created a policy.
When trying to install via the self service, it seems that it installs, but nothing gets installed; I see that the statuses are executing - install (no downloading) when clicking on install in the Self service app.
NB this happens on the single app packages too...

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[kitzy]

Can you show us the log of one of the policy runs? That would help determine what's happening.

[sastie]

@kitzy When I launch the policy via the install button in Self Service I get the following in /var/log/jamf.log (the policy is marked as On-going on Jamf Pro):
jamf[28383]: Checking for policy ID 9...
jamf[28383]: Executing Policy Microsoft Excel

That is all the logs I get.

To be perfectly fair, I assume that I did something wrong with the app packaging, I just grabbed the packages at http://macadmin.software and uploaded it to the packages section of "Computer Management".

[kitzy]

Check the policy logs on the Jamf Pro server, that should give you some more details.

[sastie]

@kitzy I have almost no info in the policy logs:

[STEP 1 of 3]
Executing Policy Microsoft Excel
[STEP 2 of 3]
[STEP 3 of 3]

And it shows as "Completed"

[crystallized]

And does this package install properly when you trigger it manually on a local machine? And everything looks fine with it when you look at it in Jamf Admin?

[sastie]

@rviniar The package is straight from http://macadmins.software and installs fine if I launch it manually. I don't seen anything out of the ordinary when looking at Jamf Admin.

[macmanmk]

I assume you uploaded the individual apps as separate packages rather than a single package for the entire suite?

[sastie]

@macmanmk Yes you are absolutely correct.
I grabbed each individual package from htpp://macadmins.software, created one entry per package under "Computer Management" -> "packages"
created one policy entry per package under "Policies" and enabled the self-service option in each policy.

[talkingmoose]

@sastie, since you said you were new, I'll be sure to ask, "Did you add your packages to the policies?"

To answer one of your questions above, yes, you correctly uploaded the packages as you received them from Microsoft. Jamf Pro supports installing the Apple Installer PKGs natively.

Another question for you: When running the policy via Self Service, does it take a while to complete or is it complete nearly instantly?

[sastie]

@talkingmoose yes, I did add the packages to the policies, and yes the policy executes within 5 seconds or so...

[damienbarrett · Accepted solution]

Have you tried manually installing any of the .pkgs you grabbed from macadmins.software? Just copy it to the desktop of a test machine and run the .pkg. See if it installs.

I've seen .pkg downloads get corrupted during download, so maybe one or more of you .pkgs are damaged and the policy is failing to install because of it.

[sastie]

@damienbarrett I re-downloaded all packages (even though the previous ones installed fine locally), and it now works.

Thanks everyone for your assistance!

[PatrickD]

My 2 cents.

I always download all of my Office pkgs and updates directly from Microsoft and have never had to repackage them, just drag them straight into Jamf. You don't need to sign in Microsoft to download either.

This does depend on how you are licensing however. We use Office 365 and the user just signs into the app.

Be very careful about where you download software from. Not saying there is anything bad about MacAdmins but:
1. You don't really know what you are downloading, imagine if their website is infiltrated and you just pushed malware infected software to the whole fleet
2. If it has been repackaged, does that suit your environment?
3. Will Microsoft support you if you raise a service request for an issue?

[talkingmoose]

@PatrickD, sage advice.

I do want to make sure folks know about the https://macadmins.software site (knowledge is power):

1. The site was developed by Paul Bowden (@pbowden) a couple years ago. He's an engineer at Microsoft and works on Office for Mac products. He's primarily responsible for the Office for Mac installers and Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) for updates.

2. The macadmins.software site doesn't actually host any packages. It aggregates valid download links useful to Mac admins. If you hover over any of the links, you'll see they all resolve back to a microsoft.com address. When clicking a download link here, you're getting the downloads directly from Microsoft. While it's publicly accessible, Paul created the site not for general consumer use but for Mac admin use.

3. The links he's posted rarely change. These are called "fwlinks" at Microsoft. We know them better as "permalinks". Each link will always point to the most recent version of the software. For example, the link for O365/Retail Production is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=525133. It will download version 16.11 right now. Later this month, it will download version 16.12 when released. Next month the same link will download version 16.13. The number at the end of the link determines the product.

4. The Microsoft page you referenced was actually a request from Mac admins to replicate Paul's site but make it "official". Having all these product links, SHA1 hashes and version history in one place is priceless!

5. Do note the macadmins.software site is SSL protected. This was another request from Mac admins to help ensure integrity of the site.

6. The macadmins.software site has other resources in addition to download links. Check out the documentation, tools, preferences, matrix and other links at the top of the pages.

7. For those who have not joined the MacAdmins Slack team or are new, be sure to join and then pop into the #microsoft-office and #mau4 channels. Here's where we all get to hang out and chat with not only Paul but a dozen other Microsoft engineers working on various Mac products. (There are other Microsoft channels too.) This is where we learn about things to come and how things work behind the scenes.

8. Finally, just want to give heads up that we're working to get both Paul Bowden and Jeff Kalvass (Microsoft Product Manager for Outlook for Mac) to JNUC 2018! This will be a great opportunity for Mac admins to learn what's coming to Office for Mac management and speak with the folks who actually write the code for the products.

[pbowden]

Thanks @talkingmoose ! Bill is right on the money here. If you have any questions and concerns, please feel free to reach me directly pbowden@microsoft.com

Looking forward to seeing everyone at JNUC this year!

Paul.

[PatrickD]

Thanks @talkingmoose, excellent information! "The more you know"

Great to see that people like @pbowden are making such great strides inside and outside of Microsoft for the Mac Admin community, thank you!