1. macOS Administration In a Post-high Sierra world Matt Manous
YOUNG HARRIS COLLEGE

2. About YHC Private, Methodist-affiliated liberal arts college
Baccalaureate institution for a decade
1000+ students
600+ Windows computers
45 macOS computers

3. Timeline 2007 – YHC purchases two MacBooks 2011 – Digital Arts Lab
2013 – Tier II Mac support assigned to one technician
2015 – Digital Arts Lab refreshed, IT gets management Macs
2017 – Mac Technician departs
2018 – Tier II Mac Support reassigned

5. High Sierra Changes Improved Photos app Improved Safari H.265 codec
Metal 2
Phasing out 32-bit apps (Mojave last to support 32-bit)
Login Keychain behavior

6. High Sierra Changes

7. High Sierra Changes

8. macOS Server 5.6 Changes Supported in 5.6 Built-in to High Sierra
Profile Manager
Open Directory
Xsan
Built-in to High Sierra
File Server
Caching Server
Time Machine Server
Source:

9. Imaging is Dead and NetBoot Isn’t Doing Well
DeployStudio seemingly abandoned
Other free alternatives not as robust
Imagr
Restor
iMac Pros do not support NetBoot

11. Provision a New Device Example
DEP
MDM
Package Installs
(Munki/MDM)

12. Apple School Manager

13. Redeploy macOS Example
Restore macOS
DEP
MDM
Package Installs Munki/MDM

14. macOS Restoration Methods
Pros
Cons
Reinstall macOS (Command R)
Easy
Very Slow
Does not remove user profiles
Disk Utility (Command R)
Easy/Fast
Not Intuitive
APFS Snapshot
Easy/Very Fast
SSD only
Carbon Copy Cloner
Fast?
Commercial Software
DeployStudio
Fast
Spotty High Sierra Support Dubious Future
startosinstall script
Supports Firmware Updates Supported by Munki, Imagr, and most MDMs.
Have to Pre-stage Installer
Slow

15. Reinstall macOS (Command R)

16. Disk Utility (Command R)

17. Disk Utility (Command R)

18. Disk Utility (Command R)

19. APFS Snapshot tmutil snapshot Can be done during Setup Assistant
Control Option Command T
To Restore
Command R during boot
Select Time Machine and restore the snapshot

20. Carbon Copy Cloner

21. DeployStudio & High Sierra
Mac with Sierra
DeployStudio 1.7.8
macOS Server 5.3.1
Netboot Image built with
Netboot Image delivered with HTTP instead of NFS
High Sierra HFS Image for HDD & Fusion Drives
High Sierra APFS Image for SSD
A Partition step in your workflow prior to the Restore step
Fusion Drives?

22. startosinstall usage
/Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall
Arguments
--applicationpath
Path to the High Sierra installer
--agreetolicense
Automatically accepts license agreement
--converttoapfs
Choose whether to convert to APFS if SSD (removed in Mojave?)
--installpackage
Installs distribution packages
--eraseinstall
Erase APFS boot volume before installing (New in )
--nointeraction
Silent Install. Undocumented.

23. Designed for Education Free for single platform (iOS or macOS)
$5.50 per device per year | $14.85 per device per 3 years
Intuitive User Interface
K-12 Target Audience
Potential use for student teachers
Frequent Updates

24. Mosyle Manager Demo

25. Mac Admin Free Tools Imagr – command line based imaging
Restor – GUI based image creation and restoration
AutoDMG – image builder
AutoPkgr – GUI form of AutoPKG
MacUserGenerator – creates a package or shell script for making local user accounts
Macdaddy Install Disk Creator
Crypt – FileVault key escrow
Packages – package creation tool
DeployStudio – image, package, and script deployment
Munki – managed software installation