So Alectrona Patch has worked out fairly well for us. We aren't using it in the traditional sense, in that we have a monthly patch cadence and rather than only run Alectrona during that time frame and utilize dialog boxes to force users to close open apps for patching, we have a custom script that Alectrona setup for us that runs daily and continually updates apps in the catalog. There are some pros, and some cons to this method:
Pros:
-Apps are up to date
-Completely hands off, all automated
-Completely silent - no user interaction or disruption
Cons:
-long policy run times (sudo jamf policy now takes upwards of 20 mins to complete when Alectrona Patch policies are triggered because it runs through the entire patch catalog and updates any titles that are found on the system
-Apps that are open at the time of run go into a deferral mode and won't get updated until the next patch policy run AND if the app is closed on that run
-Running in silent mode unfortunately has revealed a lot of our mac users who leave every app under the sun open ALL the TIME and NEVER reboot their systems.
All in all though we are very happy with Alectrona, and with their support.
