Profile Manager for Mac

[Shadow_Walker]

Does anyone else use it to manage Macs?

 

Just wondering do you have to restart the mac every time you change a setting to get it to apply or is it like the iPads in which it does it straight away.

 

Thanks

[ste1988]

Hi,

 

We use it to manage macs, but its a PITA.

 

Often i find new settings will apply to around 90% right away and then simply hang on the last few. We have tried to embrace the change from WGM here but, that WGM seemed to work much better for managing OSX.

[Sibrows]

Hi,

 

We use it to manage macs, but its a PITA.

 

Often i find new settings will apply to around 90% right away and then simply hang on the last few. We have tried to embrace the change from WGM here but, that WGM seemed to work much better for managing OSX.

 

Which version of server and desktop OS are you using?

[Quackers]

We use it, don't have to restart the computer. I like it when you modify the dock as it disappears then pops back up.

[seawolf]

Profile Manager is generally pretty good up until about 100 Mac clients or so. Hats the market it was designed for (SMB). If you are larger than that, look at Puppet/Munki/DeployStudio, Casper Suite, FileWave, Absolute Manage, etc. You could also use Profile Manager to create the profiles, export them and then push them out using Apple Remote Desktop.

[SYNACK]

Profile Manager is generally pretty good up until about 100 Mac clients or so. Hats the market it was designed for (SMB). If you are larger than that, look at Puppet/Munki/DeployStudio, Casper Suite, FileWave, Absolute Manage, etc. You could also use Profile Manager to create the profiles, export them and then push them out using Apple Remote Desktop.

 

They should really say that in the product description.

[seawolf]

They should really say that in the product description.

 

Yeah, perhaps, but since when do most vendors state how much well their software will scale? Apple don't claim it to be an Enterprise-level solution and most Mac techs you'd speak to wouldn't recommend it for large scale deployments. The fact that Apple stopped making true business-grade server kit a few years ago was a huge signal in that regard. Apple has left that market for solutions like Casper Suite, Absolute Manage, FileWave, Puppet, Munki/Simian, etc.

 

Honestly, any tech who expects a $20 app to provide enterprise level performance (especially when running on a Mac mini "server") should really step back and consider what they were thinking. In the days of OSX Server when it was actually its own OS running on am Xserve - it was a different story.

 

The scale is partially dependant on the hardware capabilities (and artially on server being an "app"), and so perhaps if you used a well spec'd new Mac Pro you would be able to scale to several hundred or 1,000 without a problem. Haven't tried something of that scale with server app, and don't want to be the first. If anyone does let me know how it goes.