Targeted Extension Attribute Collection

[josaxo]

I'm hoping this is an easy question and perhaps something I missed in the JAMF documentation. Is there a way to target extension attribute collections to specific workstations for testing purposes?

Thanks!
JS

[mm2270]

No, unfortunately there isn't a way to limit Extension Attributes to a subset of machines. Because they're part of the general inventory collection process, they'll get applied and run against all managed Macs.

If you're like many of us and would like some more granular control of where and when Extension Attributes get applied, you may want to vote up a few Feature Requests, such as these-

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=18

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=78

Neither of these are exactly what you;re looking for, so you may want to submit your own as well.

[aturner]

There is not really a way to do this. The only option to limit the scope of the inventory would be to setup an alternate JSS and test it as whole second environment. That of course is a lot of work for a simple test but if you have tons of machines, it might be worth it.

But, depending on your attribute, it is probably safe to deploy to most machines because it is just gathering information, not doing anything to the actual machine. They can be changed, deleted and manipulated at any time.

Thanks,
AT

[rockpapergoat]

you might want to look into integrating facter to do this. i've done some work on it already but will be less involved with casper very soon.

http://puppetlabs.com/puppet/related-projects/facter/

[mm2270]

As aturner mentions, if you have the ability to stand up a dev environment with a limited amount of test systems pointed to it, that might be a good option.

Another way to handle this is to set up the Extension Attribute, and then go right into Casper Remote, select a test group (possibly a static computer group setup in advance) and just select the Run Recon option and Go. Once its done, you can disable the EA and check the results in the Details section of the Macs in your test group to see how it worked. Its a bit of a kludge, but if you want to limit where it gets applied, that would be one way.

[talkingmoose · Accepted solution]

Other folks have mentioned you can't limit EAs to specific machines. For my testing I use Apple Remote Desktop's Send UNIX Command. Copy/paste the entire EA (assuming this is a shell script) into the Send UNIX Command window and run it against your selected machines.