Recently Microsoft announced an update to Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) version 1610 supporting macOS Sierra (10.12). The client version required is 5.0.8466.1. Here’s how to download and prepare the updated agent for distribution.
Step 1 – Download the updated client files
You first need to download the updated .msi file (ConfigmgrMacClient.msi) from the “Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager – Clients for Additional Operating Systems” page:
I know this sounds strange, why download an .msi file, when I need to deploy an OS X client? Bear with me, as the reasoning will become more apparent, as you continue reading this article.
Once downloaded you should see the .msi file in your designated download location:
Now execute the .msi installer. This will “install” the MacClient into C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\System Center Configuration Manger for Mac client by default (feel free to pick a different installation path, as this really doesn’t matter much):
Step 2 – Wrapping the installer….
Now move the Mac installer (.dmg) onto an actual Mac and open the application package. This should mount the “disk” “8466shipbin” on your desktop, if you configured your Mac like me – alternatively you should be able to locate it in your Finder bar, or under /Volumes for the actual mounted location:
We see the package contains a few contents, ccmsetup, CMClient.pkg and a Tools directory. As the wise men at Microsoft would have it, we now need to be a little creative.
- We need to run the tool “CMAppUtil” within the Tools folder
- This will allow us to “wrap” the CMClient.pkg as CMClient.pkg.cmmac
- The .cmmac file is one we actually need to do Application Delivery with the application framework within ConfigMgr!
Here’s a listing of the Tools directory, as you can see it contains the CMAppUtil command:
You can use the CMAppUtil to wrap any amount of other .msi files into the .cmmac format, but that’s neither here nor there for this article 🙂
To wrap the CMClient.pkg installation package open up a terminal window. In the screenshot below I changed into /Volumes/8466shipbin/Tools then ran the command line “./CMAppUtil -c ../CMClient.pkg -o /Users/rronlev/Desktop/ -a”:
As we can see the cmmac file was created and written to “/Users/rronlev/Desktop//CMClient.pkg.cmmac”.
Step 3 – Configuring the .cmmac installer as an Application
At this point copy the CMClient.pkg.cmmac into a proper install source location for your ConfigMgr site. On my lab I’ve designated D:\AppShare, also shared out as \\CMCB01\AppShare as my base application share. Since it’s a lab system it’s just a flat directory structure, but in more advanced/production deployments you may want to sub-divide it more. The finer point is, that we need a network location to act as a source for the Application source:
I included both the original macclient.dmg file as well as the “wrapped” CMClient.pkg.cmmac file. To be very stringent you’d want to leave out the macclient.dmg and strictly include the CMClient.pkg.cmmac. In my lab environment I wanted to keep both, to make it easy if I needed the source .dmg file.
With the client installation file ready, sitting in its own subdirectory let’s setup the Application within ConfigMgr. Do do this first launch the ConfigMgr console, then head to Software Library > Application Management > Applications:
Once here, click the “Create Application” button, this will launch the “Create Application Wizard”:
- Select “Automatically detect information about this application from installation files”, then
- Type: In the drop-down pick “Mac OS X”, then
- Browse to or type in the source share for the .cmmac file (\\CMCB01\Appshare\macOS 10.12 cmmac\CMClient.pkg.cmmac
Wen done hit “Next”:
This should give us a status of “Application information successfully imported from the Mac OS X file”, as well as break-down of the application contents. Hit “Next” to open up the “General Information” dialog:
I’ll add in a few informational tidbits, since I’m a believer in capturing as much information as possible, but feel free to simply skip this part:
When satisfied with this informational dialog hit “Next”, this will show the “Summary” dialog:
Review the information, if satisfied press “Next” to proceed with creating the Application:
Once the Application creation process finishes, it will display the “Completion” page:
At this point click “Close” to close out the Create Application Wizard. This will also add the created application to the Applications list:
At this point, the application is imported and ready to deploy. Have fun 🙂
Citations and links
Configuration Manager Blog, macOS Sierra support: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/configurationmgr/2017/01/11/microsoft-system-center-configuration-manager-now-supports-macos-sierra-version-10-12/
Download for SCCM Clients for Additional Operating Systems: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=47719
Upgrading Mac computers in System Center Configuration Manager: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/clients/manage/upgrade/upgrade-clients-on-mac-computers
Creating Mac Applications with System Center Configuration Manager: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/apps/get-started/creating-mac-computer-applications#supplemental-procedures-to-create-and-deploy-applications-for-mac-computers