Installing Office 365 - without policies and not one app at time

[jonros]

Hello everyone,
Is there any way to solve the installation of Office 365 without creating a package and policy with all the apps? Maybe with a script in some way through Self Service?

[jamf-42]

JAMF App Catalog? 

[jonros]

@jamf-42 doesn't help. With Jamf App Catalog you can only install one app at a time. It doesn't include the whole Office 365 package, neither do Mac App Store. That's why I pop the question.
If you could trigger installation from Jamf App Catalog with a script to download app A, B, C...at one click it would be nice.

[AJPinto]

I'm not sure if I follow the request. You are wanting to install office without policies, and policies is how Jamf deploys software and scripts. What is the need you are trying to meet?

You can get a package that contains all the office apps from macadmins.software without having to package it yourself. The person who maintains this site has been on leave from Microsoft since late last year, but the versions downloaded are still current; at least for now.

I would recommend against trying to use a "full suite installer" due to the volume, and complications it presents.

• If you use a full suite installer, and need to update just excel you have to update the full suite installer and validate everything just because excel updated.
• You could also have an individual package for each office application in a single policy. This is easier to update, but still poses issues due to the volume.
• Using a full suite installer will reinstall all office apps every time you push it, rather than just reinstalling excel in situations where you are troubleshooting or need to update a specific app.
• The best solution is a single policy for each office app and have a custom trigger. Then another policy that runs a script that calls each of the custom triggers to run each of the office policies. This let's excel fail without failing the install of everything else, and lets you update just excel if needed without running the other packages.

We have changed our office installation process to use the App Catalog and install automatically. We did this back in August and have yet to see any issues with office apps not installing in a timely manner after the device has been configured.

[jonros]

@AJPinto I wan't to use the Jamf App Installer so the application always is up-to-date so you always download/install the latest version. If I package the Office installer and use it with a police you need to upload new package now end then to keep it up-to-date.

[AJPinto]

JAMF's App Catalog leans on the MDM Managed App workflow. Due to this being dependent on MDM commands, there is no way to use CLI to call the policies and limits the offering to a single application per policy. You can submit a Jamf Idea request for what you are needing, assuming its possible, Jamf should review it.

Considering this workflow uses Extension attributes to configure the install parameters for a specific application (like Word for example). I dont think it would be reliably possible to have a single catalog item keep up with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Etc. If Outlook needed an update, it would need to run the package that reinstalls everything. Then the custom scripting to get all this to work.

Parting thoughts what if an organization does not want Windows Defender or OneDrive. Jamf would need to maintain a catalog item for each possible configuration to meet every organization's needs. Or open up the scripting and package definitions for us to modify to meet our needs, which is basically installomater by that point. Automation is kinda a one size fits most, and if it does not fit you, you cant use it.

TL;DR: If for some reason you absolutely need a single package to install all of the Microsoft stuff, or you need CLI options, you will need to maintain it yourself. 

[daniel_behan]

I use Microsoft's scripts for all installs of Office, Defender, Company Portal and New Teams.  Just be sure to look for the Defender shim installer.

https://github.com/microsoft/shell-intune-samples/tree/master/macOS/Apps/Office%20for%20Mac

[angryant]

Installomator has labels for Office but I haven't test it.

https://github.com/Installomator/Installomator

[cecotter]

That was going to be my recommendation. Runs reliably for us on enrollment devices. 🤘🏼

[czarmark]

I second the motion! Implemented Installomator last autumn and haven't had a problem. I no longer have to update and maintain the 2 GB Office installer on my server; the Installomator script handles installing the latest version. I did opt for the 'microsoftoffice365' label and install Teams under a separate policy because of all the Teams "Classic" / Teams "(work or school)" musical chairs that Microsoft was playing. DEPNotify fires off Office, Teams, Edge, Company Portal, Adobe CC Desktop, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and Nudge Installomator scripts. Plus, the #installomator channel on macadmins Slack has a lot of insights.