The future of macOS Deployment & Management Strategies for APFS and Beyond

[Carter]

I know this will be a loaded and detailed question but I’m curious where others sit with regards to their research, testing and the future of their Mac Management in Education and Enterprise?

 

Our Background:

 

• We’re primarily a PC College with a small footprint of about 500 Apple computers
  
• Currently macOS 10.12 with 10.13 planned for summer deployment
  
• Windows and Mac user credentials based on Active Directory
  
• Profile Manager (Handling printers, custom settings, power management etc.)
  
• Munki (Software Deployment, App Updates, Odd scripts that’re packaged to deploy with Admin rights)
  
• Windows based servers with Azure AD (w/InTune)
  
• Microsoft SCCM coming into play college wide this summer
  

 

Our Goal moving Forward:

 

• Ability to Image/Manage Macs (Manage Macs running APFS and future macOS’s)
  
• SCCM tie in for reporting of software, hardware and other features
  
• Ability to push out packages, application updates and macOS updates
  
• Ability to deploy and run scripts with ease
  
• Local Admin user control (similar idea to LAPS) * I know this is still a new idea for Macs
  

 

What’re we looking for?

With APFS coming into play it’s rumored that when macOS 10.14 is released APFS will be enforced which will be helped along when new hardware that is revised after macOS 10.14 is released.

We want a solution that will handle pushing possible base OS, additional software, app installs/updates, macOS updates, scripts, reporting and general setting changes.

 

What we’ve tested/demoed?

So far we’ve sat in on demo sessions for JAMF Pro and Parallels Mac Management. So far from a SysAdmin perspective when it comes to SCCM and Mac Management it seems like Parallels has an edge over JAMF for integration. Integrating into SCCM looks almost seamless with reporting and being able to control the Macs. JAMF to me has always seemed to be the top tier Mac Management solution from reading reviews, Reddit and online forums but maybe with the need of Casper being pushed out with the enforcement of Profiles and APFS that top spot has gone down?

 

The need to Install/Image a fresh Base macOS

What options are sysadmins using to put a fresh base macOS in place? I know Recovery can install a base OS but if a lab needs a new base OS that can be a heavy demand on bandwidth. Upgrading OS’s year after year seems to be a little less liked than starting with a fresh OS to then build on that with added applications, settings and updates. I never liked upgrading OS’s and I would prefer not to unless there’s no option to easily install a base OS. There are a few tools out there like Imagr that I'm looking into for this purpose.

 

Anyways I know this is a rather detailed post and a bit winded but if you have any input that would be greatly appreciated! I’m continuing to do my research and to evaluate our options but I’m always open and looking to see what others have done and what seems to work.

 

Thank you everyone for your feedback!

Edited April 20, 2018 by Carter

[Brimstone]

You do know Jamf can integrate with SCCM as well...?

 

https://www.jamf.com/resources/product-documentation/sccm-plug-in-technical-resource/

[Carter]

You do know Jamf can integrate with SCCM as well...?

https://www.jamf.com/resources/product-documentation/sccm-plug-in-technical-resource/

Thanks for the reply. Yes I know they have a plug-in but during the demo it was just mentioned that they just out put standard information into text that we then need to pull into another database. They could not demo JAMF and the SCCM plug'in since they don't have a test SCCM environment to demo with.

 

Parallels has this all setup which made it look so seamless.

[Norphy]

You do know Jamf can integrate with SCCM as well...?

 

https://www.jamf.com/resources/product-documentation/sccm-plug-in-technical-resource/

 

There seems to be a fairly significant difference however:

 

It looks to me from that blurb that JAMF just pushes its inventory data into SCCM. Actual management is still performed in JAMF.

 

Whereas with the Parallels plugin, EVERYTHING is done through SCCM, not just reporting. You manage it all through a single pane of glass which is an advantage.

 

I’ve been using the Parallels plugin for SCCM for a long time, I highly recommend it.

[Mrpower]

Hi

Here are a few developments that might help.

Chef: Chef lets you manage them all by turning infrastructure into code.

Puppet: With puppet you know exactly what is going on with your software, and you get the automation needed to drive changes with confidence.

Micro MDM: An experimental project to build a Mobile Device Management server for Apple Devices.

BSDpy: bsdpy is a platform-independent apple NetBoot (BSDpy) service for organisations that have a need for Apple Mac Netboot Functionality.

Imagr: imagr is an application designed to be run from a net install environment created with AutoNBI.

For more info on above see Lucas J Hall's Managing MacOS without MacOS (almost)

Deploy studio: Mac imaging software

Deep Freeze: Keep your Macs in a desired state or configuration.