[Casper] Verify Startup Disk and Options for Alerting Users

[Ben Greiner]

Does anyone know if version 6.01 added any options for displaying  
messages using the jamf displayMessage command before running a policy?

I'd like the ability to force a dialog box to the front of the screen  
and not go away until the policy is complete (no "OK" button).

We want to "Verify Startup Disk" on all our managed Macs once a month.  
Of course when this runs it feels like the Mac is stalling so we want  
to warn users to relax for 5 minutes AND let them know when the  
verification is complete. Has anyone created a policy to do this? It  
sounds simple but I've run into two problems...

1) I can't get two messages (before and after) to appear. Only one at  
a time seems to work.
2) I can't verify that "Verify Startup Disk" is actually working on  
Tiger Macs. The log files shows it working in Leopard, but no  
information is displayed in Tiger. See details below.

POLICY IN QUESTION
This policy is set to Once Every Month
This policy is triggered by everyHour
This policy is assigned to 4 computers
<I did have a script here that would display a message to the user,  
but if the message was displayed then the Reboot Options message (see  
below) would NOT appear so I removed it.>
Run Script Script-MonthlyMaint.sh
Verify Startup Disk
Display message 'Your disk has been verified. If any problems were  
found you will be contacted.' to end user.
Reboot immediately if nobody is logged in
If rebooting, display message 'Your disk has been verified. If any  
problems were found you will be contacted.' to end user.


TIGER LOG RESULTS
/usr/sbin/jamf is version 6.01
Executing Policy Maintenance - Monthly...
Mounting afp://myserver/CasperShare to /Volumes/CasperShare 1...
Running Script Script-MonthlyMaint.sh...
Verifying Disk mounted at '/' <NO RESULTS SHOW!?>
Unmounting file server...
Displaying message to end user...


LEOPARD LOG RESULTS
/usr/sbin/jamf is version 6.01
Executing Policy Maintenance - Monthly...
Mounting afp://myserver/CasperShare to /Volumes/CasperShare...
Running Script Script-MonthlyMaint.sh...
Verifying Disk mounted at '/'
Result of disk verification:
Started verify/repair volume (filesystem) on disk disk0s3 Macintosh HD

Performing live verification
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
Checking multi-linked files
Checking Catalog hierarchy
Checking Extended Attributes file
Checking volume bitmap
Checking volume information
The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK

Finished verify/repair volume (filesystem) on disk disk0s3 Macintosh HD
Unmounting file server...
Displaying message to end user...

Thanks,

Ben Greiner
Forget Computers
312 602.5345
ben at forgetcomputers.com