Guidelines for moving to Apple Business Manager with existing enrolled computers

[forrest99]

We are a young company and have been on Jamf Pro for less than a year. We were not able to start our operations with Apple Business Manager (ABM) so we will need to bring our existing inventory (all purchased direct from Apple) into ABM. I have been reading about the process here and I am concerned about the part that says:

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If you want to add a Mac that’s currently configured, you must first erase all content and settings.

Important: All your data will be erased. Make sure you have an up-to-date backup of your data because it will all be erased.

We have more than 100 active computers in Jamf. Is there a way to bring them into ABM without erasing everything? I can't see how that is going to go over well with one user, let alone 100+.

Needless to say I am looking for some guidance (and hopefully some reassurance) that there is a better way.

[forrest99 · Accepted solution]

Apple Business Manager will 'import' all our existing computers SN so everything will included. Thanks for all the feedback.

[jamf-42]

speak with AppleCare Professional Enterprise Support, they may be able to assist. You will need each devices to re-enrol (from invitation to ABM ) and you'll need to sort your pre-stage / policies / re-enrolment etc. 

[sdagley]

@forrest99 Unfortunately the manual method of adding a Mac to ABM you link to does require a re-image. Your only other option would be to have the selling vendor add the Mac to ABM, and that can be done post-purchase but will depend on the vendor. For Macs purchased through Apple's business channel it's supposedly possible, but if you purchased through the retail channel it is not (or at least it wasn't a few years ago when we had a group expense some retail purchased Mac minis they later wanted added to ABM)

[forrest99]

Fortunately, even though we were not ABM at the time, all computers have been purchased direct from Apple through our corporate account. So I am hoping there will be a way for Apple's business channel to add them.

[forrest99 · Accepted solution]

Apple Business Manager will 'import' all our existing computers SN so everything will included. Thanks for all the feedback.

[jamf-42]

some work to do, you'll need to re-enrol, easy via a policy in Self Service and some comms to the business. 

[forrest99]

It sounds like you may have been through this process before. Can you elaborate? 

[jamf-42 · Accepted solution]

you will need to move from enrolled via invitation to enrolled via pre-stage. setup a self service policy with:

profiles renew -type enrolment 

need comms for everyone to add the profile and 'update' few clicks and done.. you can make a smart group to track. 

get a spare mac, scope and test, test again 

[sdagley]

Emphatic bold on the "get a spare mac, scope and test, test again" - with this command you're going to trigger your Jamf Pro enrollment process again for these Mac, and all that comes with it, so if that process does anything you wouldn't want to happen on a previously operational Mac you'll want to find out before your users do.

[forrest99]

I have two spare Macs and I will definitely be testing. Thanks for the added emphasis.

[forrest99]

@jamf-42 thank you for the additional insights. This helps a lot to know what needs to be done. It is definitely in the realm of doable.