OSX 10.11 dmg

zhouchens
New Contributor

Newbie here. How long should it take for my OSX dmg to index? It is for a mac mini. I have been waiting for over an hour. Is this normal? I am using Casper Admin 9.81.
Thanks!!

Z

11 REPLIES 11

Kaltsas
Contributor III

You'll never uninstall an OS X DMG, there's no reason to index it. Given the number of files in an OS installer I imagine it would take hours.

roiegat
Contributor III

Does the Mac Mini have a SSD drive or a rotational drive? I would assume rotational. Still, normal dmg for the 10.11 is around 8 gigs - so could take a couple hours depending on CPU and what else is running on that machine.

drew_duggan
New Contributor III
New Contributor III

Seconding @Kaltss in that you only need to be indexing packages that you're going to uninstall. As a best practice, only do it when that particular workflow is necessary and not as a standard action taken on all packages you're building. It just ends up being total clutter in your database and impacting performance of your JSS.

Chuey
Contributor III

@drew.duggan When you say "...you only need to be indexing packages that you're going to uninstall." I understand what you mean but I guess I'm confused when you say uninstall?

For simplicity, lets say I just create a googleChrome.PKG, upload through Casper Admin, would I NOT index that PKG since next week Google may push out a new chrome, I'll re-build PKG, and then re-upload but never index?

Should I only be indexing things that I know won't be getting updated frequently?

mm2270
Legendary Contributor III

@Chuey The JSS offers an "uninstall" option for packages that you can utilize to help remove the item from a system it was deployed to. In general, its not always 100% reliable, so YMMV depending on whether its useful or not, but as stated above, indexing is a requirement of any package to have the uninstall option even appear for it in a policy. For something that you are simply overwriting with new versions, or, if you are scripting a remove before and then laying down the new version, there's no need to index the package for an uninstall. Its really only useful for larger installs that drop files in a number of different locations that would be more complex to script a removal of. And even at that, I would only use it in cases where the vendor doesn't supply a formal "uninstall" script or deployable app/package.

Chuey
Contributor III

@mm2270 Thanks for clearing that up for me. We rarely ever use that feature and currently I've just been indexing any PKG and did not realize it could clutter up DB and potentially impact our performance.

Chris_Hafner
Valued Contributor II

Two things I want to touch on here.

•) Never index a .pkg for any reason. Casper Admin cannot actually create a usable uninstaller index from a flat file. The index should be restricted to .dmg only. As stated, also only for things you need to uninstall.

•) @mm2270 I know you tend to have very good reasons for saying things. However, I've had nothing but years of completely solid uninstalls using indexed .dmg's. I just finished another mass BYOD un-enrollment of >360 students in very short time. Not a single issue cropped up. This is the 4th year I've done this without issue.

mm2270
Legendary Contributor III

@Chris_Hafner Fair enough! I wasn't stating that no-one should be using indexed DMGs for uninstalls. (I reserve that line for other things) And I even said YMMV, so I'm not at all implying it doesn't work, just that, well, YMMV. You my friend have been lucky with uninstalls I guess, which is great! I'm glad to hear they've been solid for you. However, some of us have had mixed experiences. I personally have seen a few cases where it didn't completely uninstall a product, which is why I stated it may not always be 100% reliable.
Granted, it was a while ago now, and I haven't really used the uninstall feature in Casper in some time, so I'm willing to accept that it may be much better these days.

Still, my opinion is that official uninstall scripts from a vendor can often be better, depending on the product we're talking about. If one doesn't exist, which is more likely than not, then an indexed DMG may fit the bill.
Since I tend not to use DMG installs, preferring package installs over them, the uninstall option is rarely ever an option for us. I'm certainly not going to create DMG installs and throw them into Casper Admin and index them just for the sole purpose of using them as uninstallers.

Chris_Hafner
Valued Contributor II

@mm2270 We are most certainly agreed on the fact that, official uninstall scripts are the way to go! I should also remember that any index is based on the .dmg that was created in Composer. If 'one' trusted composer to get it right for them, then they would most certainly have issues with uninstallers. I keep forgetting that many users may blindly trust composer's snapshots to get everything properly built for them in the first place.

How about this statement then: I've not seen Casper's Indexed Uninstallers fail to remove exactly what it was told to remove. Yet, I would LOVE to hear about anyone's experience to the contrary only so that I may learn. Uninstallers will be in my future practically forever, though like @mm2270 I'd prefer not to have to build them myself.

zhouchens
New Contributor

Thanks for all the input guys. It eventually finished but i wont index the next OSX dmg i make. I posted on another topic for this but while I have your attention, lol... I tried pushing the OSXdmg out to one target yeasterday in self service. Today that target machine just says cleaning up. Should I wait it out or reboot the machine?

Chris_Hafner
Valued Contributor II

I'm sure we can help. Can you be a little more specific though? I'd hate to make assumptions, especially since I do that a lot. If you're trying to upgrade the OS on a system via Self-Service then you can simply drag the MAS (Mac App Store) installer into Casper Admin and install it via policy (with an immediate reboot to the Installer volume set in the policy).

If you're trying to re-image from bare metal, then you should be using something like Casper Imaging (of DeployStudio, etc). I prefer Casper Imaging, other's prefer DS. In any event, can you describe what you're trying to accomplish?