Software Updates (Non Apple) how are you managing it?

[makander]

I'm curious on how you manage software updates for applications that are non-apple and that are installed via self-service? Do you have some kind of special workflow for it or how do you keep track of all the updates?

I'm managing it in different ways, meaning I am not using the same method across all applications. Some use the autoupdate function that's built in the applications. Some applications I install into ~/Applications.

But it'd be interesting to hear on how others are managing it, especially since I'm kind of new to the game.

[ShaunRMiller83]

I know everyone will have varying answers for this but the way we manage non OS updates is to get the apps with AutoPkg and AutoPKGr and then our deployment method is:

Create 3 smart groups (1 for app installed, 1 for app cached, 1 for app not installed).

We then cache the app package on the machines scoped to app not installed (but excluding the app cached smart group from this policy since machines can have the app cached already but not yet installed.)

We have a policy that runs once a week to install all cached packages. Which we add all of our app cached smart groups to so if machines fall in scope they will have all cached packages installed. We set it to inventory at the end of the policy so the machines fall out of the smart group(s) and fall into the app installed smart group.

It seems a bit complicated on paper but fairly easy to setup and implement

Update: I missed in your initial post about the need for self service but we have that covered as well for users who want to update there apps earlier than our weekly install all cached app policy. We have the install all cached policy in self service as well which will basically run the same way as I described above.

[makander]

Thank you Shaun! Seems like a pretty straight forward workflow. Do you repackage things at all with composer or just run AutoPKG straight up?

[ShaunRMiller83]

@makander

We only recently (within the last 3 months) started using AutoPKG & AutoPKGr so its definitely a mix of packages grabbed from recipes from AutoPKGAutoPKGr, packages from Casper Composer, and vendor supplied packages.

It's almost irrelevant if you made the package with Casper Composer, a vendor package, or pulled from AutoPKG as long as your smart group criteria is setup correctly (and of course your doing QA on your packages) this method should work. It has worked for us for a while now.

[calumhunter]

I'll just leave this here

https://github.com/patchoo

[elliotjordan]

Patchoo seems like the best current solution for presenting users with friendly "update available" UI.

AutoPkgr (with the "auto update magic" workflows) seems like the best current solution for silently updating apps in the background.

Hopefully it'll all be moot soon, because JAMF will incorporate this into an upcoming version of Casper. Until then, there's a great open source community solving these problems.