David Williams Technical


Endpoint Management & Deployment – MDM Management – Scripting – Cyber Security Engineering – Application Configuration & Deployment

Uploading a new Software Package and Create a Policy in Jamf

This document refers to uploading a new software package to Jamf such as Adobe Suite, Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Cubase, SPSS, GIMP etc….. and create a simple policy to manually install the software on a mac.

  1. Create a software package (See my document on how to Create Custom Packages using Jamf Composer) or simply download a premade .pkg or .dmg.
  1. Open Jamf Admin and Log in.
  1. Select the install package (.pkg or .dmg) and drag them into Jamf Admin.
  1. The files will then upload to the Jamf Server. Depending on the size it could take some time.
  1. When the files are uploaded make sure you assign it a category and quit Jamf Admin. This will save the current state of Jamf’s deployment share. 
  1. Open Jamf and go to Computers > Policies.
  1. Select New.
  1. Create a Display Name preferably the Application Name and Version.
  1. Select Applications under Category.
  1. Then select how you want it to be deployed in Trigger. For the purposes of this tutorial select Custom and provide a very simple but unique name.

Note: This unique name will be used later on to initialise the policy on the test mac. It must not be replicated in other policies as this will cause issues during deployment.

Note: If you select any of the other types of Trigger such as Startup, Login or Recurring Check-in the policy can behave differently and alter the user experience. For example, if you choose Startup this can slow the boot up time whilst Recurring Check-in can shutdown applications whilst users are using them before updating them.

  1. Go to Packages and select Configure.
  1. Select the package you want to add to the policy and ensure that the Action is Install.
  1. Go to > Scope select the target computers which can be either ‘All Computers’ or ‘Specific Computers’. For this tutorial select ‘All Computers’. This will allow the policy to be run on all computers that are managed by Jamf.
  1. Select Save.
  1. When the policy creation process is complete, test it on a mac by running the Jamf install command in the Terminal window using the custom name given when creating the policy.

If successful the software will deploy and provide the call exit(0). If the policy is unsuccessful and presents exit(1) you will need to perform a Flush in the Policy Log. Note: that the Policy Log can contain diagnostic information as to why the install failed.

To do this in Jamf go to: Computers > Select the Computer > History (Tab) > Policy Log. Once deleted, this then resets the policy so it can be run again on the designated computer.

David Williams

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