Addigy Delivers Same-Day Support for macOS Ventura
The long-anticipated wait for Apple’s latest operating system is over and macOS Ventura 13.0 is here. Addigy is pleased to announce same-day support for macOS Ventura.
Since being released in beta, we’ve been working to ensure Addigy’s existing functionality continues to work as expected with the release of the new OS. In addition, we’ve also created new functionality to make updating your fleet as seamless — and more importantly, as painless — as possible.
Keep reading for a brief overview of the latest features and how they’ll impact your device management. We’ll also outline the steps needed to prepare for the upgrade. What does the upgrade look like? What are some things you should’ve already done?
If you want to delay the upgrade, we can help with that too, so read on…
What’s New with macOS Ventura?
There’s a lot that’s new with Apple’s latest OS, but we’re going to zero in on what you really care about — how does macOS Ventura change the way you manage devices?
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- Declarative Device Management: Declarative device management will help us get more real-time information for configuration.
- System Settings: Traditional System Preferences are now gone, any configuration profile that manages System Preferences are no longer applicable. System Settings has been overhauled to have macOS look more like an iOS device.
- Passkey: Passkeys will help with password management on devices and synchronizing with iCloud keychain.
- Rapid Security Response: Get security updates and improvements out faster without requiring a restart.
- Service Management MDM Profile + Numerous Other Keys: The Service Management MDM profile allows you to control and turn off or on the following: login apps within the system settings and control what users see when installing applications on macOS devices.
- New Apple Prompts for Login Items, Peripherals, and more: Now end-users will see prompts for new persistent applications installing on devices, new peripherals connected to the device, and Software Updates will prompt users for credentials which requires volume ownership.
How Do You Ensure a Smooth Rollout?
There never seems to be a good time for OS updates, but there are a few things you can do to better prepare to ensure a smoother rollout.
Device Inventory
Do you know the total number of devices you have deployed? Where are they located? How old are they? Will all of them need to be upgraded? Having a complete device inventory will help you understand the number of devices in your environment that need to be updated, so you can understand the full impact of the upgrade and the resources required. Check out the Addigy Community Scripts to easily identify if macOS Ventura is supported on your fleet.
Software Inventory
This is a critical step. Yes, upgrading to the latest OS might be a priority for your team, but do you know which pieces of critical software in your managed environment can run on the latest OS? It could be a huge problem if you push out this update and your business-critical apps stop working like Antivirus, Antimalware, or VPN solutions. Make sure you have a list of installed software and confirm each will support macOS Ventura before upgrading.
Deploy Systems Updates via MDM
Now that you know which devices need to be updated and have confirmed the update won’t impact your business-critical applications, it’s time to deploy macOS Ventura to your managed macOS devices. This has historically been a pain in the you know what. However, Addigy has made it super easy! Our latest feature to OS updates is in public Beta and makes it A LOT EASIER to deploy those updates to the device via MDM. More on this below.
Defer OS Updates
Perhaps during steps 1 and 2 you identified your end users have critical applications that require zero-day support, and unfortunately are not ready for the new OS update. In this case, you would like to prevent end users from allowing this update on their devices until this app can support the new OS. Addigy has a solution for that, too!
You can deploy a new Restriction via MDM Profiles to postpone the OS update for up to 90 days. This will prevent users from seeing the upgrade within Software Updates on their Mac. Most importantly, don’t forget to deploy Addigy’s macOS blocker. This will prevent a user from installing macOS Ventura in the case it cannot be deferred any longer, deferment is not possible due to the macOS version, or the end-user ends up finding it on their own.
Helpful Tip: Don’t worry about deferring the upgrade for macOS Ventura as Apple is already working on new updates to resolve reported issues. When you do decide to upgrade, you’ll automatically move to the latest version.
Join the Apple Beta Software Program
Testing is key when rolling out new software or system updates. We recommend testing betas early and often. As a member of the Apple Beta Software Program, you can take part in shaping and improving Apple’s software before its released to the general public.
How Addigy Handles macOS Updates
Let’s jump into talking about the methodology of how Addigy can help you very easily get your Apple fleet updated to the latest OS.
Traditionally, system updates were done through command line interface tools, so you would use softwareupdate, which is a terminal command that you would run, and it would provide those updates for you. That’s how you would see what was available on the software catalog and your device would pick what you needed.
Fast forward to a few years ago when Apple moved away from that method and instead, they opted to do updates via the mobile device management protocol. This caused a ton of unanticipated pain for Mac Admins that we’ve all been struggling with since the release of Big Sur.
Now let’s look at where we’re at today with Addigy. Addigy now uses Apple’s MDM framework to let you control OS upgrades and patching more reliably. With System Updates via MDM you can set limits, schedule update windows, and check on the update status of any device. This feature has been fully tested on macOS Ventura and will help you roll out system updates across your fleet seamlessly.
At Addigy, we aim to go above and beyond just providing our partners with zero-day support for Apple’s new OS releases. We’ve spent the last five months testing the beta, building out new features, hosting webinars and creating helpful resources to ensure upgrading your managed fleet is as painless as possible. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. We are here to help.
