JSS and Adobe InDesign CS6

[tthurman]

Hey all,

Recently, I took over the primary administrative role for JSS/Casper Admin. I am having my first bout with Adobe products. Let me tell you...it is not fun.

EDIT: I suppose I should mention more information. I am running Casper 8.73. I used AAMEE to package the original DMG up so that I could deploy it with JSS.

I was wondering if any of you might have run into this error in the past and could provide some insight.

/usr/sbin/jamf is version 8.73
Executing Policy Adobe InDesign CS6 Test...
[STEP 1 of 3]
Mounting afp://jss.cerner.com/CasperShare to /Volumes/CasperShare 2...
[STEP 2 of 3]
Copying Adobe InDesign CS6 PKG_Install.pkg...
Installing Adobe InDesign CS6 PKG_Install.pkg...
Installation failed. The installer reported: installer: Package name is Adobe InDesign CS6 PKG
installer: Upgrading at base path /
installer: The upgrade failed (The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.)
[STEP 3 of 3]
Running command sudo jamf policy -trigger InDesignCS6...
Result of command:
Checking for policies triggered by "InDesignCS6"...
Gathering Policy Information from https://jss.cerner.com:8443//...
No Policies were found for the InDesignCS6 trigger.
Unmounting file server...

Sincerely,
TJ

[bentoms]

Hi @tthurman,

Looks like your trying to install it from a network share.

You'll need to cache it & then install from cached.

[tthurman]

@bentoms

Thank you. I'll try that.

Sincerely,
TJ

[tomt]

Is there any chance that a browser was open on the target machine? Most Adobe and Microsoft installs don't like it if something like Safari is running.

Did you use AAMEE to package InDesign?

[tthurman]

@tomt

I'll try it with everything closed. I did use AAMEE to package InDesign.

I'm not certain on how to create a cache install.

Sincerely,
TJ

[tomt]

A cached install is where you silently pre-copy the installer to the target machine and then launch the install via a script. This can be done in two separate policies. On slower networks this can lessen the downtime a user experiences while installing via self service.

On our network (all gigabit) I haven't found the need to do that as a standard install has been working well.

[stevewood]

Try doing the install at login or logout. For Adobe installs I always try to do them at that point. That makes sure that any Adobe app or browser is closed during the install.

To cache the install, you need two policies: one to cache and one to do the actual install. I have to remember my 8.x days, but I believe that once you add the package to the policy you can choose to Cache it to the machine. Then create a second policy to install the cached package (add the package to the second policy and choose Install Cached). Pages 294 thru 302 in the Casper Admin Guide (I'm looking at ver 8.7 guide) has information on how to do cached packages.

[tthurman]

Thank you, guys. I'm still new at this and I'm diving into the deep end right now. I appreciate it.

Sincerely,
TJ

[tthurman]

Alright, it looks like I'm still having issues.

I set up two separate policies.
The first policy copies the InDesign PKG to the cache of the machine (coined Create Cache)
The second policy I have set up to trigger on login; it then installs the cached copy of InDesign upon login.

It copies just fine but the install fails; this is the error for the install:

/usr/sbin/jamf is version 8.73
Executing Policy Adobe InDesign CS6 Install Cached...
Installing Adobe InDesign CS6 PKG_Install.pkg...
Installation failed. The installer reported: installer: Package name is Adobe InDesign CS6 PKG
installer: Installing at base path /
installer: The install failed (The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.)

I'm not sure where to go with this. I know that when I use the PKG by itself (without installing via policy) it works fine.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
TJ

[TimT]

Check the Adobe install log file. Use the console log on the target machine to get the info. I had a CC package fail recently and found what I was looking for there.

[tthurman]

Tim,

I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. Any ideas?

Sincerely,
TJ

[RobertHammen]

/Library/Logs/Adobe/Installers

[tthurman]

@RobertHammen

Not exactly what I meant. Thanks though.

[tthurman · Accepted solution]

I have found a solution for myself. I don't know if this will work for everyone.

As of right now I am no longer using Casper Admin/JSS to hold the Adobe pkgs; I only use it to deploy.

Basically, I created a share on my server that is for Adobe PKGs and I use scripts to mount to the share on the device and install it to the machine. I then put the scripts into Casper Admin and use Policies to push those scripts.

It is a somewhat complicated process but I figured it out and it works. So, I'm happy about that.

Sincerely,
TJ

[mpermann]

@tthurman, when you were using the two policy approach with one policy caching the installer package and the other policy installing the cached package, did you verify before the second policy ran that the package was fully cached to the machine in question? I ran into some issues trying to deploy Mac OS 10.9 where I was caching the installer in one package and installing it with a second package. I was getting the same error message. I was using http rather than afp though so I am not sure the problem is the same. The problem I was having was the package file wasn't actually getting completely cached to the machine even though Casper was reporting that it had. The file would download to the /Library/Application Support/JAMF/Downloads folder and then would get moved to the Waiting Room folder when the download was supposedly complete. But when I would look at the file size it was obvious the file wasn't properly downloading. Ultimately my problem was due having the WebDAV protocol enabled on the Mac OS 10.8.5 server that was acting as the distribution point. The JAMF folks were never able to tell me how a cached package download gets verified by the server. I'm not sure if having the WebDAV protocol turned on on your distribution point would cause a similar issue with and afp share or not.

[tthurman]

@mpermann

Sorry for not getting back to you right away.

I actually tried many ways. I cached it to the machine and then would try to install it via a second policy. I also tried using a script to install it.

Upon doing those things I thought I was having an issue with uploading to the server. I literally pulled the pkg off of the server after uploading it to Casper Admin and it wouldn't install. I'm guessing something was getting broken during that process. I'm not sure why though. I've tried a lot of different "solutions" but none of them worked for me.

The WebDAV thing is interesting. I will likely look into that. Thank you for that info, I appreciate it.

Sincerely,
TJ

[PeterClarke]

I've not seen anything here about: install_PKG_from_DMG
Which is the method generally used for installing the CS6 Suite..

Personally I would try that..
I have successfully installed the CS6_Master Suite, using that method, but I've not tried just using the CS6_InDesign stand alone installer.

But I would have expected the same method to work..
JAMF has a technical paper on the topic - which is worth taking a look at.
http://www.jamfsoftware.com/resources/technical-papers/