JAMF - Smart group for Zoom update

[rdeleon]

Hello team,

I was wondering if you can assist me on a quick and easy matter. I'm trying to create a Smartgroup to update all of our machines to the latest Zoom update. I just want to know if there's anything else that I'm missing for criteria. See screenshot.

One more thing, once the smartgroup is created and the patch take effect, do the machines get excluded out of the smartgroup once the patch is complete with the new update? I just want to make sure because Jamf support said it does.

Thanks.

[jamf-42]

looks fine.. BUT.. if your cloud based.. then consider using JAMF Mac Apps.. is way simpler.. just create a smart group 'has app Zoom' and use that group as target group.

Obvs test with a pilot group before deploying to estate.

Note that JAMF deploys Zoom IT version.. not Zoom consumer.. 

[rdeleon]

Ok, I will give that a try. If I get zoom from the JAMF Mac apps, it won't interfere with the Zoom that is already in place under policies? Or do I need to delete the one in policies first and get the one in Zoom Mac apps?

[jamf-42]

scope to a single device or a small test smart group. its just a pkg installer nothing more, via an MDM framework. If you Zoom policy is just a simple run once / self service installer then it won't interfere. 

[rdeleon]

Actually, I have my zoom policy as Ongoing so it can be downloaded at anytime in Self Service. But I will try that for sure.

[StefanT]

You can make an app installer available in self service now too. Was in the last update I think.

[AJPinto]

If you are using Mac Apps or Patch Management there is no need to also use a Policy to update Zoom. Patch Management is literally just a policy that JAMF keeps up on the smart groups.

• Install with a Policy, Update with Patch Management.
• Mac Apps can kinda do both.

I'm still Old School and like to use policy to update instead of Patch Management.

As far as your Smart Group Criteria, it should work. I usually target less then for the Application Version rather then is, that way if a device gets a newer version of the Application JAMF wont try to reinstall the older version. Unless you want to keep up with what zoom is doing to update your Smart Group as new releases come up.

[rdeleon]

Got it. I will give all of this a try and will reply back to you guys as soon as possible. Thank you. @AJPinto  @jamf-42 

[rdeleon]

Hey guys, so I'm in Mac apps, I select: Jamf app Catalog, and searched Zoom client. In here (See Screenshot) when I select the "Target Group" dropdown, it brings up my smart group for Zoom which has all of my company's macs.

Is there a way to add a Static Group as part of the test? Or do I need to lower the version in my criteria in my Smart group in order have a batch of test machines only. Thanks.

[whiteb]

I've had horrible success rate with Jamf's App Installers.

I have two smart groups for most programs; one targets Jamf's Patch Definitions (is less than: Latest Version)

You can't directly target a smart group using Patch Definitions with a Jamf policy (it will throw an error), so I make another smart group that targets the other one. This allows me to target a smart group using patch definitions with a policy.

I then use Installomator for patching Zoom. I have built-in auto-update turned on as well. They don't conflict with each other.

[JustinC]

@whiteb are you able to elaborate on the issues that you have had with App Installers. I am on the team that created App Installers so am very interested in uncovering any issues and hopefully come up with solutions.

[rdeleon]

Hey Justin, Question for you since you work for the App installers team. By any chance, is there a way to use a static group when selecting a target group? I want to test the Zoom option in app installers and all I can select are smart groups that have our user population in them. If not, when will Jamf make such a change? I feel like Static Groups can become useless if you can't manually test and select a group.

[JustinC]

@rdeleon you can create a Smart Group that has the criteria of 'member of' a Static Group. You then use that Smart Group in App Installers.

 

[rdeleon]

@JustinC Hey Justin, I just did what you mentioned I was able to find four machines including two testers that I have. So last night, I created a "Zoom update test" smart group for this test, selected the Zoom app in the Jamf catalog, selected the group and the machines are "In progress" status. I checked just now and the machines are still in "In progress" status. The two testers are on and the Zoom app is closed on both of them. I was wondering how long does the deployment take? Thanks .

[rdeleon]

@JustinC - just to add, I have it set to install automatically. 

[whiteb]

Hi @JustinC 

'App Installers' = Mac Apps > Jamf App Catalog, correct?

Seems to have been rolled out within the last year, was initially only available for pushing, but more recently has Self Service added?

If so, I posted about it in this thread: https://community.jamf.com/t5/jamf-nation/jamf-app-catalog-install-failures/m-p/283927

Basically just high failure rates, not much in the way of identifying why they're failing, and generally just kinda unreliable (in my experience, but as you can see in that thread it seems to not just be me). I only use it for deploying updates for apps that either Installomator doesn't support, or deploy better via that method as opposed to Installomator. Adobe Acrobat DC Continuous for example seems to deploy better via Jamf App Catalog as opposed to Installomator. And then apps like Photoshop/Illustrator/etc. don't exist in Installomator, and Adobe's built-in auto-update is pretty passive, so that seems to work better this way.

I've seen computers be online, get updates for toher apps via Installomator Policy, but the Mac Apps > Jamf App Catalog update pushes just don't go through and stay on pending. Or they fail. I see I can go History > Management Commands > and see the failure there, but IIRC it's not really descriptive at all.