Ask HN: What's my best option for managing Macbooks in my organisation?

#1

Post by racontour » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 6:31 PM UTC

I've currently been tasked with the management of a small number of Macbooks. I just need to be able to enforce policies and full disk encryption, and limit user rights. Does anyone have any suggestions of what could suit my needs?

Re: Ask HN: What's my best option for managing Macbooks in my organisation?

#2

Post by opless » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 6:39 PM UTC

Windows

In all seriousness, I'm not sure that Apple supply anything remotely close to the functionality of windows policy manager, though I've heard some good mumblings about centrify and their offerings.

http://www.centrify.com/mac/group-policy-for-mac-os-x-deskto...

Re: Ask HN: What's my best option for managing Macbooks in my organisation?

#3

Post by mtmail » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 6:43 PM UTC

A Google employee gave an overview of the tools they use to manage their (1000s of) staff Macs. https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa13/managing-macs-googl... For example he points to https://github.com/google/macops

Re: Ask HN: What's my best option for managing Macbooks in my organisation?

#4

Post by cromulent » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 7:35 PM UTC

Profile manager?

https://help.apple.com/serverapp/mac/4.0/#/apd0E2214C6-50F0-...

Re: Ask HN: What's my best option for managing Macbooks in my organisation?

#5

Post by bashinator » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 8:09 PM UTC

cromulent wrote: post #4

Profile manager? https://help.apple.com/serverapp/mac/4.0/#/apd0E2214C6-50F0-...

I've had pretty mixed-to-bad experiences with profile manager. It doesn't seem to be a product that Apple puts much care into. On the other hand, I've had very good luck with Casper from JAMF.

Re: Ask HN: What's my best option for managing Macbooks in my organisation?

#6

Post by bigbossman » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 8:23 PM UTC

You can use AirWatch to manage Macs, although this may be too much for your needs.

http://www.air-watch.com/solutions/macos

Re: Ask HN: What's my best option for managing Macbooks in my organisation?

#7

Post by racontour » Tue, Jan 06, 2015, 9:23 PM UTC

mtmail wrote: post #3

A Google employee gave an overview of the tools they use to manage their (1000s of) staff Macs. https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa13/managing-macs-googl... For example he points to https://github.com/google/macops

They have quite the suite that you can host on GCE. If I can eek out the time to deploy it, this looks like a winner, thanks.