Introducing Jamf Routines
Jamf Routines — widely announced at Jamf’s Spring Event — is now available to Jamf Business and Enterprise Plan customers. Read on to learn how Jamf Routines automates workflows, the templates that are available today and why we created it.
Administrators of any software continuously look for ways to automate tasks and streamline their work, so more quality time can be spent on the tasks that require focused attention. By enhancing IT admin efficiency and productivity, admins can proactively manage their technology ecosystem.
Jamf Routines is here to help do just that.
What is Jamf Routines?
There are common workflows and tasks that every admin must complete. Jamf Routines helps admins create automations for a subset of these workflows. Its functionality also helps admins build deeper integrations with frequently used apps and the Jamf platform.
There are three objects in Jamf Routines: templates, integrations and routines.
- Templates: provide a starting point to create a routine.
- Integrations: connects a routine to your Jamf Pro server and other third-party tools.
- Routine: the outcome of the selected template, integrations and other inputs.
Every routine requires a Jamf Pro integration. There are also integrations for Jamf Security Cloud, Slack and Teams depending which routine is being created.
At this time, there are a limited amount of integrations and templates available (more on this below), but we are actively working on producing more. We want to introduce templates that enhance IT admin efficiency and productivity while managing their technology ecosystem.
What are the current templates available in Jamf Routines?
As of this writing, the available templates are the following:
- Notify Me in Slack
- Notify Me in Teams
- Rename Mobile Devices
- Redeploy the Jamf management framework
- Restart Mobile Devices
- Set Risk Level in Jamf Security Cloud
- Update Extension Attribute
Let’s take a deeper look at each and provide a brief overview of what they do:
Notify Me in Slack or Teams
This template automatically sends a notification to Slack or Teams when a management action happens in Jamf Pro. These notifications are sent to a specified Slack or Teams channel.
The following are the management events that admins can get a Slack or Teams notification about:
- Mobile devices are enrolled or unenrolled in Jamf Pro
- Devices or users are added or removed from Smart Groups in Jamf Pro
- Devices are added to Automated Device Enrollment
- Patch software title is updated
For example, if an admin has a Smart Group for mobile devices that fall out of compliance, an admin would get the following Slack notification with the Slack routine enabled:
Slack notification from Jamf Routines
Rename Mobile Devices
This template automatically renames mobile devices immediately after enrollment. Admins will create the display name for the routine, choose the device name (serial numbers or user names), and even include customized prefix or suffix naming conventions. So, when a mobile device enrolls into Jamf Pro, Jamf Routines automatically renames the device based on settings configured in the routine.
For admins who are not using Automated Device Enrollment, this routine can be used for supervised mobile devices.
Redeploy the Jamf Management Framework
This template automatically reinstalls the Jamf binary on computers that may no longer have a functioning Jamf Management Framework, but still have an MDM profile installed. To utilize this template, admins must create a Smart Group in Jamf Pro that determines which computers no longer have the binary. If a computer falls into the scope of that preconfigured Smart Group, a command is sent to the computer to reinstall the Jamf management framework and updates inventory.
Restart Mobile Devices
This template restarts supervised mobile devices in a selected smart or static group on a schedule. Admins can choose the time of day to restart mobile devices, the time zone and which days of the week to restart the devices. (The default is set to all days.) By automatically restarting mobile devices, admins can make sure their devices perform at optimal levels.
Set Risk Level in Jamf Security Cloud
This template sets the risk level for a mobile device or computer in Jamf Security Cloud when it enters or exits a Smart Group in Jamf Pro. These risk levels are High, Medium or Low. When using this template, admins can automatically adjust the Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) risk level in Jamf Security Cloud when a device falls out of compliance in Jamf Pro or Jamf Protect.
Update Extension Attribute
This template automatically updates the extension attribute of a computer, mobile device or user. There are two ways to employ this routine: when a management event happens in Jamf Pro or on a recurring schedule. Update Extension Attributes can be useful in your environment for:
- Grouping: Smart Groups become more powerful when using reactive extension attributes.
- Scoping: Install the right apps, profiles, policies and more at just the right moment.
- Reporting: Assign a date/time, unique identifier or any other value you want to help with your advanced searches.
How do I access Jamf Routines? And how easy is it to create one?
Jamf Routines is available for all Jamf Business Plan and Enterprise Plan customers. To access Jamf Routines, these customers can click on the Resource Center button on the bottom right-hand corner of their Jamf Pro console and then click Create Routines.
Routines can be created from the Resource Center menu.
From here, you will need to login and authenticate with your Jamf ID.
Now, it is time to take the first step to create a routine. You click on the [+ Add Routine] button and choose a template to begin creating your desired routine.
From here, you can choose the available templates. (And in the future, any new ones.) Let’s say you choose the Notify Me in Slack template.
Available templates
From here, pop-up menus are displayed to choose the Jamf Pro server, the type of event, the Slack workspace and Slack channel this template will use.
After this, you click save — a new routine has been created. Now, you will get a Slack notification anytime a device is added or removed from the Smart Group. And that’s it. It’s a quick and easy way to stay on top of management events, leveraging tools you use every day.
How can I share an idea for a new template?
While we have a limited amount of templates available today, if you have an idea for Jamf Routines, please reach out to your Jamf representative or fill out a feature request and choose the “routine” tag.
We are incredibly excited to share this new functionality designed to help customers better automate workflows and connect Jamf to other platforms in your IT ecosystem.
Want to try Jamf Routines for yourself?