Hi, everyone.
Welcome to JNUC.
My name is Ellie Romero.
I'm an enterprise support engineer here
at Jamf.
And today, I will be covering our topic
about automated device enrollment
with virtual machines.
So testing deployment workflows are part
of an admin's daily routine.
Still, some workflows can involve longer
than anticipated downtime than others.
And the faster we can test,
then the faster we can deploy.
So here's when virtual machines
can help us.
But why use a virtual machine if you have
available test machines?
Snapshots.
With Snapshots, you can quickly start
again under one minute.
Still, faster than erase all content
and settings on an M1 or waiting
for macOS internet recovery.
This course will cover configuring
VM in parallel desktop or VMware Fusion
to work again with automated device
enrollment and user initiated enrollment
with Jamf or any MDM.
Truly, any admin can benefit from this.
So when enrolling a VM
with either parallels or VMware Fusion,
you may run into several issues.
For example, here we see that we have
a status 500 error that the MDM was not
able to be reached or the end point.
Sometimes we may also see that the MDM
profile will download install...
[audio cuts out]
Be missing.
Or with VMware Fusion,
if it does not configure properly,
you will be missing the profiles
or not even interact with
the remote management window at all.
So here are all the prereqs that we're
going to need for this workflow.
We're gonna need a macOS,
Big Sur or later.
We're going to need a serial
and model number of the device
we're trying to spoof,
an Intel Mac assigned in
Apple School Manager or Business Manager,
Parallel Desktop 17
with either Standard, Pro,
or Business Edition,
and VMware Fusion 12 with other
Fusion Player, Personal Use License,
or a Pro License.
So a couple of things to keep in mind--
enrollment status of the test Mac
does not affect the workflow.
And the machines enrolled by this workflow
should appear in Jamf as the specified
model in the device hardware model.
But the architecture will be the same
as the test machine, meaning an Intel Mac
cannot spoof an M1 computer.
Additionally, it will be best to delete
the computer record in Jamf each time
when you're reverting back
to a prestage test again.
Now, we're going to cover
each app individually.
And we're going to list a few of the steps
followed by screenshots
and then a quick demo of the workflow.
So first, with parallels,
you want to ensure that the Mac is
assigned to the prestage we're going
to test in Jamf Pro.
You're going to open Parallel
Desktop next.
And you're going to install macOS using
the recovery partition.
And once that has loaded, we will go ahead
and turn off the VM.
So why use Install macOS from the recovery
partition and not the app
install from the App Store?
Fewer errors when creating
the bootable disk image
with the application.
And why turn off the VM during the setup?
In order to add the boot flags,
we must power off the VM.
It cannot be suspended.
So once we pass the language selection,
and you're in the recovery window,
go ahead and shut down the VM.
Once powered off,
we're going to head and open the settings
for the VM so we can add the flags.
Only two pieces of information
that are needed--
the serial number and the hardware model,
that both can be found from system
information from your Mac.
I will go to the settings, hardware,
boot order.
And under advanced,
you'll be able to add the flags.
Here's an example using one of my
test computers.
All I added is just those two flags
in the previous slide.
I added my information.
As an optional IDM,
you may want to configure the startup
and shutdown behavior from the app
so you can have more control when resuming
the macOS installation.
So once the flags are configured,
just go ahead and restart the VM
to continue with the macOS installation
as normal.
Halfway through, once we've seen the
Apple logo appear with the black screen
and the progress bar and the timer
showing how much time is left
for the installation,
you will want to turn off the Wi-Fi
of the computer.
Why turn off the Wi-Fi?
Now, this is to avoid a virtual machine
from communicating to the internet
and the server before intended.
For example, automatically advanced
through Setup Assistant and macOS 11
or later.
This will also ensure that we get
the cleanest snapshot.
And the macOS install will complete.
No worries there.
Once the installation is complete,
make sure to go ahead and take a snapshot.
And then go ahead and turn your Wi-Fi
back on to the computer to continue
with the enrollment.
Here's a quick example just creating
the snapshot.
And then,
again, once you turn Wi-Fi back on
and proceed, you will be able to see
the remote management window,
unlike the first error we saw,
which is the remote management 500 error.
So now let me show you a quick demo
of putting everything in practice
and how it works
as well as restoring from a snapshot.
So in the video,
we're going to be deploying Jamf Connect
via prestage.
We're going to go through the entire
macOS Setup Assistant
until we see the Jamf Connect
login window.
And then we're going to restart back
to snapshot until we see
the remote management window again.
As you can see,
the VM is going through the enrollment
as normal, as intended.
It's connecting to the server,
downloading all the profiles and packages
that are scoped to my prestage.
OK, almost done.
So once complete, again,
we'll go through the final steps
through the setup.
And we should see the Jamf Connect
login window.
And there's Jamf Connect.
That's expected.
And to revert to Snapshot,
do it from the menu bar.
And again, under a minute,
I can go back to square one
and test again.
And just like that, ready to deploy.
Next, we're going to cover VMware Fusion.
Very similar to Parallel Desktop.
We'll have a few of the steps in the slide
followed by screenshots of the workflow
then a quick demo video towards the end.
Similar--you want to make sure
that the machine is assigned
to the prestage in Jamf Pro.
You're going to open VMware Fusion
and select Install from Disk or Image.
Then during the setup, we will want
to make sure to customize settings
before finishing the setup.
So when you open VMware Fusion,
you go ahead and select Install Disk
or from Image.
Unlike parallel desktop, fewer errors
with VMware Fusion when using any
of the app installers downloading
from the App Store.
So here you can use either method.
When you see this window, again,
you want to go ahead and click
Customize Settings instead of Finish.
This will be so that we can find
the VMware file and edit
so we can add a similar template,
like we did with Parallels Desktop.
Again, we're going to navigate
through Finder.
We're going to find the .vmx file
so we can edit the file with any
text editor application that you prefer.
Keep in mind that the path may change,
depending where you save the file.
But here's an example for my computer.
Once I find a .vmx file, again,
I open the app--or the file
with any text editor app.
That's a template here.
So you can see it's a little bit longer.
But we still only need just two
components, the serial number
and the hardware model.
Both, again, can be found
from system information.
When you're editing the text file,
you want to make sure to add the template
to the very last end to the file.
Add the two values--
against, serial number and hardware model.
And then save the file.
Everything else in the template
will stay the same.
After making the edits to the .vmx file,
go ahead and save it.
And restart the VM to continue the Mac
OS installation.
Similar to parallels,
once we see the black screen
with the Apple logo
and the timer for the installation,
you want to turn off the Wi-Fi
of the computer.
Again, the macOS installation
will complete.
This is to avoid the virtual machine
from communicating to the internet
and the server before intended.
And it will ensure that we get
the cleanest snapshot.
So once the macOS installation
is complete, go ahead and take a snapshot.
And then turn back on the Wi-Fi
for the computer.
And here's a quick example of how
to create a snapshot from the menu bar.
Once created, again, turn Wi-Fi back on
and proceed with enrollment as normal.
So now here we have another quick demo
of putting everything together.
Just like we're parallels,
we're going to go through the enrollment,
and we're going to deploy Jamf Connect
and then revert back to the snapshot.
This is the enrollment.
This will take a couple of minutes.
But you guys can see it is communicating
with the server.
And it is downloading all the profiles
and packages scoped to that prestage.
Almost there.
We should see one or two more windows
for macOS Setup Assistant, the ones
allowed from the prestage.
And then we should see the Jamf Connect
login window.
And here it is.
Jamf Connect, the login window
starting to load.
Perfect.
Now we're just going to revert back
to the snapshot we took earlier.
And just like that, in a matter
of just seconds, maybe a minute, I'm back
to square one and ready to test again.
It's a pretty simple workflow and setup
for both applications.
It will not take super long.
But it's super helpful for any admin
to save time during testing.
Now, any questions you guys may have.
I have no questions.
Thank you all for listening
and enjoy JNUC.