Good news everyone! That complex method of using the command line to add and manage installers in Munki can be replaced with a nice GUI method!
Welcome to part 4 of the Munki blog series. In this post, I will show you how I install and use the MunkiAdmin application.
Some notes for this series as a whole:
- These instructions have been written for our internal teams and for our typical installations. Tweaks may be required to fit your exact setup.
- The server used in these examples is Mac OS X Server 10.8.4
- The server uses Mac Server App version 2.2.1.
- The server has been configured with a boot drive called “ServerHD” and a data drive called “DataHD” for the services data.
- The clients used in these examples are Mac OS X 10.8.4, although the instructions have been tested on Mac OS X 10.8.2+.
- Munki is provided free of charge under the Open Source license. Although free, your mileage may vary, so test any solutions heavily before rolling them out as ‘live’.
Additional information can be found on the Munki site.
Guide
You have your Mac Server installed and configured with 10.8.4 and Server app 2.2.1. This has both forward and reverse lookups configured and working fine. I will also assume that you have already followed all the steps in part 1 and part 2. Part three is not required but recommended to help your understanding.
Installing and Configuring MunkiAdmin
1. Launch a web browser and navigate to “github.com/hjuutilainen/munkiadmin/releases”
2. Scroll down the page until you can see the download button showing “MunkiAdmin-[version].dmg” (in the screen shot, this is MunkiAdmin-0.2.14.dmg). Click this to download the file.
3. Mount your newly downloaded disk image and drag the “MunkiAdmin” application to either the Applications or Utilities folders. Shortcuts to these have been provided within the disk image. Feel free to drag a shortcut to the Dock.
4. Once the copy is complete, eject the disk image and quit the web browser. Launch the MunkiAdmin Application.
5. You will be asked to locate a Munki Repository. Simple navigate to find your munki_repo folder. Select this and click “Open”
6. Now, by default, the application will ask you at every launch to locate your munki_repo. Let’s set it so that it’ll automatically open the last one. Go to the “MunkiAdmin” menu, then “Preferences…”.
7. Under the “On Startup” dropdown box, change it from “Prompt…” to “Open previous repository”. Close the preferences window.
8. That’s your copy of MunkiAdmin configured and ready for use.
Adding your installer into MunkiAdmin
9. Now we will add that Java v7 u40 installer into Munki.
10. In MunkiAdmin, go to the “File” menu, then “Import Packages…”
11. Navigate to your installer. Select this and click “Open”
12. You’ll be asked what name to save the installer under. I’d recommend using underscores or dashes instead of spaces and avoiding special characters. Also ensure that the “pkgs” folder you are saving into are in your working “munki_repo” folder. Click “Save”.
13. MunkiAdmin will now import the installer file. Depending on the size of the file, this may take some time.
14. Once complete, you’ll be asked where you’d like to save the package information file. MunkiAdmin should auto populate the name and the location. Confirm that the “pkgsinfo” folder is in your working “munki_repo” folder and click “Save”.
15. Once complete, your new installer will show up in the Packages window. Double click this to show the advanced options on the package.
16. These advanced options allow you to change, in the GUI, almost all of the options supported by Munki. The first Package (“Basic Info”) allows you to name the installer, add a description and admin notes as well as set the catalogs it’s in.
17.The second page (“Contents”) displays certain items the installer uses.
18. The third page (“Requirements”) allows you to set a number of additional requirements to the installer including Maximum and Minimum OS’s as well as which Munki installs this is an update for.
19. The fourth page (“Installation”) allows you to load in installer choices, blocking applications and Items to also copy over.
20. The fifth page (“Install Scripts”) allows you to copy in a pre-install and post-install script.
21. The sixth page (“Uninstall”) allows you to set uninstall scripts for if the item is set to uninstall (possibly to clean up any extra files.
22. The seventh and final page (“Install Check Scripts”) allows you to copy in specific scripts to check for certain items prior to an install/uninstall.
23. Once you’re finished with this package, click “Next” or “Previous” to go to the next or previous added installer, or click “Ok” to complete the changes. You have now finished adding your Installer into Munki via MunkiAdmin.
Adding your installer into a Manifest using MunkiAdmin
24. Now we need to create a new Manifest to add our installer to. Go to the “File” menu and click “New Manifest…”
25. Name the new Manifest (I will be using “Basic_Manifest”) and confirm that it is being saved into the “manifests” folder in your working munki_repo folder. Click “Save”.
26. Once your new manifest is added, select it on the left hand side, select the “Installs” tab on the right, then the plus symbol (“+”) at the bottom to add the Munki installer into this manifest.
27. We will now be presented with all of the available installers in Munki. Select the desired installer/s and then click “Add Selected”.
28. This will now show up on the “Installs” tab. We still need to add the correct Catalog for the installation we want. Click the “Catalogs” tab at the top.
29. You should see a list of available Catalogs. Select the tick box next to the relevant one/s.
Please Note: Catalogs are used in order, top to bottom. Although not relevant now with such a simple setup, this will likely come into play a little way down the line.
30. Once done, click the “Make” menu item, followed by “Save”. This will complete the loading of the installer into this manifest.
31. There you go, as with the end of part 3, once you have a client configured and set to use this manifest, it should try and install the Java installer we have loaded in.
Summary
That’s it; you now have a rough and ready understanding of how to add installers into Munki, and into Munki manifests via the MunkiAdmin GUI application. If you’ve been following the series you’ll also have a basic understanding of how to carry out the same tasks from the command line. Next time I’ll (finally) show you how to get a client Mac up and running.
Any hints, tips or opinions? Let us know in the comments below and I’ll try to respond to as many as I can.
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.