Overall our implementation of Third Party software patching for Windows using the Altiris platform has proved very fruitful. Now we're looking at developing a strategy for patching applications (e.g. Adobe Acrobat and Reader, Chrome, Firefox, Flash, Citrix Receiver, etc.) on our Macs.
Are there any members of our community who are already doing something like this? My core dilemma is being able to reliably target Macs in our environment with older versions of software installed.
SQL Filter
I'm pretty new to SQL, but I'm thinking this would adequately target the Macs in our environment with Firefox ESR which does not match the current version.
select
Inv_InstalledSoftware.[_ResourceGuid]
from vSoftwareComponent
inner join Inv_Software_Component on Inv_Software_Component.[_ResourceGuid] = vSoftwareComponent.[Guid]
inner join Inv_InstalledSoftware on Inv_InstalledSoftware.[_SoftwareComponentGuid] = vSoftwareComponent.[Guid]
where vSoftwareComponent.[Name] LIKE '%FIREFOX%UNIVERSAL%' AND Inv_Software_Component.[Version] != '45.4.0'
I'm thinking there has to be a better way to create this filter. For instance, if a newer version of Firefox is released this Filter has to be updated so that users with a version higher than 45.4.0 aren't downgraded.
A follow-up thought is that there are quite a few maintenance pieces to simply maintain Firefox.
1) Download latest Firefox (maybe use Autopkg to make this faster)
2) Install on a computer and run a gather software inventory task
3) Manage the software component, upload the package and set the command line options
4) Update the SQL filter
5) Update the Managed Software Delivery Policy to use the new software package/component
Is someone out there managing this more efficiently? I may just be thinking about this the wrong way