Munki and Windows Servers

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Riley Milne

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Dec 20, 2022, 6:00:35 PM12/20/22
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Forgive me if this is obvious but I've been looking for an answer for a while and I'm not quite seeing why my first time Munki setup isn't working.

I am using a Windows network fileshare for my Munki Repo smb://myfileshare/munki_repo/. Macs in my environment are configured to access AD, and the user of my test system has access rights to the folders in question.

I am able to follow the demo setup, replacing the self hosted repo parts with my network fileshare.

I am able to configure the correct address for munkiimport and upload a demo pkg, creating a manifest and catalog. I can confirm these files are created on my repo on my network share.

When I try to actually call managedsoftwareupdate, I get an error:
"Could not retrieve managed install primary manifest.: Unsupported scheme for smb://myfileshare/munki_repo/manifests/site_default: smb"

I do have my network drive mounted on the Mac. Am I just fundamentally misunderstanding how this network file share works? Does it need to be hosted in a different way thats more accessable outside my domain?

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Nick McSpadden

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Dec 20, 2022, 6:06:23 PM12/20/22
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Munki only supports and expects to work with HTTP/HTTPS (or file:/// schemes, I suppose, though I've never tried that). It doesn't natively have any tools to talk to an SMB file share, so a URL based on that will never work.

The expected demonstration setup will produce a webserver that serves static files at static URLs, such as hosted by IIS on a Windows Server if that's your preference, but SMB isn't going to work the way you are trying.

You could try to use local file:/// schemes if the SMB share is always mounted on your clients, although I have no idea how effective that will be or if that even works. But ideally, you should really prioritize moving it to a webserver and doing it that way.

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Greg Neagle

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Dec 20, 2022, 6:06:32 PM12/20/22
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Your clients will generally communicate with your Munki server via web protocols, so the URL should start with http:// or https:// (which then implies a configured web server).

You _manage_ a Munki repo by uploading and/or editing the files that are served to clients via http/https. If you want to do that from a machine other than the server itself, a common way to enable that is to also share the repo filesystem via file sharing (often smb, but could also be nfs or WebDAV or even afp).

You are confusing how you manage (read/write) the repo with how it is _served_ (read-only) to clients.

In theory you _could_ have a preflight script mount your smb-shared repo locally, use a “file:///“ URL for your clients, then a postflight script to unmount the repo, but that’s not at all recommended.

-Greg

Chris Hart

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Dec 20, 2022, 6:24:49 PM12/20/22
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Our munki set up runs off of IIS and I found the article from JAMF to serve as a good starting point if that is what you have to use as the webserver portion. You are essentially setting up a "File Share Distribution Point" as JAMF calls it and then your munki repo would live on some type of file share distribution point that your IIS instance was communicating with.

Knowledge of the credentials (the read-only account) used to access the file share. An existing SMB file share being used as a Jamf Pro distribution point.

From: 'Greg Neagle' via munki-discuss <munki-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2022 6:06 PM
To: 'Gregory Neagle' via munki-discuss <munki-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [munki-discuss] Munki and Windows Servers
 

Riley Milne

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Dec 20, 2022, 6:24:59 PM12/20/22
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Well that explains my issues pretty well. The repo in question could probably stay mounted, but I agree thats not really an ideal scenario.

I've been trying to avoid setting up azure cloud storage but I think its finally time. Thanks for the assistance.

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