Mac Application doesn't finish installing via Jamf Self Service policy. (stuck on Step 3)

[fables]

Hi all, so I have a weird bug about Jamf Self Service Center that I can't seem to find much online about. 
I have a case of an application (New MS Teams) I want to be installed on all machines after device enrollment setup. This policy works great.

I have another policy where I also want that same application to be available in Jamf Self Service so users can install it in case they delete it, etc. My issue is that Jamf Self Service seems to have some kind of bug where it never detects that the installation of an application has finished. It just has a forever spinning wheel.



So once I install the application via the service center, it will install just fine on the computer after a minute. I can just go to the Applications folder and start up the application just fine. But in Jamf, it never registers the application as having been finished installing. So I looked up this issue and people said my best bet was to look into the Jamf logs, and I would but there are none to be found within Jamf Pro... So I looked at the mac's Console application logs. Then I looked up the Jamf service's logs and have found that in the installation process, after "Step 3: Installing available software updates..." is where it no longer proceeds.

I have the full logs I can post, but not sure if I will reveal confidential information if I post them. If there is a secure way to exchange logs, I would be more than happy to provide the logs.

[fables]

UPDATE: I have another system admin in the network who is reporting that this policy works out fine for them. They are saying that it is a connectivity/network issue, even though I am downloading the app just fine from Self Service... what are other culprits?

[dlondon]

Hi @fables  There should at least be a message in the jamf log saying it's starting the self service policy for the install.  That log is in /var/log  The easiest way to get to it is open Terminal and do

open /var/log/jamf.log

I often open it when testing.

If you are worried about the Self Service policy - just make it a normal policy and provoke it with something like this in Terminal

sudo jamf policy -id YourPolicyIDHere

And you find the id of policy when you go to the policy in the jamf web interface and the ID is in the URL e.g.

https://yourjamfserverURL/policies.html?id=2775&o=r   so in this case the policy id is 2775. 

If it works fine for the other user, I'd be thinking it's more an issue with this particular computer.  Can you test on another?

We haven't even gone into what it is that you are doing in Self Service - could you possible explain that?  Are you running a package or dmg?  If you are running a script, there's an opportunity to add extra info to log what's happening.  I actually get Microsoft stuff direct from Microsoft via the URLs published at

https://macadmins.software/ 

[fables]

Hi @dlondon , thank you so much for take the time to suggest some options to troubleshoot this.

• I took your advice, started up a the Jamf.log file from the terminal, and started monitoring it via Console.
• I then executed the Jamf Policy via terminal with your given command line format and the policy Id.
• It went ahead and installed the application just fine, but it seems to be getting stuck at "Installing all available Software Updates..." . Something is telling me that this Mac is not able to communicate with the Jamf server some way or another, even though it is definitely enrolled with a non-expired MDM profile (checked in System Preferences)... Here are the logs:
  
  

Tue Feb 13 10:00:55 MacBook Air jamf[925]: Checking for policies triggered by "networkStateChange" for user "admin"...
Tue Feb 13 10:06:28 MacBook Air jamf[1181]: Checking for policy ID 1332...
Tue Feb 13 10:06:30 MacBook Air jamf[1181]: Executing Policy New Microsoft Teams - Self Service
Tue Feb 13 10:06:32 No Name jamf[1181]: Verifying package integrity...
Tue Feb 13 10:06:33 No Name jamf[1181]: Installing MicrosoftTeams (New) 1.6.00.27656.pkg...
Tue Feb 13 10:06:38 No Name jamf[1181]: Successfully installed MicrosoftTeams (New) 1.6.00.27656.pkg.
Tue Feb 13 10:06:38 No Name jamf[1181]: Installing all available Software Updates...
Tue Feb 13 10:14:34 MacBook Air jamf[1485]: Checking for policies triggered by "recurring check-in" for user "admin"...
Tue Feb 13 10:14:39 MacBook Air jamf[1485]: Executing Policy 8 Hour LaunchDaemon Inventory Update
Tue Feb 13 10:14:39 No Name jamf[1485]: Verifying package integrity...
Tue Feb 13 10:14:39 No Name jamf[1485]: Installing UpdateInventory8HourLD-1.0.pkg...
Tue Feb 13 10:14:40 No Name jamf[1485]: Successfully installed UpdateInventory8HourLD-1.0.pkg.
Tue Feb 13 10:14:41 MacBook Air jamf[1485]: Executing Policy Update Inventory
Tue Feb 13 10:14:42 MacBook Air jamf[1485]: Checking for patches...
Tue Feb 13 10:14:42 MacBook Air jamf[1485]: No patch policies were found.
Tue Feb 13 10:14:55 MacBook Air jamf[1565]: Removing existing launchd task /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.jamfsoftware.task.bgrecon.plist...
Tue Feb 13 10:14:57 MacBook Air jamf[1485]: Removing existing launchd task /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.jamfsoftware.task.bgrecon.plist...

• The main thread I'm concerned about is Thread 1181 which is responsible for performing the policy execution of policy 1332 for installing New MS Teams. I refreshed for the latest log page at 10:16AM CST, so I definitely gave it ample time to search for updates. The other logs after 10:06AM are unrelated to the one installing the policy.
• I'm running a .pkg installer for the latest New MS Teams.

[AJPinto]

What happens when/if you run the package locally? Those "steps" you see in the Jamf Policy log also include any steps in the package. Step 3 is likely a post install script in the package since the files are dropping. My guess is that post install script is hanging, and since the script is not finishing, Jamf never gets the exit code for the package and the policy never finishes.

You can use this tool to crack the package open and see what its doing.

Mothers Ruin Software | Suspicious Package

[fables]

I just tried to install via just the .pkg installer file from Microsoft's website, but it seems like it installs without a hitch.

But I'm not convinced that the post-install script is what is causing this, if this .pkg installer has one. Since Jamf definitely knows when the application has finished installing. If you want to see this, its displayed in the logs seen above in my response to @dlondon . 

[ericmason]

I have the same issue. Self Service just keeps spinning long after the package has finished installing. Both /var/log/instal.log and /var/log/jamf.log indicate that the installation has finished, but Self Service keeps spinning.