New to Jamf/IT World

[wonderbiscuit]

Hi! My name is Biscuit, and I am part of a multisite church based out of Quincy, IL. We are looking into Jamf for our staff, and I am going to be the guy getting things rolling. As someone entering into the world of Jamf, IT, and all the crazy stuff that can be done, what would be a good thing to start learning? Coding? HTML? Scripting? Any certain formats, or any other IT world places to begin? I have a little experience with all of those things, but I'm just not sure where best to begin preparing my mind and skills to make sure I can use Jamf correctly! Thanks everyone!

[blackholemac]

Hi....so the first thing to ask is how much of an Apple-based background do you have? As Jamf Pro is about managing anything Apple, it's probably best that you have some fundamental knowledge base on Apple. If you don't it's not the end of the world really. A lot of folks on here are told by their bosses that "your new responsibility is to support Apple...here's Jamf Pro" and they may have never touched an Apple product in their entire career. At least you have that going for you that you started with Jamf Pro.

Jamf Educational Services has provided a good free offering to get folks started: Jamf 100. This covers a little bit of macOS/iOS basics as well as a little bit of Jamf Pro basics to go with it.

As a long time Apple engineer, my best advice to you is to get your paws on a MacBook Air or an iPad and use them as your primary production device for a few weeks to get familiar with everything from software installations to security to managing settings, to adding accounts. Learning how things work manually will help you get a background in how to automate.

Maybe you are a long-time Apple user and your wanting to get started managing the devices? The Jamf 100 class link above is still very relevant. I'll be honest, I come at managing Apple products from the Apple System 7 days originally and have had to teach myself the shell scripting/AppleScripting/package building/imaging techniques. The best way to learn is to start by reading other people's shell scripts, observing the commands and reading the manual pages for each command to learn what it does and whatnot.

If you are wanting to "deep dive fast", you could consider checking out this book: macOS Support Essentials 10.12. Back in the 10.4, 10.5 days, I bought all these books and built my knowledge base daily over a lot of years. The author, Kevin White, is a very good guy and very deeply knowledgeable about macOS. I learn from the guy every time I talk to him. But even he would tell you there's no substitute for using the stuff and learning it by working with it on a day-to-day basis.

It is possible, the key is to continue to build your knowledge base each day you work on the stuff.

[Emmert]

Thanks for the link to the Jamf 100 course! This is the first I've heard of it, and we've been a customer for several years now.

[mhasman]

I would recommend to lock at JAMF Now, and try it (invite URL).

Depends on the level of integration and device management needed, it might be the solution. Cloud-based, no need to worry about the server maintenance. Easy to use, first 3 devices might be enrolled for free. Great for testing and learning.

I use JAMF Now for all my home and family devices.

[Kedgar]

Welcome! There is so much great information on this forum, and you are in great hands!

[wonderbiscuit]

Thanks everyone! Checking out that Jamf 100 now, and all of the other links and suggestions!

I've been an Apple user for 6 or so years now, as I have been a worship pastor using Ableton, MIDI network, and other functions. I am now in a multisite tech/worship support role, so I am in a pretty good place when it comes to Apple and all it can do. I've learned a bit of Python and C++, and have begun diving into imaging/building/AppleScripting as well. Seems like that is a good direction, thanks again!

We have a couple iMacs sitting around, so I may do a little JamfNOW testing to get familiar with it, thanks for the suggestion @mhasman !

Excited to be a part of this community too, I appreciate the kind help @blackholemac!

[blackholemac]

@wonderbiscuit Glad to hear you aren't starting from a complete blank slate with Apple though some of us here have been in that boat. Starting with Jamf Now is a good suggestion in that it will expose you to the MDM (mobile device management) framework and all the powers of it. If you need more than the MDM framework in your environment, you may outgrow Jamf Now rather quickly but it gives you a chance to start tinkering with the nuts and bolts of Apple Mac/iOS device management if nothing else.

You probably won't get to do much scripting/programming with Jamf Now as it is an entry level product that focuses on just the MDM aspect of Mac management if I recall correctly. That being said, it may be all you need to do what your seeking to do. If not, Jamf is pretty good about helping people identify whether they need the full-blown Pro product and getting people migrated to it from Jamf Now.

There are a lot of tasks that one can manage on macOS and the best piece of advice to give you is to pick one or two up at a time. For instance, maybe first you want to help people get their mail/chat/shares going automagically upon first login. Perhaps you want a bash script you've written to run at login for each user that uses your Macs? Maybe you've got 4-5 major music software packages you need deployed to a uniform audience?

Or maybe this summer you are doing a mass reimaging project of all the end user's machines while they are on vacation to get everyone up to a standard configuration? (I wouldn't recommend that, but it's the first project we did here with Jamf Pro in 2012.) Maybe you want to get an automated help desk going first?

The key is to solve a pressing problem first and grow as you go. I have been a Jamf customer since 2012 and quite honestly, I am not doing quite everything I quite want to do with the product yet on the Mac side. We manage 400 of them along with 5000 iPads so as you can see the Mac side doesn't quite get a fair amount of attention around here. It may sound overwhelming, but you learn a lot from each interaction on here and with the product.

Feel free to post here regularly. I have had folks do everything from help me with scripting syntax in their spare time to act as a sounding board for a major migration. It also works the other way around. On this forum if you can help someone, you should do it...for all you know the person you are helping may well hold the answer to a vexing problem you have 3-4 years from now.

welcome to JamfNation

[roiegat]

I would invest some time in learning Bash Scripting as well. It comes in really handy when you need to do things that aren't build it. Programming as a whole isn't easy to learn quickly, but Bash Scripting will serve you well if you need to customize things. There are plenty of JAMF Pro Scripts available for use, but many require modifications for your business so it's good to know how to interpret the script and modify it properly.

[wonderbiscuit]

Thanks @blackholemac and @roiegat ! I have definitely looked into Bash Scripting and am learning as much of that as I can currently, as it does seem to help out a lot. This is getting me in a better starting place for sure. I've talked to a Jamf representative which has also helped, as he could answer a few initial questions too. Now I'm moving forwards with understanding VPP and how they can work with previously owned App licenses, and how churches implement Jamf as well. Thanks for the help again guys!