Boston-area JAMF User's Group

Thanks for coming @dgreening @mm2270 @jarednichols @Thomas_B @Eyoung and all else who's JN handle I do not know for coming out. Lively discussion, good balance of newer/veteran Casper admins, and (as always) wealth of tips/tricks from fellow CAs. Force of the educational-side Casper Jedis as was strong in this one!

Here's basic recap of what I caught in discussion (others please feel free to chime in!):

App Store Licensing - How do I deploy my AppleID-tied Apple apps?
- Changes in iOS 7/10.9 retractable, permit token-based licensing through VPP - issue to any user's personal/biz ID, retract license on departure. Manageable via OS X Server or 3rd party MDM solutions
- Challenge of managing student/lab machines at scale still problematic

Licensing Resources (others may have more):

• http://www.apple.com/education/it/vpp/
• http://www.apple.com/business/vpp/
• http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6015
• https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=4911

How are you managing mobile devices?

• Most maintaining distinction between org and personal devices (BYOD = on your own)
• Systems in use: Casper, Lightspeed, MobileIron, ZenPrise
• Heavy discussion of Configurator. Extensive use for "imaging" school-issue mobile devices. Supervised mode off external HD running Configurator. Always backing up your DB! Some students dropping to DFU mode to wipe devices, but end up at Activation Lock anyway and return anyway in shame. <insert sad face student emoticon here>.

Software Updates

• Most heavily leveraging policy "triggers" to initiate updates/deployments on demand.
• Phased rollouts generally split between test and production. Not too much time spent in heavy evaluation or multiple tiered rollout phases.
• Big concern over breaking the big wig's Macs within organizations.

Remote Access

• Many using ARD over Casper Remote (we heard this at last JUG as well)
• Often due to habit or existing workflows. Send Unix command feature called out (in Remote as well).

Self Service

• Most using for basic software installs, but all interested in learning more about how to leverage better.
• Questions on logistics of giving techs access to sysadmin policies/tools in SS, while restricting from users. One method: scope by AD/LDAP group.

Next Meeting

• Topic came up. I mentioned the idea of rotating. Eric, did you say you were interested in hosting? Not a ton of discussion around this so feel free to respond inline here so we can get the ball rolling.

Postscript

• Oldie but goodie resources and slides on many topics we discussed off the JNUC 2013 page below. Enjoy!
• https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/jnucEvents.html?type=1

Thank you for hosting Cliff! It was great to meet you all!

Few other things that were mentioned:
50/50 split between Admins using Casper Imaging and DeployStudio
No Casper Remote for Windows users, specifically for call center support.
FileVault computer login lockouts if the user doesn't change their password using the Mac login or System Pref Pane.
Only one Admin in the meeting has upgraded to Casper 9. The majority are still seeing too many issues to upgrade at this time. MySQL headaches for major release upgrades were brought up as well.

-Galen

Good recap on everything, and good meeting! Thanks @clifhirtle for hosting! And thanks JAMF for the food!

Also wanted to mention that on the issue of upgrading to Casper Suite 9, it seemed like at least a handful of us are getting very close to making that jump. The current 9.23 release seems like a solid release that has addressed most issues so far. Perhaps by the next meeting for this group some more of us will be running version 9 in our production environment.

If I recall anything else that we discussed, I'll post it here.

I'd be happy to share on that one next time. We've been every flavor of 9 since it came out. So far, 9.23 has solved many many issues for us.

Duplicate

triplicate!

Thanks /url">@spraguga][/url and @mm2270][/url for additional notes. On topic of Casper 9 upgrade, I did hear back from JAMF Support regarding missing parameter values changing up my JAMFHelper scripts ([https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=9667). Confirmed as bug, but workaround of entering anything in the blank parameter fields of the JSS does enable a present workaround.

Hello Everyone!!

I would like sign up for this user group. Can you please notify me for the next meeting.

Hi Jamf nation. I just joined as well

Hi Jamf nation. I just joined as well

Hi Jamf nation. I just joined as well

Greetings,

Has there been a date/location set yet for the next meeting? Thanks in advance for the update.

Regards,

Robert

Nothing yet @gordoncollege. While @simbimbo and I could likely repeat host, it would be great to offer the opportunity to host if interested as well. Based off responses from last survey both @Eyoung and Olimpia @ MIT (sorry don't have your JAMF ID) mentioned possible interest in hosting a smaller group meeting. Any volunteers there?

I would still be able to host. I'd say the limit would be about 20 people due to the size of our conference room. I am at Thayer Academy in Braintree Ma. about a 4 or 5 minute walk from the Braintree T station. Plenty of parking.

@Eyoung][/url AFAIK we have not yet capped 20 attendees for any Boston area event yet so that should work fine. In fact, it may even be an incentive to get RSVPs in early ("limited time opportunity!").

For yours (as well as all future JUG Hosters edification), JAMF has a whole section of JN where you can post up JUG meetings. This automatically generates a new EventBrite event, which is great help in tracking RSVPs, wait listing, etc. See: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/userGroups.html.

JAMF's produced an entire guide outlining best practices for running the user group meet that can answer some of the basic questions you might have in hosting an event. I was also contacted by Emelia Carroll from JAMF HQ, who was wonderful in offering to take care of all the food/drink logistics.

Sounds like a plan to me! I'm in any time, especially since I missed the last one!

Sounds great to me!!

rats they read my post.. now I'll have to do work :-)

I'll go through the items Cliff mentioned and look at a a few times in the near future. Ill try to post something next week.

Is anybody in this thread going to the Apple Tech Update for Education in Natick on April 30?

chris

I'm registered to go.

Yep, I'll be at the Tech Update.

If you are interested in lunch afterwords please send me an email (in my profile).

I don't know that I'll ever be able to make it to Boston..

Actually, if you folks go ahead and arrange a get together after the Tech Update I'll shift down that way. Normally I hit Portsmouth, but it would be really convenient for me to go the Natick on the 30th.

I would love to connect with other Casper Admins! How about 1-3 PM, either Bertucci's or Uno Chicago Grill, just up the street?

Either is fine by me.