Best Practices for redeploying machines and devices

[ktbatou]

I am interested to see how other people are re-deploying the machines (MacBooks, iMacs...etc) and mobile devices (iPads) and some of the Dos and Don'ts they learned through their experiences. examples like; do you un-manage the device before rebuilding it and then add it to Jamf, or delete it and re-enroll it? ...etc.

[Ricky]

We have built out our Prestage enrollments and it has been a life saver!

When we get a machine back from someone who left, just put the Mac into internet recovery w/ upgrade mode enabled, wipe the disk, then install the new OS. On enrollment we have policy triggers set that binds the device to AD, installs the Microsoft suite, Adobe CC, and pushes all Mac apps (Numbers, Pages, iMovie, etc).

[seann]

DEP is the way to go. To avoid the annoying need to internet recover, you can make a policy in Self Service which auto erases the disk and installs a clean copy of High Sierra. Look into the startosinstall binary (https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/23581/startosinstall-has-been-updated-in-10-12-4-with-modified-options).

Then use enrollment triggers or custom launchagents to do all the heavy lifting after its enrolled upon first boot.

Older machines and OSes can use deploystudio. Having to support legacy stuff sucks though.