JAMF Nation Monthly Challenge Solutions

OCTOBER '08

• Q:Last year your company purchased 200 iMac's for deployment in a company wide hardware upgrade project. You imaged and deployed all of them but did not enter the purchasing information for any of the machines. You now have a mixed environment ranging from G4 iMac's to new MacBook Pro's. Management has requested end of life reports (when the warranty expires) on every machine in production, including the ones that do not have any purchasing information in the database. What is the best way to get the purchasing information into the JSS and create a report as to which machines are reaching their End of Life and going to need to be replaced in the near future?
• A: Prerequisites: Have a valid GSX account integrated with The Casper Suite - Page 395 Casper Suite Version 6 Documentation
• Solution: Create a Smart Group based on the hardware type of the iMac's your company just ordered.
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• Lookup Purchasing Info from GSX under the Mass Edit section. Perform the Mass Edit based on the Smart Group that you created.
• Perform an Advanced Computer Search under the Inventory tab that will search for all machines with warranties that expire in less than 60 days. Lookup Purchasing Info from GSX under the Mass Edit section. Perform the Mass Edit based on the Smart Group that you created.

SEPTEMBER '08

• Q: A new software update for your standard email application has been released. Management has requested that the users be able to trigger the deployment of the update so employees can avoid applying it at times where email downtime would prevent them from completing their work. The update requires administrative privileges and your users do not have administrator rights on their machines. How can you use the Casper Suite to deploy the update?
• A: Use Composer to package the update (opting to package New and Modified files so as to catch any files the updater changes) and make it available via Self Service. Users would be able to download the update when it's convenient for them, whether or not they have administrative access on their machines. This option would work well for mobile users who may not leave their machines on-site overnight to adhere to an off-hours policy. Additionally, create an off-hours policy to send out the update package to users with desktop machines that won't leave the site. Either way, there is no interference with operations, everyone is updated, and management is happy.
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JULY/AUGUST '08

• Q: Smart Groups can be used in many ways throughout the JSS - they can be the scope for Policies, they can send Notifications on inventory changes and be used to sort machines in Casper Remote. Send us a screenshot of your best Smart Group criteria, and a brief description of how you use it.
• A:The following Smart Computer Groups are the selected submissions from the July and August 2008 JAMF Nation Challenge questions.
• To create these groups on your JSS, log in with an account that has the privilege Manage Smart Computer Groups, navigate to the Management tab, and click on Smart Computer Groups. For additional information on creating and managing Smart Computer Groups, refer to the section(s) titled Creating Smart Computer Groups in the Casper Suite 6.0 Documentation on pages 348-353.
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JUNE '08

• Q: A new printer has recently been installed in a building that you manage. This building is in a different city that has its own network subnet and file server. You would like to make sure that the users in that building are able to print to the new printer on the same day that it is activated. You would also like all users with laptops who travel to this building to be able to print to this server as soon as possible after they arrive. How would you install and connect the desired clients to the new printer?
• A: To deploy a new printer to users of a particular location and have it be based on when the printer will be made available can be done with a Policy. The policy would be scoped to the Network Segment of the building/location, and be deployed on an 'every15' trigger (or similar for your environment) with an Execution Frequency of 'Once per Computer'. The policy would execute on the desired date for existing managed computers in that location, and then remain active for deployment to mobile users when they come into the location.
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• Create the Policy
• 1. Login to the JSS web interface
• 2. Click the Management tab, then Policies, then 'Create New Policy...'
• 3. On the General tab set the Triggered By: field to 'every15', the Becomes Active On date to the date the printer will be available on the network, and the Execution Frequency to 'Once per Computer'.
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• 4. Under the Scope tab, choose a relevant group of machines. Then limit the Scope of the policy to the Network Segment of the remote building/location.
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• 5. Under the Printers tab, add the desired printer and make it the default if desired.
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  Note: The printer has already been added to the JSS with Casper Admin.
• 6. Save the policy. The logs detailing which machines have executed the policy can easily viewed via the View Status link on the main Policies page.
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• If the printer is a new model, drivers may not be installed on your machines. If this were the case, the printer drivers would need to be packaged separately with Composer and could then be deployed with the printer in the same policy.

MAY '08

• Q: Configure your JSS to send an e-mail to one or more administrators if a managed workstation has a boot drive that is more than 90% full.
• A: Create a Smart Computer Group with criteria for the requested percentage of boot drive capacity and set it to notify on change.
• 1. Login to the JSS web interface
• 2. Click the 'Management' tab
• 3. Click on 'Smart Computer Groups'
• 4. At the bottom click the 'New Smart Computer Group' button
• 5. Fill the in the information for this group as illustrated in the figure below
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• 6. Click the 'Save Group' button
• 7. Click the 'Admin' tab
• 8. Click on 'Accounts'
• 9. Click the 'Edit Account...' button for the user(s) you want to receive the notifications for when a system is added or removed from the new Smart Computer Group
• 10. Click the 'Notifications' tab for the specified user
• 11. Check the box under 'Inventory Notifications' for 'Smart Computer Group Change'
• 12. Click the 'Save User' button