Filewave 8.1.1 vs Casper 9 vs Munki

[Vulkan]

Studying a deployment solution for a client. This is an enterprise client so the proposed budget for deployment is running in the $50K or more. So basically money is not a problem.

We are looking to see how the top three solutions compare to each other in the present: Filewave 8.1.1 vs Casper 9 vs Munki

We the base features of all three but was hoping the community would give a more personal insight rather than a "commercial or marketing" information.

Ready, set, GO!

 

[chrfr]

Studying a deployment solution for a client. This is an enterprise client so the proposed budget for deployment is running in the $50K or more. So basically money is not a problem.

We are looking to see how the top three solutions compare to each other in the present: Filewave 8.1.1 vs Casper 9 vs Munki

We the base features of all three but was hoping the community would give a more personal insight rather than a "commercial or marketing" information.

Ready, set, GO!

There are not a lot of enterprise users here so your responses are likely to be small.
I use a combination of DeployStudio and Munki in the systems I manage and find these to be more than satisfactory. I use munkireport-php for reporting. The scope of your client's needs will direct what route they go, if budget is not a factor. If you need some sorts of hardware configuration, then you will want to add other options such as Puppet, or use those configuration options in Casper. I have no need for that additional functionality in my environment. I have no experience with Filewave and only the shallowest knowledge of Casper.
I'd recommend you look at these resources for more feedback:
http://www.macenterprise.org and the accompanying mailing list at http://lists.psu.edu/archives/macenterprise.html
http://afp548.com

 

[Vulkan]

There are not a lot of enterprise users here so your responses are likely to be small.
I use a combination of DeployStudio and Munki in the systems I manage and find these to be more than satisfactory. I use munkireport-php for reporting. The scope of your client's needs will direct what route they go, if budget is not a factor. If you need some sorts of hardware configuration, then you will want to add other options such as Puppet, or use those configuration options in Casper. I have no need for that additional functionality in my environment. I have no experience with Filewave and only the shallowest knowledge of Casper.
I'd recommend you look at these resources for more feedback:
http://www.macenterprise.org and the accompanying mailing list at http://lists.psu.edu/archives/macenterprise.html
http://afp548.com

Ive read all those sites... MacEnterprise is dead on the water... I have read http://enterpriseosx.com, http://derflounder.wordpress.com, http://krypted.com and several others... I guess you are right, though macrumors doesn't seem to have an enterprise community as big as I thought.

 

[chrfr]

Ive read all those sites... MacEnterprise is dead on the water... I have read http://enterpriseosx.com, http://derflounder.wordpress.com, http://krypted.com and several others... I guess you are right, though macrumors doesn't seem to have an enterprise community as big as I thought.

The Mac Enterprise mailing list is where all the info and discussion is. There's also a munki-dev group which gets more than just developers, and does get some open discussion on deployment tools. Since it's an open source tool you don't really need to worry about getting a sales pitch there:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/munki-dev

 

[dkcr]

Hi

I have used Casper and FileWave not the latest versions, Also considered migrating systems to Munki before. My question would be, what is the best fit for the client and there staff?.

Munki is most likely to be most demanding for the staff, unless they are used to a more demanding systems support than Apple. As they have approached an outsider "Studying a deployment solution for a client". My guess this may be beyond them.

Casper is the most Mac like, and has a great user forum, so if the client needs good support this would be ideal. This comes at price in my experience.

FileWave is my preferred solution for price vs functionality,it is cross platform so can be installed on rack mounted servers running other Operating systems, so the server can be slotted into existing infrastructure and complaint with other requirements like back up, DR etc.

Good luck.

 

[jhimes]

I currently work for a school district that manages 500+ mac clients. I am currently using Munki/Profile Manager/DeployStudios to image, manage, and deploy software to all the clients in the district. I have a college over at enterpriseosx.com that is deploying Filewave into his environment. If money is not an option then go with Filewave. If you want to take on that challenge and save some cash then I would try to go through Munki/Profile Manager. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Vulkan]

Well in the past couple of weeks, I was able to set up a Munki environment, a Casper 9.x Environment Test and a Filewave Test. Munki is an interesting development and it worked out really well, but the company wants to bypass an open source solution and go with someone who can have paid support, so we pushed that to the side.

The final bout was between Casper and Filewave...

Casper: 9.x

Pro: Seems like an industry standard, has a good support community... Only runs on Macs, Open Database.

Cons: Complicated to use, Casper has like 5 tools to do 1 job, you build packages with one tool (or other tools), you deploy packages with another tool, then you configure profiles with another tool, and so on and so forth. It was complicated to get things done because you have to learn several tools to get the job done. It felt very similar to Munki somehow. Cant Deploy Casper without having to hire their engineer unless we have our own Casper Certified Engineer.

Filewave 8.1.3:

Pro's: Single tool to do everything in one place without learning different tools, pretty easy to setup and get going from zero. In basically 3hrs we had Filewave set up, with boosters, all applications packaged and ready for deployment. It was pretty impressive.

Cons: Lacking Community, they don't have an open forum to discuss, and there is very little information out there to discuss between other admins for solutions to issues and what not.

Company is still deciding what they want to go with... Stay tuned.

 

[AppleNewton]

casper is actually pretty easy to use and navigate. you can get I believe a 90-day instance of the suite set-up in your environment or a cloud hosted environment.

taking their training class really opens your eyes not just to the casper way of doing things but to the point of system administration in OS X.
i'd highly recommend going to a course of theres and giving it a try.

You create your packages in composer, snapshots or do a complete build of one and can deploy it through casperremote or casper imaging. you don't have to utilize all the apps to do one thing...but like OS X there are multiple ways to do the same thing...thats part of their logic.

To me the trade off for something like Casper vs other methodologies...is that is consistent and has been proven. you know what you're getting when you use it.

Another option if you want to utilize casper but not through JAMF is a partner service called RobotCloud. I refer clients and businesses there who don't have a lot of $ to spend on casper or have a minimal install base..but it can be a huge enterprise and they can manage it.


but if you have questions about Casper, let me know id love to help.

 

[ahmaduhhs]

Hello, I am looking to learn the Casper suite, is there any tutorial that you can recommend? I looked on Udemy and cant find anything there.

casper is actually pretty easy to use and navigate. you can get I believe a 90-day instance of the suite set-up in your environment or a cloud hosted environment.

taking their training class really opens your eyes not just to the casper way of doing things but to the point of system administration in OS X.
i'd highly recommend going to a course of theres and giving it a try.

You create your packages in composer, snapshots or do a complete build of one and can deploy it through casperremote or casper imaging. you don't have to utilize all the apps to do one thing...but like OS X there are multiple ways to do the same thing...thats part of their logic.

To me the trade off for something like Casper vs other methodologies...is that is consistent and has been proven. you know what you're getting when you use it.

Another option if you want to utilize casper but not through JAMF is a partner service called RobotCloud. I refer clients and businesses there who don't have a lot of $ to spend on casper or have a minimal install base..but it can be a huge enterprise and they can manage it.


but if you have questions about Casper, let me know id love to help.

 

[kaltsasa]

Hello, I am looking to learn the Casper suite, is there any tutorial that you can recommend? I looked on Udemy and cant find anything there.

Are you in a casper environment right now? Derflounder posts lots of specific tutorials for Casper. Other than company training resources such as the Jumpstart there isn't much in the way of tutorials. The manuals and other documentation can be freely downloaded from Jamfs site and access to jamfnation is free.

 

[ahmaduhhs]

Wish I was. Where can i go to access Jumpstart? I also signed up for JAMF Nation.

Are you in a casper environment right now? Derflounder posts lots of specific tutorials for Casper. Other than company training resources such as the Jumpstart there isn't much in the way of tutorials. The manuals and other documentation can be freely downloaded from Jamfs site and access to jamfnation is free.

 

[chrfr]

Wish I was. Where can i go to access Jumpstart? I also signed up for JAMF Nation.

Casper Jumpstart is what you get when you buy it, and the consultant gives you the training. It's not something that exists for download.

 

[kaltsasa]

http://www.bushel.com is JAMFs sort of SOHO offering, it is similar to Casper but not as fully featured (primarily utilizing apple's MDM framework rather than a combination of the MDM framework and their custom agent). It does have a 3 client free tier, while not identical to casper it would give you some idea of JAMFs methodology on management.

Mind you a lot of management with Casper is more wrangling than directly using the products features. I.E. I have a lot of custom scripts, config profiles, and other processes in place that don't really use Casper's built in templates but use Casper's features to wrangle them into place. Depending on the size and complexity of your environment you'll need to implement a lot of custom workflows so learning vendor agnostic processes like bash, python, packaging, etc... from places like MacE will be very beneficial.

It has long been advocated that JAMF should offer a free 3 client casper tier so enterprising admins could setup mini labs in their homes to hone their skills but thus far that has fallen on deaf ears. The only way to get real hands on experience is either take pretty expensive JAMF training, have a Jumpstart, or simply have access to Casper within your organization for training and testing.

 

[ahmaduhhs]

Thank you I will try Bushel.

We’re glad you’re here. Your Bushel account is almost ready. We’re just finishing up a few things.

http://www.bushel.com is JAMFs sort of SOHO offering, it is similar to Casper but not as fully featured (primarily utilizing apple's MDM framework rather than a combination of the MDM framework and their custom agent). It does have a 3 client free tier, while not identical to casper it would give you some idea of JAMFs methodology on management.

Mind you a lot of management with Casper is more wrangling than directly using the products features. I.E. I have a lot of custom scripts, config profiles, and other processes in place that don't really use Casper's built in templates but use Casper's features to wrangle them into place. Depending on the size and complexity of your environment you'll need to implement a lot of custom workflows so learning vendor agnostic processes like bash, python, packaging, etc... from places like MacE will be very beneficial.

It has long been advocated that JAMF should offer a free 3 client casper tier so enterprising admins could setup mini labs in their homes to hone their skills but thus far that has fallen on deaf ears. The only way to get real hands on experience is either take pretty expensive JAMF training, have a Jumpstart, or simply have access to Casper within your organization for training and testing.

 

[star-affinity]

Filewave 8.1.3:

Pro's: Single tool to do everything in one place without learning different tools, pretty easy to setup and get going from zero. In basically 3hrs we had Filewave set up, with boosters, all applications packaged and ready for deployment. It was pretty impressive.

Cons: Lacking Community, they don't have an open forum to discuss, and there is very little information out there to discuss between other admins for solutions to issues and what not.

I have used FileWave at work for quite a few years now. It is a good solution overall that is developed continously. But I agree on the con. A user forum where one can discuss with other users would be great. But at the same time they have pretty good phone support which I think is included when you subscribe to the software.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Bushel: I recognize the guy on their site....that's Chip from Jamf. I'd guess they built a web front end for cloud services to run their Jamf Software Server (JSS) as a SaaS. Looks slick, and the 3 free devices a great no-risk way to dive in. Too bad they will likely confuse folks who will not understand it is essentially the same product (even if repackaged, and tuned to a different, perhaps less "enterprise" customer).

I was on an early team that rolled out Casper back about version 3/4 for OS 10.5.....it was great then, and has only improved.

You can run the JSS on any server platform you like too, just need Apache and Tomcat last time I checked.

Oh, and check out their free Linux Netboot/SUS. Pretty slick and useful, regardless of the tool you pick.

 

[kaltsasa]

Bushel: I recognize the guy on their site....that's Chip from Jamf. I'd guess they built a web front end for cloud services to run their Jamf Software Server (JSS) as a SaaS. Looks slick, and the 3 free devices a great no-risk way to dive in. Too bad they will likely confuse folks who will not understand it is essentially the same product (even if repackaged, and tuned to a different, perhaps less "enterprise" customer).
.

Bushel is from JAMF and is as you say JSS SaaS, but it does have it's limitations. Essentially it is MDM only, there is no associated binary for advanced management like with Casper Suite. So you are limited to Configuration Profiles, App Store, VPP, etc... JAMF does have JAMFCloud for customers wanting cloud JSS services. I know several companies that are pretty pleased with their JAMFCloud JSSs.

Anything that can run Java and Tomcat is good to go as far as server platform. You have a lot of options for your distribution points as well. I run our JSSs "boxes" on Win 2008 server with https distribution shares.

Chip and Zach recently stepped down as Co-CEOs. I wonder if the new guy will give the keynote at this year's jamfnation.

They need a 3 license version of Casper Suite so I can run the full monte in the home lab.

 

[adam9c1]

Can you elaborate on the jamf in a home lab?

 

[chrfr]

Can you elaborate on the jamf in a home lab?

There's no special "home" license for Casper. You'd need to buy the full thing and set it up at home, same as if you were in a work environment.

 

[adam9c1]

What's the cost to buy? I only see ones with jump start program on their site..

 

[chrfr]

What's the cost to buy? I only see ones with jump start program on their site..

They don't sell Casper without the jump start.
From http://www.jamfsoftware.com/products/casper-suite/pricing/

• JumpStarts are mandatory for all new deployments to ensure that you are successful with the Casper Suite from day one.