Naming of computers using DEP

[Dylan_YYC]

Hey everyone,

Im a DEP noob so please forgive me. I have just started doing our staff and student computers via DEP and presage enrollments but i have no idea on how i should be naming these computers or even how to differentiate between staff and student computers. As it sits right now i am running a script that modifies the ARD field and the scoping my policies to computers ARD field.

Questions:
We are also binding our computers to AD so will having 150+ computers with the same name be an issue?
How are you handling naming?
Is there any issues to keeping my policies scoped to ARD fields?
Any other helpful tips or things i need to consider?

Thanks!

[matt_mowry]

Hey I've got an open feature request for that: https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/feature-requests/7604/edit-device-name-and-static-group-membership-in-dep-view-and-or-assign-config-profiles-to-devices-prior-to-enrollment

[TheWarmAtlantic]

we bind using the Serial Number

Then I have a policy that renames the HostName, LocalHostName, and ComputerName to its Asset Tag.

[Dylan_YYC]

@TheWarmAtlantic Ok, i like that idea but we dont have asset tags and if we did would you modify the name in the JSS per computer?

[Dylan_YYC]

@matt.mowry you got a vote up from me! i was just wondering if there was something i was missing or i needed to shift my focus... seems like a common issue!

[Look]

We have an API for our asset database that machines query themselves using curl in a script prior to binding to AD.
Requires a bit of work but it allows you to name devices however you please.
It's also worth looking into the upcoming JAMF feature that will allow prepopulating of names from a CSV either manually or using an API, not sure what version its due in just that it's coming.

[Cyberghost]

I'm testing DEPNotify for DEP at the moment. I use the build-in option to register the Mac. Here we put the right name and after this the client is bound to the AD via policy. Works pretty good and I think easy to configure.

[uoscasper]

@Cyberghost or anyone else using DEPNotify.

I'm trying to use the option built into the depnotify script to rename the computer during the DEP process.

Our findings are that the register option works, but that for some reason it is firing up again after the configuration is complete, and stops the DEPNotify process from ending. Did you have the same issue, and if you did, how did you resolve it?

Thanks.

[Cyberghost]

@uoscasper I have the same issue. Think that is related if you are not enabling FileVault during the DEP process. After I configured a FileVault policy, DEPNotify runs without any issue.

[uoscasper]

@Cyberghost Thanks for the insight, I will try that and see if it resolves it.

[casareanderson]

So we use the prestage to to set the serial number to UK-$ serial number or what ever prefix then we run the following script to update the host name which works really good for us as we use site locations as our main prefix.

!/bin/bash

ADCOMPUTERNAME=dsconfigad -show | grep "Computer Account" | awk '{print $4}' | cut -d '$' -f 1;
if [ "$ADCOMPUTERNAME" == "" ]; then echo "Unable to determine computer name"; exit 1;
fi

echo "Setting computer name to: $ADCOMPUTERNAME";

/usr/local/bin/jamf setComputerName -name $ADCOMPUTERNAME

exit 0;

[casareanderson]

@uoscasper machine naming with DEP notify does not work that well if you bind your mac to the domain so i have it at prestage then a script in depnotify to update the host name