Software update with Deferral

[hedenstam]

Hi,

I have created a policy with software updates that is set to run Ongoing with Re--occuring checking. I have also added deferral to the policy, so that users can do the update when it suites them. The Re-occuring checkin time is the default in Jamf - 15 minutes.

My goal with this is that the users can defer the policy, but I would like them to be reminded about this update with the re-occuring checking time, so every 15 minutes.

It seems that the notification of this management task is shown to the users only once when they select the end date for the deferral and they are not reminded of this update after the first notification.
Is this how it works? There is no way to have constant reminder for users about the update and when the end date (deferral limit) is reached, then the update is done automatically?

[AdamCraig]

I've set up a version of this: https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/28280/a-nicer-software-update-tool for daily reminders with 5 deferrals. The other benefit is you don't need to keep updating the end time.

Do you really want to prompt your users about software updates every 15 minutes?

[JeyT]

I have a question about this too. I am a JAMF part timer, meaning I was volunteered for getting Jamf running in my company so still learning, but seemed to have adopted making this operational too. I just want to have a 24 hour deferral. So basically I push the policy out and the user has 24 hours to run the update. We have sites all over the globe. Does the policy refer to the Macs local time when applying this? I tested this on my Mac, with a deferral to midnight that evening. It was 5PM EST so I should have 7 hours of deferral yet the most I was given was 3 hours? I don't understand how this works? And from what I am reading, there is only one warning? oh boy!

[jhuls]

If I set ours to remind every 15 min, I'd probably get fired or re-assigned. There's no way a constant 15 min reminder is going to fly if a VP is doing an hour long presentation.

[alexjdale]

If this is going to be a common thing for you, I'd consider using the control script/trigger policy method. It requires two policies: one that runs a script with whatever logic you want (which is where I'd put a custom jamfhelper UI flow with deferral options), calling a policy on an event trigger when it's actually time to install. If the script decides it's not yet time to prompt again, it would just exit out.

This requires more advanced scripting knowledge and process design, but you can reuse your code so it's worth the investment if this is something you want to standardize on.