Deploying Sophos 9.6.6 using FileWave
Deploying Sophos for Mac on an enterprise environment can become a bit daunting, because Sophos developers dont have a comprehensive guide as to how to do this, and in order to get a hang for it, you are going to have to pick pieces here and there from their horribly configured knowledge base.
The first part consists in preparing the Sophos Installer Package from the Enterprise Deployment console and put it on your desktop. Open Terminal and change directory to where you stored the files, then type `cd /Sophos\ Installer.app/Contents/MacOS` then type sudo -s and authenticate.
Copy the next line into your favorite text editor or compiler (I like to use Visual Studio: Code for Mac) for easy editing:
and change all the pertinent parameters per your configuration as this line is offered as a template.
Once you run this command Sophos will hash out the username and passwords along with your servers (or theirs) into the package you will deploy to your endpoints. Copy the script below to a text file and name it install-sophos.sh (or whatever you wish).
The script above is going to configure your package to get managed by the Sophos Enterprise Console. If you want to build a stand-alone package that doesnt verify into SEC change line 68 from:
to
From here on, you can deploy with your favorite MDM, be it JAMF or Munki or whatever you use. For FileWave deployment please continue reading.
How to Deploy with FileWave
To make the FileWave Recipe, simply make an empty fileset and configure similar to how I have it below, just keep in mind to edit your install-sophos script with whatever path you have on the Fileset Contents:
Once Sophos is deployed and running you might want to check your preferences for the client (click on the shield on the menu bar and choose preferences). They should look something like this:
If you are having problems with the fileset, I have a template for your convenience (without the software), that you can download from here.
The original contents of this script come from the article I wrote in my blog http://enterpriseosx.com/deploying-sophos-9–2–2-via-filewave/ back in 2015.
