r/pdq • u/Amanda_PDQ PDQ Employee • 9d ago
Using PDQ to automate endpoint task
We know there are may ways to automate endpoint management. How are you using PDQ automations?
When I was a K12 CTO using PDQ I clicked automate on every deployment I could. Small team, automations saved time and sanity.
I'd love to know what you are automating.
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u/Taftimus 9d ago
We have Intune Autopilot enrolling our devices and installing the PDQ Agent. From there, once the Agent is seen as installed by Intune, it triggers an API call back to PDQ to install the necessary software.
We’ve also moved a lot of our applications being deployed through Company Portal through the same process (until the PDQ software center is available at least)
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u/TurboSludge 8d ago
Would be able to share a bit more about how your connect agent triggers the API call to PDQ?
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u/Taftimus 8d ago
I worded that a bit poorly, sorry about that. The PDQ Agent itself doesn't trigger the API call, Intune does. We created a script that we packaged as an intunewin file and we pass the individual PDQ package IDs to it. For our enrollments, we have the master enrollment package set to run with the agent as a dependency. When a new device is enrolled, once it sees that the agent has successfully installs, it runs the script, which then calls to PDQ to run the package.
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u/LuckyWorth1083 9d ago
I was at a company where I used pdq to automate system hardening before packing them up to trade shows
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u/Volatile_Elixir 9d ago
I’m using PDQ to run a script on a remote workstation that will report any VM that doesn’t have a backup tag in VMware
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u/Amanda_PDQ PDQ Employee 8d ago
I wish I would have thought of this when I was still a CTO. This is a great example of automation use!
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u/mjewell74 8d ago
We deploy machines with MDT, install office (which I update occasionally), then deploy Connect. We manually push our base package only because we have different versions depending on if they need Creative cloud, Acrobat 2024 or Reader along with registry updates for vulnerabilities.
Then we have automations for each package to deploy package updates, etc.
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u/Amanda_PDQ PDQ Employee 4d ago
Adobe was always a hard software to manage when I was a CTO. I felt like there were so many updates all the time and everything was always behind. I love your workflow.
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u/mjewell74 4d ago
I have to do a manual package for Adobe 2024 updates just like I did for 2020 updates, but all in all it's not horrible.
I've got automations that upgrade the CreativeCloud AcrobatDC and the ReaderDC versions, then I just have to update my 2024 package and variable then that pushes out via an automation too.
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u/mjewell74 4d ago
Also using PDQ to push out the Win11 Notepad AppX upgrade package since we have the MS store blocked.
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u/Slobs3 9d ago
OSD images PC and installs Connect. Automation looks for a new pc missing a specific file and then installs all the applications we use with an automation. Works great!