Nothing But Problems

[lcox]

We are running Jamf Pro 9.101.0, Apple gave us a broken certificate, which upon contacting Apple, and Jamf Support they came to the conclusion that all 3600 mobile devices would have to be reset to factory and set up from scratch. We are about a third of the way through the reset, and are now experiencing problems with devices not getting management commands sent to them and remaining in a pending state, as well as having the JSS in a completely unresponsive state the day before. Jamf Support has no answer for us after sending Logs, and we are about ready to give up on Jamf and move to another platform. On top of that 2 out of every 20 iPads is bricked, and cannot be revived after the restore process, all of this is a major loss in company time and effort. Not to mention the down time of those using the mobile devices.

[mojo21221]

That stinks. As for the bricked iPads... Have you tried putting them in DFU mode and installing a fresh iOS on them.

[Chris_Hafner]

So Apple screwed up and you get to deal with it? Nice. Also, how does jamf factor into this? Bad certificates are bad certificates. Is APN behaving if you get the proper certificate onto any of the iPads? I'm not sure swapping management vendors will improve that when you have no method for getting management commands to them. In short, how does Apple recommend getting the iPads to talk to any management system with bad certificates? Can I assume that you mean bad DEP certificates?

[AlbertNewton]

I hope no one gets fired due to mess created by Apple and Jamf.
10% devices are bricked and all these precious time and efforts are wasted.

Apple OSs used to be fun to use but growth has added more complexities and more issues PERIOD I am sure that it will get more messier with time. That happened with Windows and they had time to make it better and I must say THEY DID GREAT JOB with Windows 10. I know they don't have phone to complete their Eco System but Windows 10 support Android and iPhone so I must see how well they play.

I read somewhere that "Apple is old Microsoft and Microsoft is old Apple" and now I see that happening.

I am not married to Apple or Jamf so I am breaking off with this for something better.

[miregan]

Cool, see ya

[damienbarrett]

Once upon a time, before Jamf even really existed, I managed labs of Macs at a University. We used the free software from U-Mich called RadminD, which acted almost like a tripwire and would return machines back to a set state after being used by students in the labs. I had a fairly solid understanding of the software but I wasn't yet an expert in it. I was learning. And I flubbed, big-time, the Friday before classes were about to start on Monday. I essentially bricked 700 Macs in an instant because I misunderstood a feature in RadminD.

Did I blame U-Mich or RadminD? Nope. Did I post my gripes to the RadminD mailing list? Nope. Did I search the forum, at the time, for answers? Yes. Did I realize it was my mistake because I stepped outside my comfort zone and executed a change that I shouldn't have? Yes, with some unintended consequences, including working around the clock all weekend long, and off the clock, to fix the mistake I made.

Without knowing more about your environment, it's hard to offer advice. Perhaps your JSS is underpowered or misconfigured to handle 3600 devices. Maybe Apple did issue a bad certificate, maybe not (I've been doing this a long time and can count on one finger the number of times I've seen or heard Apple issue a bad certificate). Have you asked Jamf to escalate the service request? Maybe you just have a support person who isn't yet enough of an expert in MDM/ASM/VPP/SCEP to assist, but I'm sure there are others at Jamf that are.

My recommendation is that you reach out to Jamf again. Step back and take an objective look at the situation; maybe the solution doesn't require resetting all the devices -- without know specifics, it's hard to say.

[hjcao]

@AlbertNewton

Apple OSs used to be fun to use but growth has added more complexities and more issues PERIOD I am sure that it will get more messier with time

I'm pretty sure every OS available has become more complex over the years, and that includes Windows. I have to think you are just trolling the forum considering your account was created yesterday and all you add to the conversation is ...

I am not married to Apple or Jamf so I am breaking off with this for something better.

As for the OP's issue, I have to agree with @damienbarrett. There seems to be more here than meets the eye.

[jared_f]

I agree with what everyone stated above. Take a look at your whole setup and see if there is any errors and if you can solve it withbout re-enrolling all of these devices. You have quite the load there so make sure your Jamf Server can handle it, that would be the first thing I would check. There is no point getting a partially working instance, getting half the devices re-enrolled (if equired) and then having the same issues occur again.

We currently don't use Jamf Pro (Jamf Now and Meraki), we have taken Jamf Pro for a test drive, but we just could not find enough reasons to make the jump yet. One thing I realized about Jamf is when you have an issue do not be afraid to reachout and speak with them. By far the best compnay I have ever/am dealing with. If it were me we would have switched, but we are not at that time yet.