I posted a while about regarding keeping Google Chrome updated in an automated fashion that used the Jamf Pro API to help get things set up. While this works, it does get a bit wonky when you need to change the policy that runs your Installomator script since the Smart Group uses the criteria ‘Latest Version’, and Jamf Pro doesn’t like that.

I began messing around with Jamf Pro again to see if there was a different workflow that I could implement to gain the same desired results, keep Google Chrome updated on an end-user device automagically, and took a look at Jamf App Installers once again.

Jamf App Installers was introduced in 10.37 (I have a write up about app installers here: Jamf Pro App Installers) and is incredibly useful to automatically install and keep applications up-to-date. I really wanted to utilize Jamf App Installers into my workflow, but the problem I had is that I do not mandate Google Chrome to be installed on all computers, rather it is in a Self Service policy and Jamf App Installers do not have Self Service as a deployment option yet.

The workflow I came up with includes, having a policy available in Self Service for a user to install when/if they would like to. This then gains them membership to a Smart Computer Group looking for computers that have Google Chrome installed. This Smart Group is the target of my Jamf App Installer. At this point, Jamf App Installers will send out its MDM command to do the initial install, if Google Chrome is outdated, it will get updated, if Chrome is already on the latest version, then Jamf App Installers will update Chrome the next time there is an updated version.

Below is a more detailed workflow description:

1. Create a policy in Jamf Pro to install Google Chrome:
In my policy I am using the Installomator script to make sure that initial installation is the current version of Chrome, along with an Update Inventory command in the Maintenance payload to make sure the computer will be added to the Smart Computer Group after installation. Make this policy available in Self Service for the end user.

2. Create a Smart Group to find computers with the application installed

3. Create the Jamf Pro App Installer policy for Google Chrome

And there you have it. Now you can let your end-user choose to install Google Chrome via Self Service and then keep that application updated automatically with Jamf App Installers.