Jamf Connect 2.1.0 Release

[kaylee_carlson]

Today we released Jamf Connect 2.1.0 for general availability; this release includes the below key features and technical content. As a reminder, the newest version of Jamf Connect focuses on ease of use and streamlined workflows for both admins and end users with:

• A redesigned Jamf Connect Login application
• Combined Jamf Connect Verify and Sync applications
• A streamlined installation process
• Additional features to the Jamf Connect Configuration application

To upgrade to the latest version, please check out the detailed instructions in the Jamf Connect Administrator Guide or this KBase article.

Key Feature Content
• Acceptable Use Policy Screen Redesign: The Acceptable Use Policy Screen has been redesigned to match the appearance of the Jamf Connect Login window redesign that was released with Jamf Connect 2.0.0.
• XML Edits in Jamf Connect Configuration Login Tab: You can now use the text editor in Jamf Connect Configuration to add and edit nonstandard preference keys for the Login window. Configurations with nonstandard keys can also now be imported without being modified.

Key Technical Content
• Apple Silicon Compatibility for Jamf Connect: Jamf Connect is now a universal app that can run on Macs with Apple Silicon* or Intel hardware.

o Important: New Macs with Apple Silicon do not install Rosetta, Apple’s binary translation service, until an Intel-based application is first opened. To ensure Macs with Apple Silicon successfully run Jamf Connect, make sure you deploy Jamf Connect 2.1.0 or later to Macs with Apple Silicon in your environment.

• Hardware support is based on testing with the Mac Developer Transition Kit.

• Licensing: Fixed an issue that prevented license data from being respected as a base64 encoded string that is configured with the License File (LicenseFile) preference key.

• Login Window Bug Fixes:

o [PI-008704] Fixed an issue that prevented local user accounts created via Okta from respecting user role changes configured with OIDC apps in Okta.

o [PI-008935] [JC-2017] Fixed an issue that prevented custom messages displayed with the Login Window Message (LoginWindowMessage) setting from displaying correctly and hiding the last word of the message.

o Fixed an issue that caused the login window to catch usernames in the identity provider (IdP) webview on computers with macOS 11.

o Fixed an issue that caused the username text to turn black when selected after an unsuccessful Okta authentication attempt on computers with macOS 11.

Product Documentation
For more information, including Release Notes, please see the Jamf Connect Administrator Guide.

Thank you!
The Jamf Connect team

[dmitry_gurvits]

As a customer while I appreciate you guys making these bug fixes, I can't help but ask if this product is "fully baked"? It seems like you guys are addressing pretty serious bugs in Connect 2.x very rapidly. Its getting really hard from an admins perspective to keep up.

[morsepacific]

@dmitry.gurvits We've been using Jamf Connect since January of last year and I certainly don't feel like we have our monies' worth - a point I've already made to our rep as renewal rolls around in 2021.
We were stuck on an early 1.x release because they released code at some point which caused the app to completely crash if you inadvertently used it before you were on the domain (i.e. everybody who suddenly had to WFH during the pandemic) so we spent the rest of the year waiting for it to be fixed.
Suddenly version 2.0 comes out, which fixed a bunch of issues but introduced others that weren't there in 1.x.

This really feels like we got duped into paying for a beta product, as much as I appreciate how hard the teams are working on it to polish it up.

[aschaner]

@morsepacific @dmitry.gurvits

Unfortunately, I have to add my +1 to your observations. We purchased a year subscription of Jamf Connect with Jamf Pro, especially with the touted zero-touch features, but we've never been able to get the workflows right.

Have been looking at augmenting Jumpcloud's agent and keep Jamf Pro.

[dmarcnw]

I'll add my two cents on this.

We adopted 1.X JC for our Okta environment. Initially everything was great but we didn't feel it was baked in. Then COVID hit and we didn't get to fully deploy because we were unsure of JC's 1.X reliability and didn't want to lock users out of their computer with no remediation.

We recently performed another onboarding session with a Jamf onboarding rep getting 2.0 deployed. We were able to address upgrading existing users and creating a workflow for new deployments. Overall it was worth the four hours we paid to get all of our concerns addressed and fixed. We walked away happy.

Currently 2.0 seems more baked in than 1.X. Yes apps will have issues, but 2.0 is way more stable for our environment. Configuration was a bit tedious in 2.0 from 1.X, but our onboarding rep helped us address it.

[melegastudios]

I just read all these responses and feel compelled to add my experience as well. I was sold 1.x 3 WEEKS before v2 was released, had nothing but problems with v1, and Jamf refused to offer another integration session to do the update to v2 (one of the Support engineers has been upgrading it with me instead, which is not his burden to bear IMO). Frankly, the whole experience has been pretty bad. I agree with everybody that said v1 was not baked either. This all feels very un-Jamf :/

[user-LriioPisaS]

I am a new customer trying to assess whether to use Jamf Connect or JumpCloud Also keen to know how @morsepacific @dmitry.gurvits have got on?

My set up is that we have Macs with Mobile Accounts that are bound to an on-prem Active Directory and since WFH the password updates are not possible where staff don't attend the office. My initial thought was to run Active Directory sync into JumpCloud and install the JumpCloud agent on to the Macs so that when it came to the password change the user could initiate the password change (once) from the JumpCloud Agent on the Mac and it would:
1 - Update the local account password
2 - Update the local keychain
3 - Update the local Filevault password
4 - The JumpCloud agent syncs the new password to JumpCloud
5 - JumpCloud syncs the new password to the on-prem Active Directory
6 - The on-prem Active Directory would sync to Office 365 via Azure AD Sync

Can anyone with JumpCloud experience tell me if this is how it works and if not where it fails and generally if Jamf Connect is better and if so why.

This is my first post so thanks everyone All the best
Ben

[dmitry_gurvits]

Ben, if it were me, i would utilize AD Sync, and sync your environment into Azure AD, then piggy back using Jamf Connect and directly integrated Azure AD into the login experience, Jamf Connect does this very well and would be an excellent experience for your remove workers and you could easily utilize your on premise AD passwords this way.

[morsepacific]

@user-LriioPisaS It's been fairly stable recently, however the release of 2.3.0 has just broken our login screen, using Duo. Nothing has changed on our end, but the introduction of 2.3.0 has stopped the login window responding correctly to MFA. I will be logging a support ticket.