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Managing Mac OS Updates in an Enterprise?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the a-nontrivial-problem dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "What's the best way to manage updates for an office of about 150 Macs of various models with different releases of Mac OS X installed? I would assume the solution involves Apple Remote Desktop Administrator which makes it possible to install updates on client machines without interrupting the user — but then the question becomes how do you keep track of which updates to install? Does Apple have some page squirreled away that lists updates they've released in chronological order with the ability to filter based on OS version and model? Is there an RSS feed or mailing list that announces new updates? For the uninitiated, ARD Admin only lets you install specified packages, so you have to download the updates manually from Apple's website, then queue the packages to be installed on a particular set of machines. This problem would be far simpler if it were possible to simply instruct client machines to run Software Update and install all available updates, or even better, if Apple included automatic update functionality within the OS, a la Windows XP."

9 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Mac OS X Server by Hes+Nikke · · Score: 5, Informative

    um... have you read about any of apples solutions besides ARD? how 'bout this or this?

    i'm not sure i can put it any more bluntly O_o

    btw... first post!(?)

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    1. Re:Mac OS X Server by Graff · · Score: 5, Informative
      Automatic updates are also very simple to set up with the softwareupdate tool located at:
      /usr/sbin/softwareupdate
      It has a man page and everything. You can use this to set up a cron job or whatever to do the updates automatically.

      There's more info on this at Mike's Mac OS X Management Software and Tips and at Apple's Knowledgebase
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    2. Re:Mac OS X Server by Graff · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's a way to prevent this. Basically you make a small program which registers the "quit application" event and when the program receives that event you send back a "user canceled" error result to the system. This cancels the reboot and keeps your program running.

      Once you are done you just end the program and the user can reboot as normal.

      There some info on the technique here:
      How do I disable Command-Control-Eject (normal reboot)?

      A better plan might be to do the software update as a logout hook. That way the update can be configured to occur when the user logs out and it won't interrupt their work. You can read more about login and logout hooks here.

      Here are some official Apple articles on the matter:
      The Boot Process (includes everything from boot to shutdown)
      Customizing Login and Logout

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  2. Macs DO have automatic update by athempel · · Score: 4, Informative
    Read all about it.

    And if you'd like to script it, take a look at the man page for "softwareupdate".

    1. Re:Macs DO have automatic update by DDLKermit007 · · Score: 3, Informative

      10.4 and above only. So many people are posting this just searching the Apple site. The OP runs various versions of OSX which are BELOW 10.4. The situation is compounded with mods that don't even know what the hell they are doing moding them up.

  3. Sure you can do Mac updates... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Very quietly. The rest of the Enterprise doesn't know about Macs. If anyone asks, tell them that you're installing Service Pack 2.

  4. You know it's late when... by Minupla · · Score: 3, Funny

    I misread the post title, so I had images of Picard tapping his comms badge...
    "Picard to Data: Start upgrading the MacOS workstations"
    "Data: process completed in .005 seconds. We are fully functional sir"

    Then I realized it was "in the enterprise" not "on the Enterprise"... oops. :)

    Min

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  5. Mac OS X Updates by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The OS ships with an update tool that notifies you of available updates. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to take into account what software you have installed (it keeps telling me there's an update for iTunes, even though I don't have iTunes installed), and it only updates the software that ships with the system - anything you install separately will have to be updated separately.

    This is one of my main gripes with OS X, in fact. On Debian and Ubuntu, I have a great package manager that automatically takes care of dependencies, and keeping software up to date is as simple as apt-get update && apt-get upgrade (with graphical front ends available for those who want them). Having to manually hunt down dependencies or updates is just a pain in the behind, and can significantly increase the maintenance cost of a system.

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  6. One solution by Espen · · Score: 3, Informative

    This problem would be far simpler if it were possible to simply instruct client machines to run Software Update and install all available updates

    That's trivial. In ARD, create a Unix command task to execute as root with the command:

    softwareupdate -i -a

    This will install all the updates you would otherwise see in the GUI Software Update on the selected clients. Schedule it if you are so inclined, and don't forget to set a reboot task if one of the updates require it.