Deployment Guide Best Practices

Overview

Integrations with Jamf fit into three different categories, deployment guides, configurations and integrations. This article focuses on deployment guides and how you can build a solution that's easily deployable via Jamf technologies.

Getting Started

Jamf provides a variety of ways to distribute apps to managed devices. Before getting started, we'll need to first answer the following questions:

• Is your app available for computers, mobile devices or both?
• Do your customers use Jamf School or Jamf Pro?

Based on your responses to the questions above, navigate to the section of the article below that's relevant to your use case. If you haven't already received an NFR license for the Jamf product you'll be using to deploy your application, reach out to [email protected].

Jamf Pro

To successfully deploy an app to a managed device, you'll first need to enroll a device if you haven't already. Check out the Jamf Pro Device Enrollment Guide to get started. Once enrolled, follow the instructions below to configure and deploy an app to that device.

Mobile Device Apps

App Store Apps via Volume Purchasing
This is the preferred mechanism for most vendors to make their mobile device applications available to enterprise organizations.

In-House Apps
This deployment method is often used when organizations need a custom app that's unique to their organization. It's also the best way to test your app deployment prior to publication on Apple's App Store.

macOS Apps

App Store Apps via Volume Purchasing
This deployment method requires that you make your macOS application available via Apple's App Store.

Policies
This deployment method is commonly used for app installers that do not exist on Apple's App Store. Make sure to review our macOS Application Packaging Best Practices to ensure that your application installer is compatible with Jamf and other MDM products.

App Installers
This is our newest deployment method for macOS applications, which helps ensure that apps are not only deployed, but remain up to date on client devices.

Jamf School

To successfully deploy an app to a managed device, you'll first need to enroll a device if you haven't already. Check out the Jamf School Device Enrollment workflows to get started. Once enrolled, follow the instructions below to configure and deploy an app to that device.

Mobile Device Apps

App Store Apps via Volume Purchasing
This is the preferred mechanism for most vendors to make their mobile device applications available to enterprise organizations.

In-House Apps
This deployment method is often used when organizations need a custom app that's unique to their organization. It's also the best way to test your app deployment prior to publication on Apple's App Store.

macOS Apps

App Store Apps via Volume Purchasing
This deployment method requires that you make your macOS application available via Apple's App Store.

In-House Apps
This deployment method is commonly used for app installers that do not exist on Apple's App Store. Make sure to review our macOS Application Packaging Best Practices to ensure that your application installer is compatible with Jamf and other MDM products.

App Installers
This is our newest deployment method for macOS applications, which helps ensure that apps are not only deployed, but remain up to date on client devices.

Best Practices

Below are a collection of tips and considerations that we've found to be helpful when creating a deployment guide for the Jamf Marketplace.

• Before creating your deployment guide, successfully deploy the app in your NFR environment.
• Take screenshots to include in your deployment guide.
• Document any prerequisites, such as minimum compatible OS version.
• Host the deployment guide on your website, in a publicly accessible location.
• Redeploy your application and validate existing documentation is up to date at least once per year.

Final Steps

There are two primary components to a deployment guide, the guide itself and the Jamf Marketplace listing. If you're looking for some inspiration on what an effective listing or deployment guide looks like, check out HiddenApp. Once your deployment guide is complete and hosted on your website, follow these steps to Submit your Marketplace Listing.