Jamf School local account management

[pndavkota]

Hello y'all.

I was just recently hired by a small (less than 500 k-12) students to manage their new 1:1 technology program. They had purchased 255 MacBooks, 180 iPads, and 60 Apple TVs. They also purchased Jamf School "at the recommendation of Apple."

We finished deploying devices to students and teachers today, and after the 7th phone call about a student forgetting their local account password, I realized that Jamf School was extremely limited in comparison to Jamf Pro with regards to MacBooks.

So, my questions.

1: Is it possible to upgrade from jamf School to Jamf Pro without re-enrolling devices?

2: If not, is there a 3rd party software we can deploy on top of Jamf School that will allow us to manage user accounts?

I'm the first IT staff to be hired, so I tried explaining the limitations to the superintendent, and they are open to discussions about upgrading should it be available. I'm just realizing how insecure and unmanageable our MacBooks are at this point.

[Fluffy]

You will have to re-enroll devices, even if it is another Jamf Product. We moved from Pro to School last summer, and I am still in the process of getting staff to bring their devices in to re-enroll their MacBooks. I would not recommend this if you can avoid it.

We use AD to manage accounts, which is also linked to Google and syncs there. Passwords are assigned and we change them as needed, only staff chooses their own passwords. Jamf Connect is an option to be considered, which lets you sign on with an online account (I believe, haven't looked too closely into it).

Jamf School has been a good fit for us. There aren't haven't been any cases we've gotten stuck or had regrets (unenrolling from Jamf Pro has been the biggest pain). Jamf Pro had too many tools that were left unused for the price. If you have any questions about using Jamf School, I'd be glad to provide any help I can.

[ryan_w]

I agree with Fluffy that devices will need to be re-enrolled and in some cases wiped and set back up to change MDMs.  We moved from JAMF Pro to School and it works for us, but we also use AD like Fluffy.  I'm planning to test out JAMF Connect soon as I think it would be even better to use Google Authentication.  

JAMF School's scripting module can help you with managing local accounts.  Not ideal, but it can work.  We use it to update passwords on our local admin accounts and a self service account that we sometimes give out credentials for when a user needs to install software.  I hope JAMF school comes up with an easier way to manage local accounts soon like Pro has.  One downside to the scripting module is it has to be scheduled and scoped to a group.  You can't just run them on demand.  You have to enable the scripting module from Organization > Settings > Modules.

[Fluffy]

Scripting module has been useful for me as well. The most used script I have is to remove our guest wifi at login. Also for getting around the printer naming bug and configuring printer options (stapling and hole punching).