The Restart does not work with Software Updates

[sgiesbrecht]

Hello Everyone

When I select a group in Software Update payload, and select Download, Install and Restart install option with Latest version based on Device eligibility, the device does download and install however it will not restart the computer.

The local IT team has to touch each computer to click the Sys Pref > General > Software Update > Restart. 

All computers are on at least 13.4.x

Current Jamf Pro ver 10.50.0

Anyone else having same issues or know the fix

[sdagley]

@sgiesbrecht How recently had the Macs that failed to update been restarted? And do you have a Mac that hasn't been sent the update command yet that you can restart then try forcing an update? Based on my experience with triggering updates via MDM the likelihood of it working diminishes the longer it's been since the Mac was restarted.

[bcrockett · Accepted solution]

The MDM command tool for automating software updates is considered broken by most Mac admins. This can be confusing because the JAMF documentation does not acknowledge how bad the tool is. 

My recommendation is to use erase-install and nudge to automate software updates. 

[GreatestJagras]

Just adding in my experience that it's incredibly broken. We have mac computer labs in an educational setting and it seems like if any student doesn't sign out of the computer, the mac will require an admin username/password to restart and the Jamf command to restart after updates are installed doesn't override this which is very fun and not at all frustrating.

[sgiesbrecht]

That is our current workaround for now.

I have a ticket open with jamf about this also