any news on Jamf pro tools to use on windows 10 OS?

wjc2a
New Contributor

Anyone know of tools to run on windows 10 to admin iMacs/iPad/iPhone we have all 3 and would be good to run the tools from a windows PC?

6 REPLIES 6

seann
Contributor

Jamf tools (I assume you mean admin, recon, etc) are macOS native, so probably not. An option is setting up esxi / vcenter on supported mac hw, create mac VMs, install whatever you want, and then use remote console to connect from a Windows device.

Or... just get a Mac to admin with. TBH I'm not sure how you would effectively admin an environment without one...

wjc2a
New Contributor

I have one that i do the admin on

blackholemac
Valued Contributor III

I will second @seann on this one. On my admin Mac I maintain VM‘s for all the platforms that I support. I do some double duty role as a Windows admin in very specific tasks. In my case I am in charge of Adobe for both platforms. I also take helpdesk support tickets occasionally on both.

As such for my admin computer I have a very beefy MacBook Pro and a trusty copy of VMware fusion where I can load a copy of windows and deliver the best windows experience for my Windows clients and Mac VMs Where I can deliver the best experience to my Mac clients. For roughly 90% of my tasks on both that is sufficient. In the rare case that I need native hardware (usually when I’m testing software that requires specific video cards) I will go to our lab of recently retired production machines and test there.

The moral of the story is that you have to do admin work on the machine that you are targeting, not have one machine to rule them all. You cannot analyze where are files are going to go in a Mac installer on a Windows computer and you cannot analyze the Windows registry very well on a Mac.

In my case for my personal productivity environment, I’m much more comfortable on my Mac. As such I can get away with using VMWare Fusion to give me a ticket into the Windows realm. In your exact situation, I might recommend a beefy Mac as you admin hardware and load Boot Camp software but cut your drive in a 40/60 config...run Windows in your 60 with all the tools you know and use, but keep a small environment with VMWare Fusion to test software for your Mac clients with.

Jamf does work from Windows as a whole. It even can be hosted on Windows. The thing is, it manages Macs as it’s goal though so there are some things like Mac package building and some package uploads that you absolutely have to have a Mac for.

bradtchapman
Valued Contributor II

No. You need to ask your company to buy you a Mac.

larry_barrett
Valued Contributor

Just to chime in, we have a mixed environment. I have a headless windows machine that i use Microsoft Remote Desktop.app to log into when I have to. A full time windows machine is basically worthless to me.

blackholemac
Valued Contributor III

I also second @larry_barrett. Many times if it’s a quick tap into a users Windows computer, Remote Desktop fits the bill.

The main thing I think people are trying to say is that if your environment contains both platforms, you, as an IT admin, need to administer from the environment you are supporting. It’s the only way you get a full picture of what you are doing.