Last year I wrote several blogs about a great plugin for Configuration Manager 2012 R2, Parallels Mac Management for Configuration Manager. While I was in Denver for BriForum presenting about the 3.5 version, the new version 4.0 was released with some great new features related to OS Deployment of Mac OS X images.
This blog will highlight the new version and the features. A major enhancement is that the OS Deployment of Mac OS X images is enhanced and better streamlined.
This new version has the ability to automate OS Deployment tasks in the Task Sequence and do for instance the following;
- Install and enroll Parallels Mac Client
- Install Software
- Join Domain
- Set Hostname
- Set Variables
Also you are now able to create Mac OS X boot images besides OS X Operating Systems for the Netboot support.
After adding the images a task sequence can be created and tasks can be added, like mentioned in the intro you are now able to set a computer name during the imaging process. A big plus since 3.5 did not support that yet. Same counts for installing apps from the Task Sequence, installing the Parallels Client and joining the Mac to the Active Directory domain.
With this version you are able to deploy customized Mac OS X images with less interference from the administrator or the OSD support departement which is pretty cool if you ask me.
If you want to read earlier blogs about Mac OS X and Configuration Manager, follow this link: http://ref.ms/macblogs