NetSupport DNA - New version 4.5

[SteveM555]

Hi @SteveM555, your NetSupport DNA key should now be in your inbox.

 

Matt

 

Thanks Matt,

 

Got it this morning

[sparkeh]

Just updated and some very nice features. Profiles are a great idea.

 

Really useful thing is that it shows *logged on* users rather than *last logged on user* and when someone logs out their name is highlighted in red. Now I know if a PC is unattended and can be controlled

 

Good work!

[nicholab]

Does this version have the ability to send alerts to different staff based on the profile membership?

[Al_NetSupport]

Does this version have the ability to send alerts to different staff based on the profile membership?

 

Morning @nicholab , as before, you can send different Alerts to different recipients, and apply alerts to different devices, but no we didn’t add defining different recipients for the same alert based on their profile membership.

 

I can see how that might be useful, and am happy to add to the future enhancement request list. Regrettably we have to draw a line under features in each new version, or we wouldn’t ever get to release Day.

 

Al

[nicholab]

Morning @nicholab , as before, you can send different Alerts to different recipients, and apply alerts to different devices, but no we didn’t add defining different recipients for the same alert based on their profile membership.

 

I can see how that might be useful, and am happy to add to the future enhancement request list. Regrettably we have to draw a line under features in each new version, or we wouldn’t ever get to release Day.

 

Al

 

Hi Thanks for you quick reply. Would be great if that could be added an official request for consideration. As I could see this beneficial in a number of schools use cases. Either with all through school or large schools where the want to split up handling of alerts.

[kidpressingbuttons]

Anyone uses much of the Apple side? Will set up a trial myself but would like a fresh perspective!

[lewisburgess]

Disappointingly, there is NO way of deploying the agent to Macs*. Not even hacking around an XML file inside the package.

 

I have discussed this with NS support and fed back that manually installing the agent on 150 Macs is less than fun or ideal.

 

Hopefully they'll do something for the next version as it is a bit of an oversight in my opinion, although I realise they can't do everything!

 

*That I've found.

[Al_NetSupport]

Disappointingly, there is NO way of deploying the agent to Macs*. Not even hacking around an XML file inside the package.

 

I have discussed this with NS support and fed back that manually installing the agent on 150 Macs is less than fun or ideal.

 

Hopefully they'll do something for the next version as it is a bit of an oversight in my opinion, although I realise they can't do everything!

 

*That I've found.

 

It's a totally valid and fair comment @lewisburgess , and i apologise for the PITA. Totally down to what we could do in the timescale and we wanted to try and get the agent itself out there as soon as it was available. Always better to be honest, so it's not an oversight, just a dev capacity challenge. It's on the Mac dev schedule along with including the integrated R/C rather than a separate app. It's v1 of our Mac support, but hopefully you'll see how many updates we have done for Windows in the last couple of years and rest assured the same will follow true on Mac ( and iOS and Chrome).

 

Sorry again.

 

Al.

[mb2k01]

Disappointingly, there is NO way of deploying the agent to Macs*. Not even hacking around an XML file inside the package.

 

I have discussed this with NS support and fed back that manually installing the agent on 150 Macs is less than fun or ideal.

 

Hopefully they'll do something for the next version as it is a bit of an oversight in my opinion, although I realise they can't do everything!

 

*That I've found.

 

You're right that there is no way within NS, but if you manage your Macs then you can send it out centrally via non-NS means, e.g. Munki

[lewisburgess]

Thanks Al.

 

Probably a poor choice of word "oversight".

 

I've spent a fair bit of time talking to support, our A/C manager and one of the team leaders. The team have been incredibly helpful, flexible and supportive and hope our calm and pragmatic approach to a few significant but extremely rare issues has been the best way forward. That said, DNA is great, we really love the product. I've got a few personal niggles which I've already shared both privately and some on here.

 

I hope you can overcome the Mac DNA deployment reasonably soon and I'm happy to help with testing that. I purchased more licenses with a view to rolling out DNA to the Macs as a matter of need for safeguarding and monitoring. As it stands, that's quite a challenge. I completely understand what and how has happened but if you can prioritise at least a better Mac installation / deployment sooner than other Mac improvements, that would make a significant difference.

 

Thanks :-)

[Al_NetSupport]

Thanks Al.

 

Probably a poor choice of word "oversight".

 

I've spent a fair bit of time talking to support, our A/C manager and one of the team leaders. The team have been incredibly helpful, flexible and supportive and hope our calm and pragmatic approach to a few significant but extremely rare issues has been the best way forward. That said, DNA is great, we really love the product. I've got a few personal niggles which I've already shared both privately and some on here.

 

I hope you can overcome the Mac DNA deployment reasonably soon and I'm happy to help with testing that. I purchased more licenses with a view to rolling out DNA to the Macs as a matter of need for safeguarding and monitoring. As it stands, that's quite a challenge. I completely understand what and how has happened but if you can prioritise at least a better Mac installation / deployment sooner than other Mac improvements, that would make a significant difference.

 

Thanks :-)

 

Hi @lewisburgess , i think you comments are very fair. I have a dev meeting on monday afternoon with the team, i will raise it for discussion are review two areas - Mac installer suitability for deployment by 3rd party apps ( i.e including a supporting config) and developing our own installer. Loads of our features are based on this kind of dialogue and i really value your support ( and patience ).

 

I'll come back to you personally by PM on monday after the discussion. Happy to share the above on the open forum, we set out from the start with DNA to make it something that would make Techies lives easier, but also to be open, not over promise and where we fall short, be big enough to say so and sort it out. Looking at Tech Console speed today too

 

Al.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

Disappointingly, there is NO way of deploying the agent to Macs*. Not even hacking around an XML file inside the package.

 

I have discussed this with NS support and fed back that manually installing the agent on 150 Macs is less than fun or ideal.

 

Hopefully they'll do something for the next version as it is a bit of an oversight in my opinion, although I realise they can't do everything!

 

*That I've found.

 

Any idea if it will work OK with something like Casper Composer taking before and after snapshots of the system? We have around 300 Macs that we need to install it on, but the installer is an .app rather than a standard .pkg.

 

EDIT: or if there is just a script that would be great too.

Edited September 29, 2017 by LRSFC_DanJ

[Al_NetSupport]

Have asked the techie brains at NetSupport to dive in on this one for you @LRSFC_DanJ

[lewisburgess]

Through the help of our most excellent Mac support guy, we've got it deploying in a startup script.

 

More to follow.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

Through the help of our most excellent Mac support guy, we've got it deploying in a startup script.

 

More to follow.

 

That would be really helpful as I've just been told today it is top priority for me to get this deployed out to our Macs.

[NetSupportTechSupport]

Hi @LRSFC_DanJ,

 

I work on the support team at NetSupport, if you would like to PM me your contact details I will be happy to also arrange for one of the techs here to contact you to assist with the deployment.

 

Thanks

 

Andy

[LRSFC_DanJ]

So I've just had an email back from NetSupport tech support, seems there's an installer.sh hiding in the bowels of the .app.

 

So what we can do is stick the .app in a temporary folder, import that directly into Composer, then add a postinstall script which runs the installer.sh with the appropriate parameters.

 

The installer.sh is found in "NetSupport DNA Agent 2.00.0000.app/Contents/Resources" and you run it like this apparently:

 

cd "NetSupport DNA Agent 2.00.0000.app/Contents/Resources"
./installer.sh . servername.domain.com /Applications/NetSupport/NetSupportDNA

 

I'm assuming you'd need to run this as root.

 

There's also an uninstaller.sh which runs in a similar manner:

 

cd "NetSupport DNA Agent 2.00.0000.app/Contents/Resources"
./uninstaller.sh . /Applications/NetSupport/NetSupportDNA

[NetSupportTechSupport]

Thanks @LRSFC_DanJ,

 

We are also currently completing a document to assist with the roll out of the DNA Agent to Macs, which we will make available shortly.

 

Andy

[jgmitchell]

Is there any update on the Mac deployment guide? Or even a properly packaged version? We use munki on site and could deploy a previous version with no issues (after I had run it through a package creation tool) But this new version will not work through this method, or when we attempt to apply some post-install scripts to the package

So currently we have none of our macs running Net support DNA.

[NetSupportTechSupport]

Hi @jgmitchell

 

Apologies for the delay in making this guide available. If you would like to PM me your contact details I will then ensure that one of the techs on the support team here contact you and review the steps for rolling out the DNA Mac Agent with you.

 

Best regards

 

Andy