What's the best way to manage Mac's / OSX devices on a Windows Network?

[flyinghaggis]

We've recently had requests to install Mac's in several departments around the school. As per the title what are people generally using to manage Mac's (software installations, user permissions) on a Windows based Domain/network?

 

I had a look through the AD integration sticky on this forum but it's over 5 years old and all the how-to links on it seem to be dead so it isn't much help. If anyone has any updated guides/links/etc for managing Mac's they'd be much appreciated! I'm sure other people will be looking for help on this topic as it's quite a common query.

Edited May 28, 2015 by flyinghaggis

[crofmmv]

I'm an Apple Specialist for a University in Scotland I use the method below for deployment/Management of our Mac fleet.

 

Layers of Apple OS X Client Management

 

Creating Base Image for Gold Master

 

OS X Server Netinstall Services

Deployment Studio Creating NetBoot Images

PackageMaker/AutoPkg Creating Packages for Apps

 

Management of Clients

 

Profile Manager 3 Configuring devices on a granular level

 

Post Admin tasks

 

Munki patching and updates

Apple Remote Desktop sending post imaging tasks and unix commands.

 

Hope this helps

 

Crawford

[Sagima]

We use AD for user logins, a mac server for workgroup manager for settings and I use Apple Remote Desktop the odd time I want to update some software on them. We don't have many (15) so I've just used time machine backup to image/reimage them when necessary

[Carter]

I'm an Apple Specialist for a University in Scotland I use the method below for deployment/Management of our Mac fleet.

 

Layers of Apple OS X Client Management

 

Creating Base Image for Gold Master

 

OS X Server Netinstall Services

Deployment Studio Creating NetBoot Images

PackageMaker/AutoPkg Creating Packages for Apps

 

Management of Clients

 

Profile Manager 3 Configuring devices on a granular level

 

Post Admin tasks

 

Munki patching and updates

Apple Remote Desktop sending post imaging tasks and unix commands.

 

Hope this helps

 

Crawford

 

..... same setup for myself

[Roberto]

We have already invested in SCCM for managing our windows environment, and it made sense for us to therefore use the Parallels SCCM extensions to turn our macs into full "citizens" of our SCCM infrastructure. It's absolutely top-notch for deploying OS images over the network, controlling package installation, stuff like that.

http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/mac-management/

[flyinghaggis]

..... same setup for myself

 

Are those all standard integrated/open source tools or do they have an associated cost or depend on anything that is chargeable? I'm not familiar with Apple OSX (or unix) so none of the product names mean anything to me without Google'ing them

[Norphy]

We have already invested in SCCM for managing our windows environment, and it made sense for us to therefore use the Parallels SCCM extensions to turn our macs into full "citizens" of our SCCM infrastructure. It's absolutely top-notch for deploying OS images over the network, controlling package installation, stuff like that.

http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/mac-management/

 

Further to this, I've banged the Parallels drum on more than a few occasions. Read my take on it all here:

 

Managing Macs using System Center Configuration Manager – Part One | Ian's Musings

Managing Macs using System Center Configuration Manager – Part Two | Ian's Musings

Building, Deploying and Automatically Configuring a Mac Image using SCCM and Parallels SCCM Agent | Ian's Musings

[flyinghaggis]

Further to this, I've banged the Parallels drum on more than a few occasions. Read my take on it all here:

 

Managing Macs using System Center Configuration Manager – Part One | Ian's Musings

Managing Macs using System Center Configuration Manager – Part Two | Ian's Musings

Building, Deploying and Automatically Configuring a Mac Image using SCCM and Parallels SCCM Agent | Ian's Musings

 

Unfortunately we aren't using SCCM for management of our Windows PC's. I take it the product isn't really going to be an option for us if we aren't using SCCM?

[Norphy]

Ah, no, in that case it's useless to you. Sorry

 

Unless you take the opportunity to buy a System Center license as well

[Jollity]

I am in a very similar boat to Mr Haggis. We previously had a very few macs that could be largely managed manually, but now we have a suite of ten. Also no System Center here.

 

I have started reading previous posts and wondered about a couple of things in particular:

• Is Workgroup Manager completely dead now? There seemed to be some people hanging on to it fairly recently due to lack of features and unreliability in Profile Manager, but I think it is no longer supported in Yosemite. Is Profile Manager limited in comparison?
  
• How do the features of Munki intersect with those of the Mac server software (if at all)? Can Software Update server not be used to deploy updates? Is Munki just better or does it do additional things?
  

Edited June 1, 2015 by Jollity