New Munki User: How do I Deploy Software From Server?

[Danny Saba]

I know absolutely nothing regarding software deployment on either Mac or PC but wanted to learn something new on my day off.  

What I have done so far. 

I have this demonstration setup perfectly. https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Demonstration-Setup

I have Apple updates working after following this guide: https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Apple-Software-Updates-With-Munki - Next step tomorrow will be setting up unattended updates.

I setup autopkgr to notify me of updates.

I have a catalog with multiple packages. In my testing manifest I have managedinstalls set for OneDrive, Firefox, Chrome, and Skype. I can install and uninstall them just fine.  

How do I force the client computer to install packages/updates from the Munki server? Say for example I had 1000 Macs that I needed to install Chrome on. What would be an efficient way to use Munki to install it?

Thank you

[Christopher W]

Hey Danny,

You would create a manifest that includes the programs you want to install and then provided the client macs are configured to use that manifest they would download and then install the programs on the next update cycle (provided there are not blocking applications open or some such thing.) You will need to go through this https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Preferences in order to figure out a client configuration that you want, and then find a way to run that configuration on all of your clients.

What I have done in the past to get something onto all the macs quickly is set all the manifest and things up as I want them and then used ARD to run the managedsoftwarecenter --auto command to force munki to run, which just means that I know it has run on all or most of the fleet.

Munki isn't really a I want you to do this thing right now kind of setup but more of a this is the eventual state I want you to be in, go and do it kind of thing.

[Danny Saba]

My current ManagedInstalls.plist looks like this. After reading your reply I assume I will have to figure out a way to run the configuration outside of Munki after it is created? 

{

   AppleSoftwareUpdatesOnly = 0;

   ClientIdentifier = "test_munki_client";

   FollowHTTPRedirects = none;

   InstallAppleSoftwareUpdates = 1;

   InstalledApplePackagesChecksum = cf5513a6b02c551040e2f970561b8dc2dabc6a910c62296c01260812ec36cf93;

   LastAppleSoftwareUpdateCheck = "2017-05-10 17:54:49 +0000";

   LastCheckDate = "2017-05-10 17:57:44 +0000";

   LastCheckResult = 1;

   LogFile = "/Library/Managed Installs/Logs/ManagedSoftwareUpdate.log";

   LogToSyslog = 0;

   LoggingLevel = 1;

   ManagedInstallDir = "/Library/Managed Installs";

   PackageVerificationMode = hash;

   PendingUpdateCount = 0;

   SoftwareRepoURL = "http://IP/munki_repo";

   SoftwareUpdateServerURL = "";

   SuppressStopButtonOnInstall = 0;

   UseClientCertificate = 0;

}

[Mr. Alan Siu]

Hi, Danny.

I'm assuming http://IP/munki_repo actually goes to a real server.

Since your client is using the test_munki_client manifest, you just create (if it doesn't already exist) a test_munki_client manifest on your Munki server, make sure it has at least one catalog (that your items like Skype and Firefox also have), add items to the manifest's optional installs, and then run makecatalogs on the server.

The next time your client checks in, it should have the option to install those self-service items.

More details here:

https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Demonstration-Setup

Alan Siu

Client Systems Analyst

St. Ignatius College Preparatory

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