Deploying an macOS upgrade WITHOUT Self Service?

[antbyrd95]

I have been looking through the forums and I can't find any thing like this. Is there a way to cache and then install a macOS upgrade without having to use self service?

[mpermann]

@PLCH-Apple if you have VPP setup you can "purchase" macOS Sierra and deploy it like you would any other app from the Mac App store.

[alexjdale]

Self Service is basically just a method for initiating the upgrade policy. You can have a policy do the same thing on another trigger. The question is the impact that would have on users who are now faced with an upgrade at an inconvenient time (they are either going to be impacted by it or cancel it if given the option).

I think that users would greatly prefer the ability to initiate the upgrade on their own. It's not something you want to force on an unwilling user.

[antbyrd95]

@alexjdale these computers are in a public use environment so it wouldn't effect anyone directly. @mpermann I might give that a try, thanks.

[mpermann]

@PLCH-Apple in the very brief testing I did with the VPP method I found that the app would only launch but would still require someone to do some clicking to get the upgrade going. You might be better off looking at a workflow similar to this. You could modify it so it wouldn't require Self Service at all. Or there are other methods such as a createOSXinstallPkg that you could use. What method you choose depends on whether you want user interaction or not.

[antbyrd95]

@mpermann these devices don't even have self service installed but I could enable it for the upgrade

[rblaas]

@PLCH-Apple take a look at this: [https://babodee.wordpress.com/2017/09/26/update-to-macos-upgrade-script/](link URL)

I use this script currently via Self Service (but as it is just a policy you could trigger it) to update our machine to whatever I want.

It works like a charm.

[SGill]

If you're trying to get Sierra to your public labs, I used createOSXinstallPkg to get 10.11.x public macs to 10.12.3 via push and that worked. Then I used the Sierra Combo updater to get them to 10.12.6. It worked well for 10.11 macs, but not so well for 10.10 macs in my experiences here (+/- 400 macs).