Default Repo Detection - munki/munki GitHub Wiki

Introduction

An unconfigured Munki client can autodetect a Munki repo if you make it available at a known URL.

Details

If Munki's SoftwareRepoURL preference is not defined, the Munki client will attempt to detect a Munki repo.

Munki will get the DNS domain name of the current machine, and attempt to connect to the following URLs, in order:

Munki 3.3 and later:

https://munki.DOMAIN_NAME/repo  
https://munki.DOMAIN_NAME/munki_repo  
http://munki.DOMAIN_NAME/repo  
http://munki.DOMAIN_NAME/munki_repo  
http://munki/repo  

Versions of Munki prior to 3.3:

http://munki/repo  

Upon a successful connection (defined by successfully retrieving the contents of catalogs/all), the Munki client will record the detected Munki repo URL in /Library/Preferences/ManagedInstalls.plist under the SoftwareRepoURL key. This allows Munki to autodetect a Munki repo when it runs for the first time, but not be "hijacked" to a potentially hostile repo when connecting to another network later.

Discussion

This capability is useful for bootstrapping a Munki client. Using this feature along with the default manifest resolution when ClientIdentifier is not defined can allow you to install the Munki tools and make use of them without specific up-front configuration.