This fall, Apple is going to release its newest OS: macOS 12, Monterey. With that, there are some major improvements to Mac management that were not in Big Sur. Here are some highlights… From What’s new in managing Apple devices System Extensions removal With Big Sur, there were some fairly complicated digital gymnastics you had… Continue reading WWDC 2021 announcements for Mac admins…
Command to add a secure token to a macOS user account
If you run sysadminctl -secureTokenStatus firstuseraccount and see a secure token is enabled for that first account but run sysadminctl -secureTokenStatus seconduseraccount and see a secure token is not enabled for that second account, you can try adding a secure token to the second account, so it can turn on FileVault or become a FileVault-enabled… Continue reading Command to add a secure token to a macOS user account
“Invalid Message – The message could not be parsed.” with Jamf Cloud
Invalid Message – The message could not be parsed. is an odd error message for a jamf recon when you’re using Jamf Cloud, because if you Google that error message, there are only two results: FYI – Invalid Message – The message could not be parsed. Devices not updating inventory (Invalid Message – The message… Continue reading “Invalid Message – The message could not be parsed.” with Jamf Cloud
Why don’t Mac admins use MDM for Apple software updates?
Context People who administer Mac deployments at a large-ish scale (hundreds to tens of thousands—i.e., large enough that you have to automate things and can’t physically touch every machine to change settings or install updates) generally want to be able to patch software and macOS while giving a decent user experience. I think you’ll find… Continue reading Why don’t Mac admins use MDM for Apple software updates?
Making sharding work with Munki catalogs in mind
Some Munki admins use sharding to roll out to various portions of their fleet. Most versions of sharding create a random-looking (but not actually random) integer either between 0 and 99 or 1 and 100 that is based on a hash of the Mac’s serial number. Where that can be tricky is when you want… Continue reading Making sharding work with Munki catalogs in mind
Copying the Rosetta 2 installer for offline installations
I honestly don’t know why this gets asked about as often as it does, but I’ve seen several instances in which Mac admins want to know how to get the Rosetta 2 installer .pkg to be installed offline. The installer is about 6.2 MB, so I don’t think bandwidth is the issue, but maybe it… Continue reading Copying the Rosetta 2 installer for offline installations
Chrome mid-update versions and Munki
Most of the time, if you want to patch Chrome using Munki, you just use add Chrome as a managed update or managed install to the relevant manifests in your Munki repo, and then have the AutoPkg Chrome.munki recipe import the new version of Chrome into your Munki repo from time to time (daily, weekly,… Continue reading Chrome mid-update versions and Munki
Using a nopkg to “nudge” in Munki for Silicon Macs
Context This is really just a proof-of-concept, but as of this writing both Nudge and Munki use the softwareupdate binary to try to download updates to see what’s available. With the Silicon chip Macs, Apple has now made it so that softwareupdate will prompt you for a password for downloading pending updates, even if you’re… Continue reading Using a nopkg to “nudge” in Munki for Silicon Macs
Conflict 409 Error: Duplicate alternate MAC address for Jamf API call
Acknowledgements Major shoutout to Ben Toms from the MacAdmins Slack for pointing out what the issue is. The exact error message If you have a script that doesn’t return the actual response but just gives you an error code, you may get an error code of 409. If you Google something like 409 conflict jamf… Continue reading Conflict 409 Error: Duplicate alternate MAC address for Jamf API call
Adobe Package Downloader error on Big Sur
If you get a The installation cannot continue as the installer file may be damaged. Download the installer file again. error when trying to run the Adobe Package Downloader.app on Big Sur, the quickest workaround (as of the writing of this blog post) is to copy the Adobe Package Downloader.app (or, more precisely, the .dmg… Continue reading Adobe Package Downloader error on Big Sur