Intune App Wrapping Tool Macos

  1. Intune App Wrapping Tool Macos Pro
  2. Intune App Wrapping Tool Macos Download

In the first blog about the Microsoft Intune App-layer protection, one of the supported features is that you are able to wrap your own applications with the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS so that you are able to manage those applications with the Mobile Application Management policies. In this second blog in the series, we will have a look at the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS.

Packaging apps to push to devices is a black art. You need to become familiar with the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool for macOS to convert standard.mpkg files for use with Intune. Incidentally, after running this 'wrapping tool' you end up with a.intunemac file which is actually a.zip file.

Navigate to the Microsoft Download Center page for the App Wrapping Tool. Select the language you’d like the tool for. Read through the details and system requirements. Click Download to download the tool. After the tool has downloaded, double click the downloaded file and read the EULA. Nov 27, 2018  The Intune Win32 App Packaging tool The Intune Win32 App Packaging Tool is the tool to be used to “wrap” the installation files into the INTUNEWIM format. The packaging tool can be downloaded here. After downloading the packaging tool you need to.

With this blog I want to show two scenarios. One with an application with no policies active and one with the same application that is wrapped with the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool with the mobile application policies active. To be able to do this I have created a very basic application with two “pages” and on each page, there is a text field where I can type text and copy and paste it within the application and beyond.

Meet Notepad 🙂

Page 2 of Notepad

Again it is a very basic and uggly app, but it does its work 🙂 (Okay I will try to make it more fancy 😉 )

That being said, when looking at the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS, you need to be sure that the following prerequisites are in place:

  1. You need to have an Apple Developer Account
  2. You need to have access to a Mac OS X 10.8.5 or later with xcode
  3. You need to have a Provisioning Profile
  4. You need to have a distribution certificate
  5. Your device needs to be based on iOS 7.01 or later
  6. A developed iOS LOB Application.

Unmanaged Application

So when deploying the standard application via Microsoft Intune, you are able to install it and copy and paste the “Super secret text” between the pages in the Notepad application and for instance the email application within the iOS device.

Create a managed application

So the default created application can be deployed without any problem. What we need to do next is to wrap the Notepad application with the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool to allow management via Microsoft Intune.

You can download the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS supporting the right language here. Next you need to extract the DMG file to a folder where you are able to access the IntuneMAMPackager tool, TechNet describes to start the command line tool like this ./IntuneMAMPackager.app/Contents/MacOS/IntuneMAMPackager but I also extracted the content from the file to be able to access the IntuneMAMPackager file directly.

The IntuneMAMPackager tool has the following parameters that you may need to add to be able to wrap your application.

ParameterDescription
-iThe path and file name of the source application. (mandatory)
-oThe path in which to save the wrapped application. (mandatory)
-pThe path of your provisioning profile for iOS applications. (mandatory)
-cThe SHA1 hash of the signing certificate (Optional).
-aThe Client ID of the input app (in GUID format) if the app uses Azure Active Directory Libraries (Optional).
-tThe path to a test mobile application management policy file for testing outside of Intune (Optional).
-rRedirect URI of the input app if the app uses Azure Active Directory Libraries (Optional).
-vVerbose messages while wrapping the application.

For my Notepad application I need to start the following command line at the console of the Mac OS X device;

./IntuneMAMPackager –i ./Notepad-v1.ipa –p XC_Ad_Hoc_.mobileprovisioning –o ./Notepad- wrapped.ipa –c 679cd10b63499c3f89c6edfb07d2e2b80dfb0d

Application wrapped by the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool

That you cannot wrap every IPA file is true since the wrapping tool cannot wrap the following apps;

  • Encrypted apps
  • Unsigned apps
  • Apps with extended file attributes

Trying to wrap an app that is not signed by Apple

In the next blog we will add the application to Microsoft Intune, deploy it and have a look how the Mobile Application Management Policies can be applied to the managed application.

Till next time.

Comments

Citrix Workspace app is here to replace Citrix Receiver with a new UI and capabilities (primarily for Citrix Cloud customers). Here’s how to deploy it across various supported platforms in a modern management capacity with Microsoft Intune.

Windows 10

There are multiple deployment options for Workspace app on Windows via Microsoft Intune:

  • Workspace app from the Microsoft Store. This version has some feature limitations but requires the least amount of effort to deploy
  • The full Workspace app that provides the best compatibility, but doesn’t ship as a Windows Installer file and therefore requires custom solutions to deploy

Microsoft Store

Adding the Workspace app from the Microsoft Store is well documented and should take only 5 minutes to get the app from the Store, synchronise to Intune and assign the app to your users. How’s that for done and dusted? - I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than package and maintain applications.

Citrix Workspace in the Microsoft Store

App

Intune App Wrapping Tool Macos Pro

The Workspace app can be assigned as available for end-users to install via the Intune Company Portal or required for automatic deployment. Once deployed, the Store will take care of updates, thus there is no further action required by the administrator.

Citrix Workspace app in the Microsoft Intune Company Portal

If you have already deployed Citrix Receiver from the Microsoft Store via Intune, it should be automatically updated to Citrix Workspace. One they key feature limitations of the Microsoft Store version is pass-through authentication, so you might need to consider alternative deployment options

PowerShell

The Workspace app installer is a single executable just it has been with Citrix Receiver. This presents a challenge to deploy Workspace app as a line-of-business application with Intune which requires Win32 applications to be packaged as a single Windows Installer file. PowerShell scripts are a simple alternative, but deploying applications via PowerShell has two key considerations: Software to read mac formatted hard drive on pc.

  • PowerShell scripts can’t be applied to computer groups
  • PowerShell scripts are executed on devices only when an Azure Active Directory user is signed in to the device

Deploying this way also means that the Workspace app will be deployed regardless of user choice and of course does not support deployment via the Intune Company Portal.

Like we’ve done previously with Citrix Receiver, the Workspace app can be deployed to Windows 10 machines via Intune with PowerShell without requiring custom packaging. We need a consistent URL that will always download the latest version of Workspace app and a command line to perform a silent installation. Your command line options might differ depending on your target environment, but the example script below will download and install the Workspace app.

Once deployed, devices must then rely on auto-updates to ensure that Workspace app is kept up-to-date.

Intune App Wrapping Tool Macos Download

Re-package Citrix Workspace app for Windows Installer

With the right tools and a bit of effort, Citrix Workspace app can be re-packaged into a single Windows Installer file. Once you’ve packaged the app with this method you’ll need to maintain the package and update it regularly. As with the PowerShell method though, auto-updates will keep Workspace app up-to-date once deployed.

Is this approach right for you? This requires maintaining and deploying a custom package and is dependent on how the environment is managed and available skillsets. Only you can answer that for your projects or environments. A custom package isn’t ideal and I recommend using the Microsoft Store version as the default approach instead.

Citrix Workspace app extracted Windows Installer files

HDX RealTime Media Engine

The Citrix HDX RealTime Media Engine - required for optimising Skype for Business under XenApp and XenDesktop, does come as a single Windows Installer file. This makes it easy then to deploy the engine to Windows PCs as a Required line-of-business application without modification or custom packaging. This will ensure that no user interaction is required to install the engine since most users are unlikely to know what it does anyway.

Bonus: Citrix Workspace app for Chrome

Intune App Wrapping Tool Macos

If you have Google Chrome deployed in your environment and you’d like to deploy the Citrix Workspace app for Chrome, this can be achieved with a PowerShell script that will either deploy it as a preference that users must approve or as a policy that will be automatically pushed out and users will be unable to remove from Chrome.

Google provides detailed documentation on deploying Chrome extensions on Windows.

Here’s a basic script to deploy Workspace app for Chrome via PowerShell that uses the app’s Chrome Web Store identifier (haiffjcadagjlijoggckpgfnoeiflnem) to tell Chrome to install the app on next launch. This shows both approaches - deploy as a preference or enforced.

Add the script to the Intune portal and assign to a user group to deploy. Ensure the script runs in the system context because it needs to write to HKLM.

macOS

The Citrix Workspace app can be deployed as a line-of-business application with Microsoft Intune. The Workspace app download comes as an Installer package (inside an Apple Disk Image) that can be converted into suitable file format with the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool, ready to deploy with Intune.

The Citrix Workspace app disk image

Convert the Installer

Instructions for converting a .pkg file to a .intunemac file are outlined in the documentation, and the basic process I have followed to convert the Citrix Workspace app installer file is:

  1. Download the Intune App Wrapping Tool for Mac executable - IntuneAppUtil - to a local folder. I’ve downloaded it to ~/bin.
  2. Mark the file as executable. In my example, I’ve done this with:
  1. Optionally copy the Install Citrix Workspace.pkg file to a local folder. You should also be able to run the converter against the copy stored in the disk image. In my example, I’ve copied the installer to ~/Projects/Intune-Apps. Rename the installer to remove spaces, so rename the file to InstallCitrixWorkspace.pkg.

Note: Removing the spaces from the installer name before converting is important, otherwise when installing the application, macOS will report the following error and the installing will fail to download and install:

  1. Convert the .pkg file into the required .intunemac format with a command similar to the following example - note that the -o switch should include a directory path only.

If successful the command line will look similar to the following screenshot:

Converting the Citrix Workspace app with IntuneAppUtil

The Workspace app installer will have been converted into a .intunemac format ready to import into the Intune portal for distributing to users.

The converted Citrix Workspace app

Distribute with Intune

With the prepared package, create a new line-of-business app in the Intune portal, select the .intunemac file and enter application information as follows:

  • Name - Citrix Workspace
  • Description - copy and paste the description from Workspace app on the Microsoft Store
  • Publisher - Citrix
  • Ignore app version - Yes
  • Category - Business or Productivity
  • Information URL - https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac.html
  • Privacy URL - https://www.citrix.com.au/about/legal.html
  • Logo - download the Workspace app icon in PNG format here

Once the details have been added, click OK to create the application. I initially had issues with uploading the application on Chrome on macOS. I was successful on Internet Explorer.

Adding the Citrix Workspace app as a line-of-business app in Microsoft Intune

Once the application has been created and assigned to users, it will be available for install in the Intune Company Portal. The application can also be set to required for automatic deployment.

Citrix Workspace available in the Intune Company Portal on macOS*

Just as on Windows, updates to the Citrix Workspace app can be managed with the inbuilt updater, post-deployment.

HDX RealTime Media Engine

The Citrix HDX RealTime Media Engine is also available as an installer package that can be converted and deployed the same way as Workspace itself. Citrix Workspace app is now a 64-bit macOS application and will, therefore, require a 64-bit version of the HDX RealTime Media Engine. Right now, a 64-bit HDX RealTime Media Engine is in tech preview that can be downloaded, packaged, uploaded as a line-of-business application and assigned.

iOS

As at the time of writing, Citrix Receiver is still available on the iOS App Store and we should see it updated to Citrix Workspace app soon. Adding an iOS application in Microsoft Intune is, fortunately, a simple process:

  1. Add an application and choose ‘Store app - iOS’, then search the app store
  2. Search for ‘Citrix’, ‘Citrix Receiver’ or ‘Citrix Workspace’
  3. Choose ‘Citrix Receiver’ or ‘Citrix Workspace’ depending on what is returned
  4. Save the change and Add the application
  5. Assign the application as required

The application will be available in the Intune Company Portal:

Citrix Workspace for iOS available in the Intune Company Portal

For existing deployments of Citrix Receiver, they should be updated to Citrix Workspace app automatically.

Android

Android Store app

At the time of writing, the Workspace app for Android is not available in the Google Play Store, but a tech preview is available for download as an APK. I would recommend deploying Citrix Receiver via the Google Play Store, but with access to an APK file, you can deploy Android applications directly to enrolled devices as a line-of-business application with Intune.

The process for deploying Citrix Workspace app or Citrix Receiver on Android follows the standard Android store app deployment steps:

  1. Add an application and choose ‘Store app - Android’, then search the app store
  2. Name - ‘Citrix Workspace’ or ‘Citrix Receiver’
  3. Description - copy and paste the description from Workspace app on the Microsoft Store
  4. Publisher - Citrix
  5. Appstore URL - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.citrix.Receiver
  6. Minimum operating system - Android 4.4 (Kitkat)
  7. Category - Business or Productivity
  8. Privacy URL - https://www.citrix.com.au/about/legal.html
  9. Logo - download the Workspace app icon in PNG format here

Assign the application and it will be available to users in the Intune Company Portal.

Android Work Profile app

In the future, it’s more likely that organisations will leverage the Android enterprise capabilities, previously known as Android for Work. This also simplifies Android app deployment with a connection between Microsoft Intune and the Google Play store. Once configured, browse the Google Play store, approve a list of desired apps and these will then appear for assignment in the Mobile Apps node in Intune.

Here’s Citrix Receiver in the Google Play store.

Approving Citrix Receiver in the Google Play store*

Once approved, you must choose how new permissions will be approved:

  • Keep approved when app requests new permissions - Users will be able to install the updated app. (Default)
  • Revoke app approval when this app requests new permissions - App will be removed from the store until it is reapproved.

You can approve and deploy Citrix Receiver today, which should be automatically updated to Citrix Workspace app once it is released.

Wrap-up

In this article, I’ve covered the high-level steps required for deployment of the Citrix Workspace app across the various major platforms supported by Microsoft Intune. Mobile platforms, including the Microsoft Store on Windows 10, will require the least amount of administrative effort to configure, deploy and update. For most organisations supporting Windows as their primary platform, even with Microsoft Intune, the choice of deployment solution will depend on Workpace app feature requirements.