Is it possible to set up a personal lab environment of JAMF Pro without having access to a licence?

[mgawronski]

Hey. I have been working as a Mac engineer in a JAMF environment (no certs though) for many years, but when the pandemic hit us a couple of years ago I needed to change my job and found one in IT Security.

Now I want to go back to being a Mac engineer badly, unfortunately, it's not that easy after over two years of break. In fact, I recently had an interview for an interesting position, and while somehow I managed to perform all the technical tasks during the interview, at the end of the day they've chosen a guy who was "more confident" in the JAMF environment. 

My question is - is it possible to somehow set up a JAMF Pro training/lab env without having access to an enterprise license to refresh my memory and keep myself "in shape" until i find a Mac engineering job again?

[AJPinto]

Unfortunately no. I recommend messing with JAMF Now, it has the core MDM functionality of JAMF Pro and may jog your memory. Beyond that look in to getting the JAMF 200, and the Apple Deployment and Management training. Those two certifications should open a lot of doors.

Pretty much all MDM providers require either a large purchase of licenses (ie JAMF Pro is 50 a year), or require a DUNS number to sign up for their evaluations (some have a free license until you exceed 10 devices). I gave up and just use JAMF Now, though I am really tempted to get a DUNS number so I can setup ABM. JAMF Now does not charge for the first 2 devices, nor does it require anything other than a personal email to setup. The GUI is nothing like JAMF Pro, but the MDM commands are the same on the backend. 

[SCCM]

just on that though, even with access to a platform it doesnt really help you much unless everyones setup is the same. As a personal user you wouldnt really be able to setup DEP / prestages, and would be limited to user initiated enrolments (not how enterprises use it). You might be better off reading the jamf release notes / setup  guides: Jamf Pro Documentation - Jamf Pro Documentation | Jamf
youtube vids: Support - YouTube
Jamf nation is always a good place to see what people are doing generally.