An end user can install any software apart from the managed applications that are deployed through the Software Distribution client. For example, the end user can be an administrator or a standard user and can install applications such as iTunes, Chrome, on the user’s device without triggering the User Account Control (UAC) prompt.
After the application is installed on the device, a newer version of the application might be released, and the old application versions are vulnerable to attacks. Sometimes, a zero-day vulnerability can occur without any ways to identify and remediate the application with an upgrade.
To mitigate such issues, administrators can create workflows to act on the resources based on certain conditions defined in the workflow. Various workflows can be defined based on the requirement. Workflows can be created based on the following criteria:
As an administrator, you can create a workflow to apply conditions that filter an application based on the application name and application version. You can select the Apps Exists or Apps Does Not Exist values in a condition to preview the applications that match the condition. The applications that are present in the application inventory across devices are displayed.
Note: An administrator can create a condition to check if an application name and a specific application version are installed on a device. When the condition is run on a device, the device first checks if the application is installed on the device and populates the results. In the results populated, the device checks if the specific application version is installed. There is no accurate versioning syntax for the applications. So, applying criteria like greater than or less than for alphanumeric application versions might not provide accurate results. However, when the actual workflow runs on the devices the system performs a more accurate search and populates the results.
This example demonstrates a scenario where an admin creates a workflow and adds a condition to the workflow. The condition checks if the latest version of the Zoom application is installed on the devices in a smart group. The admin first checks the existing version of the Zoom application on the device. If the latest version of the Zoom application is not installed, then the admin creates a step in the workflow to install the latest version of the Zoom application.
Prerequisites
Before you begin creating a workflow, you must add the latest version of the Zoom application to your system inventory. To add the required applications to the system inventory, navigate to your organization group (OG), and follow the procedure described in the Deploy Applications to devices topic of the Application Lifecycle Management guide.
Procedure
The following procedure describes the steps to create a workflow that checks the existing Zoom application version on the device and install the latest version of the Zoom application on the device.
In the Application name, select Contains, enter the Zoom as the application name, and in the Application version, select Less than or equal to, and enter 5.0.2 as the application version.
Note: In this example, the admin defines a condition to check whether the Zoom application exists, and if the application exists, check whether the application version is earlier than or equal to 5.0.2.
Click Then > Add > Action > Application.
Note: If you want to change the action for the Else, then click the Change Action option in the Admin panel Else Proceed to next step screen.
Results
You can view the workflow created in the Freestyle Orchestrator dashboard. When the devices check-in and the workflow are assigned to the devices, the device checks if the latest version of the Zoom application installed. If the version of the Zoom application installed is earlier than or equal to 5.0.2, then the device installs the latest version of the Zoom application.
You can use the condition feature of the workflow to check whether a specific file exists or does not exist on the device. In this example, the administrator creates a workflow to check if certain files in a specific path exist on the device. In case the file exists, then the admin can specify the actions to be taken for the file.
Prerequisites
Before you begin creating a workflow, you must add the latest version of the Excel application, that is, 11.0.0 to your system inventory. After you add the application, you can refer to the application resource in a workflow. To add the required applications to the system inventory, navigate to your organization group (OG), and follow the procedure described in the Deploy Applications to devices topic of the Application Lifecycle Management guide.
Procedure
The following procedure describes the steps to create a workflow that checks whether a file in a location exists on a device. If the file exists, then the version of the application installed on the device is checked. If an earlier version of the application exists on the device, then the admin creates a step to install the latest version of the application.
Results
You can view the workflow created in the Freestyle Orchestrator dashboard. A workflow is created to check if the Excel file version 11.0.0 is available and if a lower version of the Excel is available then install the latest version.
You can use the condition feature of the workflow to check whether a specific registry key exists or does not exist on the device. In this example, the administrator creates a workflow to check if a registry key exists on the device, and if the registry key exists then the admin specifies an action to be taken for the registry key.
Note: The registry condition is only supported on Windows devices. You cannot add a registry condition for macOS devices.
Prerequisites
Before you begin creating a workflow, the Excel application must be added to the system inventory. To add the required applications to the system inventory, navigate to your organization group (OG), and follow the procedure described in the Deploy Applications to devices topic of the Application Lifecycle Management guide.
Procedure
The following procedure describes the steps to create a workflow to check whether a specific registry key exists on a device. If the registry key exists, then the admin creates a step to install the Excel application on the device.
Enter the following details in the Registry option.
a. In the Registry Path, select Equals, and enter HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Airwatch\Feature.
b. In the Value Name option enter workflows, in Value type option select string, and in the Value data option select Equals and enter True.
Click + > Then > Add > Action > Application.
Results
You can view the workflow created in the Freestyle Orchestrator dashboard. A workflow is created to check whether the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AIRWATCH\Feature\workflows registry exists on the devices, and if the value is true, then the system installs the Excel application on the devices.
The following procedure shows the steps to create an example workflow to use a sensor condition to determine if a device’s printer access is enabled. If the printer access is not enabled, the procedure provides steps to run a script on the device to refresh the printer configuration.
For more information about creating sensors, see the Collect Data with Sensors for macOS Devices topic in the macOS Device Management guide and the Collect Data with Sensors for Windows Desktop Devices topic in the Windows Desktop Documentation guide.
Prerequisites
Before creating a workflow, you must first create the sensor to check the printer access.
In this example, the macOS Bash sensor to check for printer access is named printer_status and the response data type is string.
/usr/bin/lpstat -p 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $5}' | sed '/^$/d'
If the printer is configured correctly, this sensor must return the string enabled.
Next, create a script to refresh the printer service. For more information about creating scripts, see the * Create a Script for macOS Devices* topic in the macOS Device Management guide and the Create a Script for Windows Desktop Devices topic in the Windows Desktop Documentation guide.
In this example, the macOS Bash script to refresh the printer service is named refresh_printer.
do
/usr/bin/cancel -ax
/usr/sbin/cupsdisable $printer
/usr/sbin/cupsenable $printer
echo "Refreshed $printer"
done
If this script runs successfully the script must complete with an exit (return) code of 0, in which the workflow updates the status as successful.
Procedure
The following procedure describes the steps to create a workflow with a sensor condition to check the printer status on all devices in the assigned smart group and then run a script on devices that cannot access the printer to refresh the configuration.
Click Select > Sensor and click search in the Sensor screen. Note: In the Filter (If) screen, you can click the Additional Settings tab and enable the Re-evaluate Condition option. If the Re-evaluate Condition option is enabled, and the sensor value is modified or the workflow itself is modified, then if required, the condition is re-evaluated, and the workflow steps are retriggered.
Enter the sensor name printer_status and Does Not Include from the drop-down and enter enabled in the required information field.
Results
You can view the saved workflow in the Freestyle Orchestrator dashboard. When the workflow is assigned to the device, as per the order specified in the workflow, first the sensor to check for the printer status printer_status is run and then if needed, the script to refresh the printer configuration refresh_printer is run.
As an administrator, you can use the time window condition to schedule updates and deliver resources at a specific time for your business. You can define one-time, daily, weekly recurring time windows during which apps, profiles, and scripts are downloaded and installed. You can select a time window category such as business hours or maintenance hours and choose to take actions when the device is In or Not In time window.
The Time window condition re-evaluates every 30 minutes until the device meets the criteria. If there are multiple actions within a Time window condition, the condition is evaluated before each step. To apply the time window resource to a device, you must reference the time window resource as a condition in a workflow.
Prerequisites
Before you begin creating a workflow to apply the time window condition to a device, navigate to your organization group (OG) and create a time window resource. To create a time window resource, see the Make a Time Window and Apply it to Devices section in the Managing Devices guide. The Skype and Zoom applications must be added to the system inventory before adding the application resources in a condition.
Procedure
The following procedure describes the steps to create a workflow with a time window condition to check if the devices in the assigned smart group are in their respective maintenance window and then install the Skype and Zoom applications.
Enter the following details in the **Time Window".
a. Select In from the drop-down menu.
b. Select Maintenance Hours from the drop-down menu.
c. Click Then > Add > Action > Application.
d. Search and select the Skype application to be installed on the device during the defined device maintenance hour.
e. Search and select the Zoom application to be installed on the device during the defined device maintenance hour.
Click Save to save your workflow.
Results
You can view the saved workflow in the Freestyle Orchestrator dashboard. When the workflow is run, the Skype and Zoom applications are installed when the devices are in their respective maintenance window.
As an administrator, you can use the attributes condition in a workflow to filter and review any incoming extended device inventory data on the individual devices.
In a scenario, where a problematic Bios Version has been identified on some devices, you can create a workflow to get a list of all the impacted devices where the specific Bios Version is present. For example, an OEM update application has upgraded some devices to Bios Version 6.0 which has an issue, and this Bios Version was applied to some devices. The following procedure shows the steps to create an example workflow to use the attributes condition to get a list of all the impacted devices with the problematic Bios Version and install an updated version of the Bios on the devices.
Prerequisites
Before you begin creating a workflow you must add the updated Bios Version 6.1 to your system inventory.
Procedure
The following procedure describes the steps to create a workflow and use the attributes condition in a workflow to obtain a list of all devices in a smart group with a specific version of the Bios Version installed.
Enter the following details in the Software screen:
a. Click the Select Attribute > System > Compute > *Bios > Bios Version and enter 6.0.
b. Click Add > Application.
d. Search and select the Bios Version 6.1 application to be installed on the device
Note: The Bios application version 6.1 must be available in the system inventory for the application to be added in a workflow.
Click Save to save your workflow.
Results
You can view the saved workflow in the Freestyle Orchestrator dashboard. When the workflow is run all the devices with the problematic Bios version are fetched and the updated version of the Bios application is installed.