Installing a package and an update

[Vitamin-Z]

I have a Lync package that we have to push to local Macs. There is also an patch that needs to be installed once Lync is installed. How do you guys do this? I set up a policy with the package with the priority 10 and the patch with the priority 11 but that doesn't seem to be working.

[mm2270]

I'm curious, but aren't you able to get a fully patched installer for Lync from Microsoft? I can't say that I know that for certain, but I know they offer this with Office 2011. I would be surprised if the same wasn't true for Lync.

Then again, since Lync is already on the chopping block about to be replaced with SFB (Sky for Business) maybe they don't offer that.

[Vitamin-Z]

Strangely enough what we have access to is the package and the patch. I was thinking the same thing but this is all I have to work with. We also have the office 2011 with SP4 that we push but there is also a patch that goes on top. How do you guys deal with things such as this?

[mm2270]

Generally with Smart Groups. One group that does not have the app installed, and another group with the app installed, but needing an update. You'd need to 2 separate policies with this workflow of course, and 2 separate Smart Groups.

If I were tasked with doing this, I'd probably use a custom process that included a package of both installers dropped into a temp location, plus a script that runs after to check the installed version (or see if its not installed at all) and then run the appropriate installations.
Meaning if App X is installed but not the version we expect, just run the updater and clean up.
If App X is not installed, install the full installer package, then the updater after.

[Vitamin-Z]

I believe there is also a way to create a package with the composer. This way I can install the update and simply create a single package of that. However, I'm not sure if OS version will be an issue if I proceed this way.

[scottb]

@Mansour - are you talking about an MS hotfix for Lync? We sometimes get those too, and there's no full-installer for that, but they also (MS) say it's not really supported for production either. I guess I'd either wait for the next release, or maybe try to use Composer to package that?
Otherwise, just create a smart group and install the hotfix after the initial Lync install.
If it's not the hotfix thing, then I don't think you need to do this - just push (or put in Self Service) the newest Lync.

[McAwesome]

@Mansour How are you pushing them? Are you installing directly or cache+install? I've found that if you cache and install multiple packages, Casper will ignore the priority of the packages and use some other rule(alphabetical? size?) for ordering their installs. So if it's failing to fully update, it may be because it's trying to do the patches before it has the thing being patched.