Mac Admin Topics to Discuss

[rocketman]

Hey Mac Admins! Our meeting is coming up this Friday, and we have some exciting content planned. But before we start, I want to reach out to this group - what questions do you have that you would like answered?

[justm174]

It would be great if we discussed Big Sur best practices, and testing

[rocketman]

What specifically are you looking for in terms of testing @jmitchell74 ? Like how to create a test VM with VMWare Fusion?

[newvisions]

@rocketman I would rather suggest, best practices on replacement of kernel extensions with system extensions, configuration profiles that do no break M1 devices etc.. Not as much as How to set up Big Sur, but the current issues that we face today and the possible resolutions.

[justm174]

@rocketman To add to @newvisions It would also be great to discuss potential software issues/changes that admins are currently facing with Big Sur, like setting up Sophos, any potential cert changes we should be aware if we're setting up a VPN, and how software updates should be configured. Things like that.

[matin]

What about topics such as:
- customizing the user experience such as dock management, finder settings, desktop or login window settings that still work or can be customized today.
- things with system preferences > security and privacy to be aware of in Big Sur.
- macadmin scripts/tools/apps to help every day Mac Admins

[rastogisagar123]

This one will be super helpful for sure:-

macadmin scripts/tools/apps to help every day Mac Admins

[rocketman]

@jmitchell74 and @newvisions Those are great topics, and will probably be best to have a discussion about. I've worked with Crowdstrike personally, and I know some of the earlier versions crashed Big Sur (literally, you had to boot into safe mode and remove it). We had to upgrade to 6.12, which required a System Extension, which you HAD to get from Crowdstrike and HAD to be signed with an Apple Developer Account. So my workflow for that one is:

1. Add System Extension along with Kernel Extension to all computers
2. Upgrade Crowdstrike through Crowdstrike's portal to 6.12
3. Upgrade to macOS Big Sur
4. Remove Kernel Extension once Jamf recognizes it's on Big Sur.

I haven't tested Sophos yet, but I'm sure someone else has. Big Sur has definitely been a Big Pain - and I'd love to hear all the challenges people are facing, and workaround they have found.

[rocketman]

@matin Those are some good topics! I honestly don't like to do much with customizing the dock/finder for my users. I've found a lot of these things to be inconsistent and change a lot for macOS versions. Chad and I will be prepared to share some of the main scripts we use for our clients.