Configuring Macs with NOMAD

[Sydders01]

Hi All,

 

Anyone used NOMAD to configure their Macs in their School?

 

My Setup is below

I use Meraki and Apple school manager to Manage IPADS. I don't want to join my Macs via system preference. I have installed NOMAD on one of my Macs

 

What next in terms of configuration?

 

Please Help.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Brimstone]

What is it you are trying to achieve...?

[Sydders01]

What is it you are trying to achieve...?

I want to join 13 Macs to my network. without actually binding them to my AD using System preferences

[Roberto]

I want to join 13 Macs to my network. without actually binding them to my AD using System preferences

 

You can achieve that by just joining them to the WiFi and then going for coffee because you've completed what you wanted to do.

[Sydders01]

You can achieve that by just joining them to the WiFi and then going for coffee because you've completed what you wanted to do.

- Sorry I didn't make myself clear . When I say I don't want to bind them to the AD I meant I don't want to go to preferences /users /logon options and join them to the domain. I still want users to be able to logo using their windows login details on the Mac. I want to explore NOMAD

[Mrpower]

From what I have gathered playing around with NOMAD and a windows server trial, I was running in virtual box. The user retains their local account with local passwords etc. NOMAD works as a program in the to menu bar and allows the user to connect to the domain / AD manually or automatically, allowing them to access SMB network drives. I think the website explains it better than I can "Keep your users on local accounts and let NoMAD manage their interaction with AD by allowing them to sign in with their AD account to get Kerberos tickets, certificates for 802.1X connections and other functions without having to have a mobile account."

 

[Sydders01]

From what I have gathered playing around with NOMAD and a windows server trial, I was running in virtual box. The user retains their local account with local passwords etc. NOMAD works as a program in the to menu bar and allows the user to connect to the domain / AD manually or automatically, allowing them to access SMB network drives. I think the website explains it better than I can "Keep your users on local accounts and let NoMAD manage their interaction with AD by allowing them to sign in with their AD account to get Kerberos tickets, certificates for 802.1X connections and other functions without having to have a mobile account."

 

I understand that bit. My issue is I have added a macbook using DEP . I can see the Mac on my Meraki. I have installed NOMAD on one of my Mac. After installation it asked for binding details. Should I bind ? where can I get settings to deploy for the Macs?

[Mrpower]

Im am guessing as I don't have much experience with Meraki, but I do have experience with MDMs in general. I suspect there is a setting being pushed to the device from Meraki telling the Mac device to bind to an AD. As you don't want it to bind to an AD, I would say no, based on what you have said. Check the setting being sent to the Mac to see is there is a bind profile being sent.

Is this a M1 MacBook or an intel MacBook?

[Sydders01]

Im am guessing as I don't have much experience with Meraki, but I do have experience with MDMs in general. I suspect there is a setting being pushed to the device from Meraki telling the Mac device to bind to an AD. As you don't want it to bind to an AD, I would say no, based on what you have said. Check the setting being sent to the Mac to see is there is a bind profile being sent.

Is this a M1 MacBook or an intel MacBook?

 

The settings from Meraki at present is just a normal setting to control what students do on the Mac. If you going to explain the setup up of NOMAD to a newbie, how would you go?

[Mrpower]

This is a bit of an old video, but it was made by the developer themselves.

Another longer webinar on NOMAD

[Sydders01]

This is a bit of an old video, but it was made by the developer themselves.

Another longer webinar on NOMAD

 

Thanks@ Mrpower . That was helpful. I can see the not connected but no VPN to connect to? Any ideal. All I have done is just installed NOMAD on one of my Macs, put the domain

[Mrpower]

The only place on the NOMAD website I can find any mention of why you might need the VPN is here and that talks about "If the icon has “Not Connected” next to it, sign in to your VPN or otherwise connect to your organization’s network so that your AD Domain Controllers (DCs) are able to be reached by the system running NoMAD. NoMAD will automatically detect when the network has changed and will update accordingly."

I noticed when I have been playing around with AD and domain server you need to make sure the Mac has the domain manager as your DNS, then things in my test seem to work better, but your experience may differ.

[Sydders01]

The only place on the NOMAD website I can find any mention of why you might need the VPN is here and that talks about "If the icon has “Not Connected” next to it, sign in to your VPN or otherwise connect to your organization’s network so that your AD Domain Controllers (DCs) are able to be reached by the system running NoMAD. NoMAD will automatically detect when the network has changed and will update accordingly."

I noticed when I have been playing around with AD and domain server you need to make sure the Mac has the domain manager as your DNS, then things in my test seem to work better, but your experience may differ.

 

Thanks, Domain manager as your DNS? Please what do you mean?

[Mrpower]

Sorry, I was talking about changing the Macs network settings. System Preferences - Network - Ethernet or WIFI - Click on Advanced then Click on DNS tab and add your Domain Server's IP address into the DNS Servers.

[Sydders01]

Sorry, I was talking about changing the Macs network settings. System Preferences - Network - Ethernet or WIFI - Click on Advanced then Click on DNS tab and add your Domain Server's IP address into the DNS Servers.

 

I have just tried what you said. Yes the DNS is already populated But my NOMAD on one of my desktop is still not connected

[dsmith8]

I was doing some testing with this yesterday I think you want to download and install NoMAD Login rather than that standard NoMAD from here Support | NoMAD

 

Then I ran the following terminal which got me past a authentication error and made it so I don't have to type username@domain and just the username

 

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/menu.nomad.login.ad ADDomain YOURDOMAINGOESHERE.TLD (Change .TLD to .local or .internal or whatever you use, I believe you can also push this and other settings via MDM)

 

Then it should work

Edited July 21, 2022 by dsmith8