Office 2016 hanging on casper imaging

[bmortens115]

Anyone notice that office 2016 takes a long time to image through casper imaging? As in 5-10 minutes when a 7 gig OS installs in under 60 seconds.

I built out office 2016 through composer and packaged it as a dmg

I am using 2 SSD mac computers and target disk imaging over thunderbolt.

[mpermann]

@bmortens115 you really shouldn't need to use Composer to snapshot and package up the Office 2016. The installer .pkg should deploy with Casper normally. I believe there is another thread on here that talks extensively about deploying Office 2016 with Casper. Have a look at this.

[bmortens115]

I'll check it out, thanks!

[dyyuan]

We are having a slightly different issue with Office 2016.pkg.
We do not have the volume license installer, but rather just the pkg file from office365.

Installing it during casper imaging with the pkg file will install the programs, but it will not run at all.

JAMF Support suggested using composer, and that did the trick, but the install file is 4gb vs 1.3gb on the pkg file...

Anyone having luck with just the office365 pkg?

thanks.

[rderewianko]

@rtrouton has a great blog post on this now: here)

[5Y54DMIN]

@dyyuan

I have the same issue, with the volume license, My advice and the advice from others is to install it post imaging, check the box install on boot drive after imaging.

[alexjdale]

I am using the current VLSC package (15.17.0), installed by Casper Imaging as an after-reboot package. It's working fine, and it actually serializes properly now.

I cannot discourage using Composer enough. There is really no need to.

[tnielsen]

My man. Don't capture office 2016 installer. Run the volume license installer package then the updates after it. It's super simple and won't fuck up that way. Don't waste your time trying other stuff with that one.

[Josh_Smith]

JAMF Support suggested using composer

If you are using user based licensing you can just drag the full suite installer in Casper Admin and deploy it...users sign in when prompted to activate it. Works great for me with 10.10 and 10.11.

If you use a volume license I saw Rich had a blog post recently (of course!): https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/creating-an-office-2016-15-18-0-installer

[bpavlov]

I would also like to add that while @rtrouton does have a blog post on it where he's essentially wrapping both packages under 1, if you don't want to re-package you should literally be able to just run a policy that installs the two packages!

[Josh_Smith]

Installing it during casper imaging with the pkg file will install the programs, but it will not run at all.

@dyyuan Is it installing after the reboot? (is "Install on boot drive after imaging" checked?)

Does the same package deploy correctly to an existing machine via a policy?

I haven't had any trouble with the unmodified Office 2016 vendor package installing at imaging time or later via policy on 10.10 and 10.11 and JSS 9.63 and 9.81.

[dyyuan]

Installing via policy seems to be ok, I got response back from support and they'd like us to try install it at imaging time with priority of 2.

I've also noticed MS just pushed out 15.18, so we will download the latest one and try that.

thanks all!

[5Y54DMIN]

@Josh.Smith

Is it installing after the reboot? (is "Install on boot drive after imaging" checked?) this is the only way to install it correct i never had success installing during imaging i would mbukernal errors.... when i would launch the apps.

[Josh_Smith]

@pgh Yes it should be installing after reboot, that is what we do. Sorry I realize now that wasn't clear in my post...I agree not having the "Install on boot drive after imaging" box checked may be the issue.

[franton]

Not mine, not even close but this guy (Clayton Burlison) has written probably the best damn blog post on Office 2016 and it's foibles.

https://clburlison.com/demystify-office2016/

[Nix4Life]

+1. Should be required reading for Office 2016 deployment

[dyyuan]

I am glad to report we were able to deploy office 2016 (15.18) with just the pkg file.
Thanks all!