Staying Ahead of the Game: Addigy’s Commitment to Resilient MDM Framework for macOS System Updates

Addigy is committed to staying ahead of the curve when it comes to managing macOS system updates via MDM commands. Apple’s announcement at WWDC 2020 that they would be supporting the management of macOS system updates via MDM commands was a significant development in the management of Apple devices. In 2021, Apple expanded the MDM commands and protocol available to deploy system updates. 

To stay in line with Apple’s native tools and support, Addigy deprecated its binary-driven updates from the product and launched system updates via MDM. System updates via MDM gave users the functionality to send update commands to macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS devices. With the 2021 addition of the new Apple silicon-based macOS devices, an extra complexity was added for the ability to do unattended system updates. However, MDM and this new framework allow for managed updates on silicon-based devices, along with three install options: Default, InstallLater, and InstallForceRestart. 

Our latest knowledge base article on system updates via MDM feature outlines these different restart options and how they function and display to the end user. This new feature gives you the ability to control when you want the updates.

The mdmclient binary, which is part of macOS and is the service binary in charge of all MDM-based communication, has had stability and connectivity issues. In acknowledging this concern, we have built several device facts that the Addigy on-device binary can populate to give admins a better idea of the true MDM state of their devices.

Here are the following device facts now available:

• MDM Last Connected 
• Is MDM Client Stuck
• MDM Identity Certificate Installed
• Is MDM Software Update Stuck 

Learn how to use these facts to remediate the mdmclient being stuck. 

Over the last month, Addigy has taken on some of these issues to make the MDM framework more resilient and remains committed to helping you address these concerns. We have more improvements in development now that will allow for additional updated progress status per policy, and more detailed logging. 

Our commitment to ensuring our users have a seamless experience with our MDM tools is unwavering. Your feedback is invaluable to us. We welcome you to reach out to our team at [email protected] to share your thoughts or request additional support.