Category: MacAdmins

Retroactive Automated Device Enrollment in macOS Sonoma

Kevin M. Cox September 29, 2023 29 Comments

Apple released macOS 14 Sonoma this week, and on top of the numerous consumer facing features, there are also a number of interest to MacAdmins.

• What’s new for enterprise in macOS Sonoma

While there are many improvements to features like Declarative Device Management (DDM) and MDM, one of the most interesting to me only got a short mention with no details.

Automated Device Enrollment can be enforced after Setup Assistant.

This feature, which I’m calling Retroactive Automated Device Enrollment, was announced during WWDC and I extensively tested it during the beta cycles.

I think there is some amazing potential here. Read on for details…

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Keyboard Setup Assistant, YubiKeys and a Munki NoPkg

Kevin M. Cox June 21, 2023 No Comments

We are always looking for ways to reduce friction for end users. Our job in IT is to empower users to get their work done with as few technological distractions as possible.

Many times Apple makes this harder due to features or functionality in macOS. One such example is Keyboard Setup Assistant (KSA) which automatically launches anytime a new input device is detected.

While this is very helpful for consumers who have purchased a new peripheral; in a corporate setting it can be an annoyance multiplied thousands of times over.

YubiKeys present to macOS as keyboards and trigger KSA. When rolling them out we decided to use a Munki NoPkg to save our co-workers from having to dismiss this useless dialog.

Read on for the details…

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MunkiReport, Python 3 and PHP 8

Kevin M. Cox June 20, 2023 No Comments

MunkiReport 5.8 was released today and primarily includes compatibility with Python 3 and PHP 8.

Just like last year’s release of 5.7, this new version of MunkiReport requires admins to deploy a specific Python package to clients before updating.

It will also likely require a coordinated update on your web server to enable PHP 8.

Read on for the details…

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Gather logs with a Munki NoPkg

Kevin M. Cox June 14, 2023 No Comments

CREDIT: flaticon.com

Troubleshooting with remote users can often be a challenge.

This is especially true when you need to see logs stored in hidden folders that users can’t easily find.

To make this process easier for both IT and our staff we added a Self-Service item to Managed Software Center to easily gather everything we need.

Read on for the details…

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AWS VPN diagnostics with a Munki NoPkg

Kevin M. Cox June 13, 2023 No Comments

Troubleshooting VPN issues can be tricky for end users.

When we started to see recurring issues with AWS VPN, our Cloud team asked us to make it easier to gather logs and run diagnostics.

We already utilize Managed Software Center for Self-Service so a Munki NoPkg was the logical solution.

The result is a script that gathers all the requested information and makes it easy for users to share with just one click.

Read on for the details…

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Enabling macOS betas with a Munki NoPkg

Kevin M. Cox June 12, 2023 No Comments

Apple changed the process for enrolling in macOS beta seeds beginning with 13.4 released in May 2023.

What could previously be automated via the seedutil command line tool now requires user interaction.

Thankfully we can still use Managed Software Center to make this process easier for users.

Read on for the details…

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Uninstalling Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub with Munki

Kevin M. Cox May 7, 2023 1 Comment

A very annoying bug in the latest release of Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub caused us to uninstall it from our macOS fleet using Munki.

Last week VMware released version 23.04.0 and the users in our testing group were immediately bombarded with a confusing error dialog. These errors would appear repeatedly throughout the day and worst of all, steal focus every time.

We halted the rollout and immediately engaged VMware support who confirmed the issue isn’t isolated to our tenant. Multiple customers are experiencing the bug including others in the #workspaceone channel on the MacAdmins Slack.

However despite pulling 24.04 from Munki and making sure automatic updates were disabled in our WS1 console, the install count continued to climb. With no resolution in sight from VMware we decided to remove 24.04 from our fleet completely.

So much for Read-Only Friday! Read on for the details…

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Nudge deadlines in local timezones

Kevin M. Cox March 22, 2023 4 Comments

Nudge icon A frequent request for the open source tool Nudge is local timezone support. Nudge was coded to use UTC for configuring and enforcing the installation deadline for macOS updates.

This means that global companies have had to pick a single deadline for their entire fleet. Alternatively they could deploy multiple configurations for different regions. Neither option is ideal.

Bob Gendler set out to code a local timezone feature only to find out, to everyone’s surprise, that it already exists!

Read on for the details…

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Microsoft Outlook for Mac switching to weekly releases

Kevin M. Cox March 20, 2023 1 Comment

Starting with the release of Office for Mac 2016 then continuing with 2019, 2021 and O365, Microsoft has always released updates for the core Office apps on a monthly basis.

That’s about to change, kind of…

In February, Microsoft announced (login required) that updates to Outlook for Mac would soon start releasing weekly. That change goes live tomorrow, March 21, 2023.

Read on for the details…

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DFU Blaster: An even easier method to put a MacBook into DFU mode

Kevin M. Cox February 22, 2023 4 Comments

DFU Blaster icon Only a month after my post An easier method to put a MacBook into DFU mode, Timothy Perfitt has one-uped himself.

Over the weekend Perfitt shared his latest app, DFU Blaster, on YouTube and Mastodon.

I’m happy to report that it is by far the easiest method yet to put an Apple Silicon Mac into DFU mode.

Read on for the details…

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