Munki provides some tools that help you create the catalog information for each package and combine this information into catalogs. Munki catalogs are lists of items that describe available packages. Once you are satisfied there are no major issues with a new version of a piece of software, you can add the new version to the 'production' catalog, where the rest of your managed machines will find it and install it. Only a subset of managed machines is configured to use the 'testing' catalog, and this subset gets the newer versions of software first. New versions of software are first added to the 'testing' catalog. A very common and powerful configuration is to maintain a 'testing' catalog and a 'production' catalog. It is possible to have different versions of software available in different catalogs. The concept of 'catalogs' is an important one. In this example, munki is told to search the production catalog for Firefox and Thunderbird, and ensure the latest versions of these items are installed. A bare-bones manifest must contain a list of one or more catalogs to be searched for packages, and a list of packages to install. Munki uses manifest files to keep track of which software is to be installed on which machines, and catalog files to keep track of which packages are available. Aside from the actual software to be installed (which for the rest of this column we'll refer to as 'packages,' even for items that aren't strictly Apple packages), munki stores its data in the form of Apple plist files. Munki can install software packaged in Apple's Installer package format, software delivered for 'drag-and-drop' installs on disk images, and Adobe CS3, CS4 and CS5 products and updates using Adobe's supported enterprise deployment tools.Īs part of last month's introduction, we looked at the data munki uses to determine what to install or remove. Munki supports Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Munki's source code, as well as installer packages for the tools, are available at.

Munki consists largely of client-side tools written in Python, and can use virtually any modern web server as its source of packages and data.

Last month, we started looking at munki, a set of open-source tools that can manage software installs and removals on Mac OS X machines. MacEnterprise: Managing Software Installs with Munki - Part 2Ĭolumn Tag: MacEnterprise MacEnterprise: Managing Software Installs with Munki - Part 2 Setting up a demonstration Munki Serverīy Greg Neagle, Previously in MacEnterprise. Educational Institution and Student Discounts.

Imaging a mac with munki