Sheridan Posted February 6, 2018 Posted February 6, 2018 I need to update some macs in other school from 10.9 to the latest OSX and manage them (lock down settings, add proxy/certificate, restrict to using certain apps etc) and I have a mac mini I can use as a server. Thing is, I've used workgroup manager in the past which worked fine, and recently my experiences with profile manager have proved it just doesn't work - if there is any kind of proxy/firewall its just constantly 'pending' and settings don't work even when they do apply. Anyway - as apple have ditched WGM and are ditching PM effectively has anyone got any recommendations for something to manage only a dozen macs? Ideally free or cheap as this is just for one mini-suite. We did look at meraki but its not free anymore and the Macos settings are really basic and don't allow you to control them to the same level as WGM did.
Stevecee Posted February 9, 2018 Posted February 9, 2018 How many Macs are we talking about? have you looked at other MDMs? We use Zuludesk but from recent threads there are some free ones Steve
Sheridan Posted February 9, 2018 Author Posted February 9, 2018 It’s only 10 Macs, they have a mini to use as a server. Experimenting with profile manager hasn’t been a great success so far. I haven’t seen any free ones but I wondered if anyone had used one that they recommended.
tg12 Posted February 9, 2018 Posted February 9, 2018 This sounds like exactly the same problem I’m facing. I’ve got 25 iMacs currently on 10.9 with a server in place, also in 10.9, all far too reliant on Workgroup Manager because Profile Manager is terrible. I’m going to follow this thread with great interest!
angrycomputingteacher Posted February 9, 2018 Posted February 9, 2018 I've not used it but apparently JAMF Suite is good. Not sure if it would meet your needs.
free780 Posted February 9, 2018 Posted February 9, 2018 Basically you need a paid MDM. Bear in mind MDMs usually have1:1 scenarios in mind. Also doing per user settings in Pm is limited. I have used SCCM for application deployment. It works but constantly wants to push out the software even though its installed. You can push device settings using SCCM but its labour intensive. Maybe the best thing is to just write a bash script.
kidpressingbuttons Posted February 9, 2018 Posted February 9, 2018 Mosyle has a free mdm for macs. Give it a try!
Sheridan Posted February 10, 2018 Author Posted February 10, 2018 Yeah I’ve had a quick look at mosyle but the mdm solutions work well for iPads but not so much for Macs, where you want the level of configuration that group policy gives you. WGM was great for this and PM would just about do if it worked properly! None of the MDMs (and we use Meraki as well) offer much more than the basic app settings, so paid for is looking more likely, which is a shame as it’s only a small number of devices. I’m disappointed they way Apple have gone with WGM and pm, as in education suites of Macs are still very common and need some basic management tools. Writing scripts is a bit time consuming and not my area of expertise when it comes to macos!
Sheridan Posted February 19, 2018 Author Posted February 19, 2018 I have to admin defeat on this one, profile manager just doesn't give you anywhere near the management you need. For example, we want the users to have access to their AD home which works if you put the Network Home in their dock, but if you try and save there you get a network error, and their AD home isn't visible from within any apps (such as word, logic pro etc) so its a bit useless. So its back to 10.9 and WGM for me, it seems any later versions and PM just don't work like the old golden triangle methods
Brimstone Posted February 19, 2018 Posted February 19, 2018 Using AD network homes has not worked properly for the last 5/6 years with PM. As for Logic Pro you should not be trying to save any projects across a network share as any projects have to be saved locally. if you want to continue using PM or WGM then it's best for users to authenicate via AD, work locally then mount the share and copy the content across, you can also script this. 2
Sheridan Posted February 19, 2018 Author Posted February 19, 2018 PM does seem to be rather useless then! I've had so little issues with WGM in the past - but where do we go from here! Even the best paid for MDMs don't really give you the control that WGM did.
Brimstone Posted February 19, 2018 Posted February 19, 2018 Jamf Pro for macOS gives you more control over Macs than WGM could ever achieve. It includes, proper device imaging, version control, hidden admin accounts. Pkg assignment, push printer driver updates remotely and a local level agent that lets you run scripts in the background. Link the Macs to SCCM via a plug in. But it's a paid for solution
Sheridan Posted February 20, 2018 Author Posted February 20, 2018 Looks like a paid for option is the only route apart from WGM - shame as its for such a small group Having spent some time with PM, I'm amazed how bad it actually is - its so unreliable and even the semi-working system I had yesterday has stopped applying profiles to users (but still applies them to macs oddly) If I could get away without Logic I'd bung Windows 7 on the lot of them!
tg12 Posted February 20, 2018 Posted February 20, 2018 Having spent some time with PM, I'm amazed how bad it actually is - its so unreliable and even the semi-working system I had yesterday has stopped applying profiles to users (but still applies them to macs oddly) This is pretty much the experience I'm having with PM now, so frustrating!
Shadow_Walker Posted February 20, 2018 Posted February 20, 2018 Using AD network homes has not worked properly for the last 5/6 years with PM. As for Logic Pro you should not be trying to save any projects across a network share as any projects have to be saved locally. if you want to continue using PM or WGM then it's best for users to authenicate via AD, work locally then mount the share and copy the content across, you can also script this. We had to do this. We also got Jamf! Best decision we ever made as it made it a lot easier!
Sheridan Posted February 21, 2018 Author Posted February 21, 2018 Jamf Pro is licensed per device, per year I believe -that's what puts off some primaries as its an ongoing commitment for something they can't really see.
XiJ Posted February 21, 2018 Posted February 21, 2018 You could look at http:// https://github.com/munki/munki and Comodo one to manage your macs. It’s not as straight forward as a decent MDM or as powerful in Comodos case but a reasonable start. I’ve not really used an mdm with Mac OS but persuaded our primaries of the benefits of one for iOS management has been worth its weight in gold. So much easier to deploy and manage those with mdm.
Sheridan Posted February 21, 2018 Author Posted February 21, 2018 I guess its either WGM or paid for. Its a shame as PM is 'nearly there' but having looked around it basically doesn't work properly in so many scenarios, apple must have just ditched any support for it. I though I had it working - created an OD group to add AD groups (as it doesn't read nested AD groups) and got profiles deployed to users. 24 hours later - no profiles being applied anymore - how flakey is this. There's no point buying the server app anymore as its pretty much dead in the water now.
DalekSec Posted February 21, 2018 Posted February 21, 2018 There's no point buying the server app anymore as its pretty much dead in the water now. Agreed, i started looking into managing Macs couple months back and started off here, having limited knowledge on how they worked in an enterprise environment. Was surprised on how little it actually does! Even my superiors were surprised when i said we didn't need it at all. I'm currently looking at going down a MDM route, trying out Zuludesk atm, it looks good and does what we(i) want!
DalekSec Posted February 21, 2018 Posted February 21, 2018 Saying that... To the people currently using Zuludesk, is it possible to have different restrictions on a device for whoever is logged in. E.g. Have a Student login and have i locked down, but me as an admin login and have it unrestricted. Yet to figure out how to do this. I'm yet to setup LDAP, this will need to be done at some point. But i don't want to go ahead and do it if the changing of restrictions isn't possible!
mrnoisy Posted February 21, 2018 Posted February 21, 2018 It probably not forum etiquette but I haven't read the entire post, have you guys not looked at DeployStudio, its free !
Norphy Posted February 21, 2018 Posted February 21, 2018 DeployStudio will push out an OSX image and not much else. It’s very good at what it does but it’s not a full blown Mac management product.
XiJ Posted February 21, 2018 Posted February 21, 2018 I meant to mention deploy studio. Very good piece of software for imaging. That plus munki will should deploy profiles and apps.
Norphy Posted February 21, 2018 Posted February 21, 2018 what else do you want it to do ? Deploy software. Manage settings. Update the Macs. OSD is only one part of a management solution. Munki, DeployStudio and Profile Manager together would do most of what I’d expect from a management solution but having three systems to manage it all would be a monumental pain in the donkey. FWIW, I use a plugin for SCCM by Parallels to manage my Macs. I like it a lot but cheap it isn’t. 1
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now