enroll mac just for inventory purposes

[tcandela]

Can I just enroll a mac just to have them listed for inventory purposes?

I want to manage like 200 macs (iMacs/macbook pro/mac airs etc..) I get them imaged and have them pull policies, software etc..

but then I have about 50 macs (iMacs/macbook pro/mac airs etc..) that I just want to have listed as inventory so I know how many macs my dept has. Can I enroll these macs in the JSS without imaging them and having them pull policies ???

[mm2270]

You can enroll a Mac and then go into the JSS and un-manage it within its details section. That will stop any future policies from running on it, but right after its enrolled, it may run some policies before you have a chance to un-manage it. I'm not sure of a good way to enroll it and not have any policies run on it during that brief period where its managed.

[qhle373]

I'm not 100% but maybe using Recon with Remote Enrollment would be the route to go for them.

[chriscollins]

One thing you could do is create a re-usable quickadd from the Recon app and then edit it in Pacifist or convert it to its source in Composer, and just change the enroll line in the postinstall script to add the -noManage and -noPolicy flags to the line, then recompile it and use that as a modified quickadd package.

[bvrooman]

I asked the same question (https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=12903) and no one had any ideas. Glad to see someone replied to yours. :) The downside to any of the methods I've found is that brief period where policies can apply, before management is disabled in the computer's inventory record. That's a problem, because we need to inventory two computers that are managed/imaged by a different department.

JAMF used to make a product called the "Recon Suite" that seems to do just what we want in this case. I emailed my account manager a few weeks ago to see if that can be emulated with the current version of the Casper Suite, and never got a reply.

@chriscollins, that's a great idea. I didn't know that was an option! I'm giving that a try right now.

[jconte]

We are looking for something like this as well. It would allow us to track the surplus and distribute as needed. On the windows side we can do this through our inventory program. Since the Mac and Win platforms are not talking to the same systems we have to maintain a spreadsheet.

Anyone with feedback on how they manage surplus inventory outside of a spreadsheet is welcomed.

[NowAllTheTime]

This could be an ideal opportunity to use JAMF recently released product, Bushel (bushel.com). It would give you inventory via MDM enrollment, and there are no policies that run beyond super fundamental application, email, and security config profile payloads (all of which are optional). You would also be paying waaaaayyy less in licensing ($2 per device) than you would if you were paying for full Casper Suite client seats that you would not truly be leveraging.

You can set up an account for free and enroll your first three devices for free to try it out. Your TAM should have more info about it too if you want to see if it would work for this scenario.