Patch Management for Ventura updates

[piotrr]

Hi everyone, 

I know this is a swarm of bees, but... 

Is it at all recommended to use Patch Management to keep macOS up to date for cases where Software Update insists there are no further updates (from 13.0 and 13.1 for example). If it is recommended, what PKGs should be used? Certainly not the InstallAssistant.pkgs, right? And deltas, do you really set up incremental updates for each delta pkg? 

At least the Apple macOS Ventura patch management definition lists minimum OS 13.0 for all of the versions (and "Reboot required: No"?!) but which pkg could that possibly correspond to? 

OR

Should we just consider Jamf Pro Patch Management to be a placeholder, a tracking method, when it comes to macOS versions? 

[sdagley]

@piotrr You cannot use the Patch Management to push macOS Ventura updates, but yes you could use them for tracking. For x86 based Macs you could use the erase-install script to force Ventura updates. For Apple Silicon Macs it's more complicated because you'll need to authenticate the install using credentials for an account that's a Volume Owner. Ignore the erase part of the name, it can also update, and there is an accompanying Wiki which describes how to use it via Jamf Pro: https://github.com/grahampugh/erase-install/wiki/6.-Use-in-Jamf-Pro

[mm2270]

"Should we just consider Jamf Pro Patch Management to be a placeholder, a tracking method, when it comes to macOS versions?"

In short, Yes. That's basically all it's good for when talking about OS updates. The "patch management" aspect is a holdover from not so very long ago when it was actually possible to download Combo or Incremental updaters from Apple and push those. Can't do that anymore though.

[AJPinto]

Apple stopped providing OS deltas as packages in Catalina at some point. JAMF Patch Management for MacOS is more or less just a reporting tool. Basically its just an EA with a pie graph that JAMF maintains for you at this point. Nice for a quick screenshot but that is really it.