[MacTUG] Managing Mac Fleet

Thu Jan 4 11:11:02 EST 2024

I know this conversation has started only an hour or so ago, but clearly we need to get IST in on this convo. I attend CTSC so I can bring this up as some issues have caused this project to stall out a bit.

I do know that there is (was?) a project ongoing to look at a campus wide solution and like Kate, I think/hope that intune is the answer.

Some of us were using a plug in to SCCM (Parallels Mac Manager for SCCM) that was pretty good but it hit a dead end. The IST SCCM folks (John and Mike) were awesome at helping with this. I do think there is interest from IST’s perspective on exploring management options, as having all these feral macs presents many challenges.

Some random points to add:

  1.  Like Health we were using the ancient Mac Profile Manger and for our (now defunct Mac lab) Apple Remote Desktop and a pile of scripts to manage things. Our staff/faculty macs are purely feral with their owners (who are all responsible, knock on wood) having admin access
  2.  Not to speak for Arts, but I do know that they, and other folks are using MUNKI and other tools
  3.  I love JAMF, but as I am sure that Math and CS can attest to, in addition to the cost there is a labour cost as well. That is why I loved the idea of the SCCM plug in in that it theoretically leveraged infrastructure and experience we have with SCCM.

From: MacTUG <mactug-bounces at lists.uwaterloo.ca> on behalf of Kate Wood <kate.wood at uwaterloo.ca>
Date: Thursday, January 4, 2024 at 10:47 AM
To: Devon Merner <devon.merner at uwaterloo.ca>, Lowell Williamson <llwillia at uwaterloo.ca>, Shivam Patel <s545patel at uwaterloo.ca>, mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca <mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: [MacTUG] Managing Mac Fleet
Would the people with solutions maybe give us a ballpark for pricing?

--
Kate Wood, MSc.
Manager, Client Services
Computing Facility, Faculty of Science
Physics 2004 (by appointment)
519 888 4567 x45973 (Teams is better)
[A picture containing graphical user interface  Description automatically generated]

From: Devon Merner <devon.merner at uwaterloo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 10:45 AM
To: Lowell Williamson <llwillia at connect.uwaterloo.ca>; Kate Wood <kate.wood at uwaterloo.ca>; Shivam Patel <s545patel at uwaterloo.ca>; mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca
Subject: Re: Managing Mac Fleet

CSCF and MFCF use Jamf Pro.

Although I think MFCF might still be hosting their MDM on premises whereas CSCF has moved out Jamf Pro instance to Jamf Cloud.
________________________________
From: MacTUG <mactug-bounces at lists.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:mactug-bounces at lists.uwaterloo.ca>> on behalf of Lowell Williamson <llwillia at connect.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:llwillia at connect.uwaterloo.ca>>
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 10:42:12 AM
To: Kate Wood <kate.wood at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:kate.wood at uwaterloo.ca>>; Shivam Patel <s545patel at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:s545patel at uwaterloo.ca>>; mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca> <mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca>>
Subject: Re: [MacTUG] Managing Mac Fleet

We are moving off our Profile Manager

[cid:image004.png at 01DA3EFB.6CB2EDF0]

And are eagerly waiting for InTune.

Thanks.

--

Lowell

_________

____________________________________

Lowell L. Williamson

Faculty of Health IT Specialist | University of Waterloo | LHN 1629 | ext. 42326

Email: llwillia at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:llwillia at uwaterloo.ca> /  Chat with me on Teams<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=llwillia@uwaterloo.ca> / Mobile: +1 519 590 9528

Book me for a service <https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/LowellWilliamsonAHSITSpecialist@uofwaterloo.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/s/DT78_dCcIkqq0QDetxXFyQ2>

From: MacTUG <mactug-bounces at lists.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:mactug-bounces at lists.uwaterloo.ca>> On Behalf Of Kate Wood
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 10:32 AM
To: Shivam Patel <s545patel at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:s545patel at uwaterloo.ca>>; mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: [MacTUG] Managing Mac Fleet

We aren't using anything atm. Waiting for InTune to see what it does. I know other units are using jamf and munky.

Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>

________________________________

From: MacTUG <mactug-bounces at lists.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:mactug-bounces at lists.uwaterloo.ca>> on behalf of Shivam Patel <s545patel at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:s545patel at uwaterloo.ca>>
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 9:58:42 AM
To: mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca> <mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:mactug at lists.uwaterloo.ca>>
Subject: [MacTUG] Managing Mac Fleet

Hey Folks,

I’m a Senior System Administrator from the Library. Recently we’ve noticed an increase in requests for Mac machines and this has raised the need for a solution to manage them. I’m curious what other groups are using from an administrative perspective to keep Software and Core OS patches up to date. Feel free to suggest any solutions you are using.

Regards,
Shiv Patel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/mactug/attachments/20240104/7b986faa/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 84710 bytes
Desc: image004.png
URL: <http://lists.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/mactug/attachments/20240104/7b986faa/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.png
Type: image/png
Size: 351 bytes
Desc: image005.png
URL: <http://lists.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/mactug/attachments/20240104/7b986faa/attachment-0003.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 5463 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://lists.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/mactug/attachments/20240104/7b986faa/attachment-0001.jpg>