Manage your JSS Server or Not?

[pickerin]

Quick question, new to Casper Suite...

We are running our JSS on a Mac mini. I haven't managed it, because I wasn't sure if that was a best practice.

What do folks who run their JSS on Macs do? Do you manage it?

I'd like to be able to have the Inventory, Purchasing, and other information; but obviously don't want to run lots of my standard policies on it, and don't want to re-scope everything.

[nicktong]

Yeah .. I'd be afraid of having some policy accidentally run on the JSS itself, regardless any safeguards.

If you end up with multiple JSS hosts down the road, you could always setup another JSS to manage the servers, or Puppet ..

[chris_kemp]

I log the server in the database but don't manage it. I did start managing our offsite client servers, though. Easy enough at this point, since I don't have any Mac Minis elsewhere.

One thing I did do in the past was create a fake file called IsAServer.app - I put this on my servers, and used it as a defining point for a Server group.

[pickerin · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'm just going to create a manual record for the system, unmanaged, and leave it at that (plus unmanaged records done burn a license). I like the idea of creating a dynamic method of defining it as a server, application or otherwise.

[donmontalvo]

In the "old days" (before enrollment became the buzzword), we used to create our own custom QuickAdd so the jamf binary ended up in a non-standard location. Then we'd trigger it using launchd, for example to run inventory, since exclusions aren't coming until v9 is released (only mentioning since it was announced in JNUC 2012 <g>). When it comes to our infrastructure, very few people are allowed to manage the servers, and they all know where the binary sits so the necessary commands can include the path to the binary. In any case, as more and more environments migrate away from that silly Apple "server" hardware and onto proper Windows Server physical/virtual servers, it's becoming less of a concern. :)

[PeterClarke]

Yep my manager insisted that we put everything into Casper, including all our servers.

I setup a separate attribute "Kind" which I manually assign to from a drop down list.
If an item has kind "server", then no policies touch it.
So we only have inventory on kind "server".

It's a bit of a clumsy approach, but works.
It helps that I also have multiple other uses for the "kind" attribute.
So the effort of setting it becomes worthwhile.

[Chris_Hafner]

We manage our distribution points and netboot server(s) but not the jss. However, the JSS doesn't handle out main inventory, rather it pipes it into our inventory database. In our office we all have our various 'babies'. The JSS is mine and I like to take care of it personally. Not all institutions have this ability.