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So in the past I've used a mac mini running VMware Fusion 12 and creating images for everything from Catalina to Ventura.  I can even test our Automated Device Enrollment which is great since we can record it to teach people about it.

As we're moving to a Silicon chip world I've been trying to find a solution to do this on a Silicon machine.  I've tried testing both VMware Fusion Technical Preview and even the latest version of Parallels...nothing seems to work as well as an intel machine. 

 

I know the world is changing and VM vendors are trying to catch up.  But has anyone figured a good VM solution for Silicon that will let you adjust the host to input ADE stats like hw.model and serial numbers?

I have used UTM for the virtual boxes. I haven't run into any issues yet, but keep in mind that I've only been using UTM for about a month or so. 

Sorry to be share the bad news but these options are currently not supported on Apple Silicon. If you want to test ADE/ABM get an Intel Mac. You could pick up a Mac mini or 2013 Mac Pro and do Parallels or Esxi.

I have used UTM for the virtual boxes. I haven't run into any issues yet, but keep in mind that I've only been using UTM for about a month or so. 


Have you gotten UTM to work with ADE/ABM on a silicon machine?

Sorry to be share the bad news but these options are currently not supported on Apple Silicon. If you want to test ADE/ABM get an Intel Mac. You could pick up a Mac mini or 2013 Mac Pro and do Parallels or Esxi.


Yeah currently using a Mac mini although with VMWare Fusion right now, didn't have much luck with Parallels.  But they are starting to retire our intel machines so wanted to try to stay a step ahead.

Sorry to be share the bad news but these options are currently not supported on Apple Silicon. If you want to test ADE/ABM get an Intel Mac. You could pick up a Mac mini or 2013 Mac Pro and do Parallels or Esxi.


don't suppose you managed to get ESXi to work with T2 devices and making storage visible?

My 2012 Mac Mini won't run macOS13 (officially) .. and running VMware Fusion + macOS seems a waste of resource.. but thats were I'm at with 2019 MB Pro / Mac Mini.

And yes as per OP, not being able to test workflow from ABM on silicon is... a problem..

Unfortunately this avenue is dead. Apple unapologetically killed macOS VMs being useful for MDM testing.

  • VMWare functionally gave up on MacOS until last summer, but last I checked their Fusion client was still in Beta for MacOS Guests on Apple Silicon.
  • Parallels unimpressed me massively with Apple Silicon, to the point where I canceled our contact with them.

MacOS VM's are in a really bad place right now. Since no paid software has been worth the flip, I have been using Virtual Buddy. Its fairly basic, but its free and meets my needs.

GitHub - insidegui/VirtualBuddy: Virtualize macOS 12 and later on Apple Silicon

Apple first in Enterprise......🙁

Apple first in Enterprise......🙁


First in what list? Apple is first on my list of most annoying platforms to manage for enterprise if that counts.

Apple's own self proclaimed list ha ha

While not exactly a good substitute for the usefulness of a VM, using the Wipe mdm command on an M1 Mac will automatically reboot the system into recovery, have you activate it and get you back to a clean build in 2-3 minutes on average (in my testing at least).  So from a time savings standpoint, it's not as good as simply snapping a VM back, but it's much better than having to reinstall the OS from a USB or download it every time the machine gets wiped like with the Intel Macs.  

It's very useful for testing our enrollment process and if a snag is hit, we can simply fix the snag, send the MDM wipe command and be back testing it again in a few minutes. 

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