With the current work from home environment going on with COVID19, I am trying to do some maintenance on the Macs on my campus. I have many different operating systems out there and I want to get all the computers up to macOS Mojave. I know, people are going to say "why not just go to Catalina?" Well, I have a lot of faculty that rely on some antiquated 32-bit applications that have not been updated to 64-bit yet. The world will end for them if that software isn't there...even though they haven't used it in years.
So, what I want to accomplish...
I want to be able to do an in-place update to Mojave. I have to contend with many different configurations and user folders. I don't have the facilities to backup user data from 300 staff and faculty.
I would like to at least have this triggered via Self Service. If there is a safe way to do this remotely, that would be even better. When I am allowed to be on campus, it's usually for only 2 hours at a time and my campus is huge. No way I could hit them all in 2 hours.
I know I will need to use a few smart groups to sort out which computers need the update. But beyond that, I am not sure how to proceed. I have looked at many of the threads on the subject and I don't feel that those really work for my needs. One thing of note, I don't have Filevault enabled on any of my computers.
