Jamf Remote deprecation in Jamf Pro 10.40

[garybidwell]

Just making my views public on the decision to deprecate Jamf  Remote app in Jamf Prop 10.40 as I personally feel its the wrong decision.

10.40.0

Jamf Remote

Jamf Remote has been removed from Jamf Pro. This includes the screen sharing workflow using Jamf Remote. Jamfrecommends to use TeamViewer for remote administration. For instructions on how to integrate TeamViewer with Jamf Pro, see TeamViewer Integration in the Jamf Pro Documentation.

Having just completed a large deployment of the TeamViewer Tensor and its integration to Jamf Pro and Microsoft Intune, its really a poor substitute to the usability of Jamf Remote.
While Jamf Remote lacked support for NAT and accessing devices off local LAN is made up for it for ease of use and its integration to Jamf Pro (it had a very similar ease of use like Apple Remote Desktop) and its ability to ad-hoc install a package or perform certain functions without creating a policy in the JSS makes it a extremely useful tool.

The TeamViewer integration into Jamf Pro is a real mess in its usability, so much so that in its current state I would go as far as saying its a waste of time as the user experience is so poor you may as well just use TeamViewer Tensor as a standalone product without any integration at all.
From deployment, updating the agent and to its hoop-jumping with Self Service its not a very pleasant experience for both the end user and for the admins.

This is even before you get to the licensing model and the added expense of purchasing TeamViewer to replace the previous "free" ability of what Jamf Remote provided.

I'll make sure this is fed back to our Jamf success manager, but surely I not the only one that's going to miss Jamf Remote in the future?

[SAENA]

Why in the world was Remote shut down? It was a viable local solution. It was handy and available. Why in the hell did this get pulled????

[donmontalvo]

Just curious, what did Jamf Remote do that SSH, Screen Sharing, and judicial scoping of policies can't do?

[adeane]

Well, for one - it was all of those in one place. Also, the ability to run a script scoped by selecting a handful of enpoints in a GUI is way less cumbersome than doing it all through the WebGUI, especially for one off pushes, or for less critical testing. Not to mention, you could see the command running in realtime, and get feedback from it immediately. No waiting for check in, and then waiting for the policy to run, and guessing if all the endpoints got the command. you could see right then and there if it failed.

For my environment, it's way handier to do things this way - we don't run a corporate environment where we just scope out and trust it'll get handled. They are classroom labs, and oftentimes I need that direct feedback behind the scenes - and having it in one app was just easier. 

I think the major sticking point is that it was a viable solution for many - and Jamf just keeps forcing our hand to Jamf cloud by taking features away

[Mojinkii]

I couldn't agree with @adeane  more. You get no feedback from a policy if it's running or not, until it has actually deployed. So if it never deploys you have no idea why. I manage the macs on 4 different campuses from a central location so I can't just go visit the machine. I rely on JAMF remote so I can check what is wrong with the machine. I can run the trigger from JAMF remote on that machine and see why its not running.

The instant feedback of JAMF remote has been invaluable to me but the biggest thing is the integration to the system. Access to the groups, scripts and packages.

We use JAMF pro not cloud, so for our environment JAMF remote worked very well.

Without JAMF remote I have lost my only sticking to point for JAMF. Unless something changes, we will unfortunately be moving to Intune in the new year.

Again though, for a corporate space it really isn't a big loss. It's not used in our staff environment at all.
In saying that, our staff environment will be moving to Intune. Hence why I'm being pushed into it.

I personally think JAMF have made a mistake with this. Management now days are very much cost orientated. We lost a lot of students due to covid and it hurt the Uni as I am sure it did everywhere else. So I am sure a lot of places will be facing the same thing as I am. Not a choice I want but I don't make the choices.

[mking529]

Jamf Remote was a great tool that worked well in our environment, it gave our IT helpers a quick and easy way to help people. I'm beyond frustrated it has been removed as this will slow down our ability to help people and I'll have to give access to policies to our lower tier technicians because what could possibly go wrong there, right? Now our only hope is Apple Remote Desktop. So yeah, no hope.

But hey, it's all good, with Jamf Remote out of the way they can focus on other excellent user experiences like pointlessly redesigning the Settings panes for the 25th time. 

[skinford]

I used JAMF Remote for many things including instant installs for whole lab areas instantaneously when I clicked start I didn't have to wait for a 5-minute window to start.  Also, it was easier to take care of some of my lab updates making sure that they were finished and not waiting for something to check-in.  Sort of a piece of mind thing, I've had many crashes using the web interface as opposed to using the JAMF remote.

Why is it that JAMF and other companies like them don't check with end users before doing insane things like this..  I guess I'm just tired of corporate thinking instead of end-user needs.

[patservedio]

For the first time since Jamf killed off Remote, I am trying and utterly failing at updating University computer labs in which all computers are frozen Deep Freeze. Being able to push out scripts and updated packages instantly, I was able to get all of my lab computers updated in 2 -3 hours. I've been working for 7 hours on one lab with 11 computers and STILL NOT UPDATED!!! Totally flying blind since you have no idea when a policy is running until it's completed. The best part is I speak with a Jamf support specialist to see if they have ideas, espcially that 2 out of 11 computers wouldn't check-in, I was told to update the jamf framework using the API which totally killed the Jamf connection forcing me to wipe them and re-provision. I've even tried using Apple Remote Desktop to push unix commands to have the policies run since you at least get data back on what's happening but that is clunky as hell. Why there isn't a way to send mass remote commands to have policies run is insane to me.. especially when your killing off the Jamf Remote functionality... Some of us used Remote for other than screen sharing. 

[skinford]

I totally agree to your frustration. It’s senseless that no one from JAMF management never asked anyone in the community how they use the Remote tool. It’s almost understandable I too use it to push all my rooms in a short period of time. Now you have to play the waiting game to checkin to install. Also, I had some Adobe failures using this process which I never had using the old process with Remote. 

[patservedio]

I haven't even started Adobe updates. That doesn't start until wednesday for me. The labs i'm trying to update just have 14 app updates and OS updates... shouldn't be that hard.

[adeane]

I speculate that perhaps they found some sort of vulnerability, and rather than address it and possibly improve Jamf Remote - they decided to ditch it altogether. The more I use Jamf, the less I like thier practices. They are showing themselves to be complacent in many areas, ignoring customer feedback. They seem to lack transparency and offer lots of lip service, resting on the laurels of thier "industry standard" status they've had - but they're upsetting a big chunk of thier user base.

[mking529]

You might be able to do this a little easier with making a script file utilizing custom triggers. The command would look something like:

/usr/local/jamf/bin/jamf policy -trigger <triggername>

And just set up your custom trigger in the policies. Utilizing custom triggers in this way, you'll see their progress in the Terminal window that pops up so you have some visual feedback to go off of. Granted, this still requires touching all the computers by hand, but it's a step above turning them on and waiting for the annoyingly random check-in to occur. 

[skinford]

The unfortunate thing is I have 5 campuses with apples on them and they are spread all over the northeast OHIO area. But thank you for the suggestion. I do run many scripts though.

Change can sometime be a good thing, but this is just something that should be readdressed by the JAMF management group.

Get Outlook for iOS<>

[patservedio]

The issue with that is you still need to do it as a policy and the only feedback you get on a policy is "pending" or "completed". Doing what you suggested with a policy trigger is what I was trying with Apple Remote Desktop but super clunky and within my environment, I have to have my computer on the same vlan which is very limited and having remote management on will make my security team flip a lid.

[mking529]

We've been using Apple Remote Desktop since the beginning of our Apple deployment in 2004, and yes, it has always been abhorrently buggy and unreliable. How Apple can't fix this tool to work better with native macOS capabilities is absurd, but that's a discussion for another board. ;)

[adeane]

Well, look at thier "server". It used to be a feature rich app that overlayed these services, or at least access to these services in a helful manner. With each new release of MacOS, they removed more and more features from server, until it was basically non existent. But oh! They do love to push thier fancy new "look" each OS. meh. I prefer function over fashion.

[mking529]

I used Apple Server until it's discontinuance and it was just like ARD. Never reliable, never well supported. Maybe the short-lived MDM side of it was better but we tried to use it for File Sharing, Web/Wiki, and CalDAV and you were way better off just using Linux. You'd spend less time learning it there and it working rock solidly than dealing with an Apple rep telling you, "Hmm, it should just work. You must be doing something wrong! I mean, I have no solutions for you but clearly it's your fault". Luckily a few genuine "nerds" posted their findings online on how to make things halfway-work during the time I was forced to use it.

[adeane]

This is how I used to manage a lot of things - with custome triggers, then I would use Jamf Remote to run those triggers and get the feedback in one nifty little gui. It was handy. So they took it away. 

[WhippsT]

I'm seeing a lot of movement on this subject. Just a reminder that this feature request exists: https://ideas.jamf.com/ideas/JN-I-26370

If you haven't voted, please take a moment to do so. Thanks, everyone! 👍

[skinford]

I did post a, "To Whom it may concern" to another post with this same subject here:

https://community.jamf.com/t5/jamf-pro/no-more-jamf-remote-now-what/m-p/279848#M252757