Ongoing Policy - Best Practices

[perweilerg]

I would like to install application packages to each machine one time, but then have them available via Self Service continuously in the future in case they need to be reinstalled for any reason. What is the best way to do this? Do I have to make 2 separate policies?

[scottb]

@perweilerg, that's what I do. Then I can just deactivate/edit one or the other if needed. I usually name the ones for Self Service as "Install Lync - Manual" or the like to differentiate them.
Works fine. But others may have other opinions on it.

[perweilerg]

Thank you for your response. For an application like Adobe Reader that constantly has updates, do you have one policy for each version, and delete old policies, or do you find it best to modify the policy each time and flush the history? I seem to always have a ton of policies that are out of date and need modified or deleted.

[ctangora]

Short answer. Make two policies. If it needs two different actions (one automatic, one manual) then hide the automatic and put the other in self service.

[mm2270]

That's what we do also, when necessary.
Just curious, but when you say make it available continuously, do you mean even if the application is installed, or only in cases where it shows up whenever the app isn't present?

[NowAllTheTime]

We do two separate policies. If the policy is going to be available to end users we name the Self Service one as "App Name", and then the deployment one with "App Name Deployment"

We do this to give Self Service more of an App Store like feel for end users, since the names of Self Service policies in the JSS are also their title in the Self Service app. They end up perceiving this as more of a desirable native Apple experience rather than something imposed on them by the IT department. If the Self Service policy is just going to be used by our deskside techs then we will give it a more practical and descriptive name since they already know what's going on behind the curtain.

[colonelpanic]

We only have one policy and it is set to ongoing. We have other scripts deploy the packages if needed. We can deploy anywhere from within a half hour of the package being available all the way to waiting for the monthly security patch. I'll go over this in detail during the "Add Pop and Practicality with a Clean User Interface" JNUC session.

[mm2270]

@colonelpanic - Looking forward to your session. I'll be there!

[musat]

@colonelpanic, sounds like a particularly useful session. Hopefully it is one they video, as we are not able to make it up for JNUC.

[perweilerg]

@mm2270 I like to make the ongoing via Self Service in case the app is damaged or needs reinstalled for some reason, it is still available without having to flush the policy for that client. This is why I can't find a way to use just one policy, because if I set the original install policy for Ongoing, it would keep installing. Having 2 policies for every package just seems to make my policy list huge.

[Look]

I also create a seperate policy (this allows scoping to users and computers as well which might be diferent than the automatically deployed version).
I created a special category in Casper called "All Self Service Items" that I place them in, it works quite nicely because this also shows up in the Self Service app as well and can be used to list every policy available to the current user on one screen and as Self Service allows display in multiple catergories they can also be set to display in the category more specific to their purpose as well.
Double management is a bit of a pain, but it looks and works nice and clean for the end users.