Over a series of blog posts I’m going to be taking a look at managing Macintosh devices via the third party application Parallels Mac Management for SCCM. The Parallels product embellishes Macintosh Management within SCCM beyond what native Mac support in ConfigMgr is offering. Parallels have a simple datasheet that highlights these features in concise detail, let’s take a look at the current feature set against native. Quite an impressive list of features.
Parallels For Mac License Agreement Template
Parallels Desktop Lite allows you to easily run Windows, Linux, and their applications on your Mac. You don't have to reboot your Mac to switch between operating systems or when switching between Mac, Windows, or Linux applications. This article describes the licensing configuration steps necessary to enable Parallels Remote Application Server SaaS Edition. A special SaaS license key is required to complete this process.
Notice that the product works without PKI infrastructure within the ConfigMgr environment, native support requires the use of PKI and HTTPS based roles. Parallels does support PKI though if you want to use this.
For easy access to Parallels Desktop, drag the Parallels Desktop icon. From the Parallels folder to the Dock. This will enable you to launch Parallels Desktop by clicking the Parallels Desktop icon in the Dock. Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hardware virtualization solution for Mac computers with Intel processors. Developed by Parallels Inc., a privately held software company with offices in 15 countries, Parallels Desktop for Mac (referred to simply as Parallels from here on) allows Mac users to. If you would like to use your Parallels Desktop for Mac license on a new Mac, you should sign out of your account in Parallels Desktop on the old Mac. Click on the Parallels Desktop menu, and select Account & License. In the activation window, click on your account email address and select Sign Out.
The Parallels product doesn’t require the ConfigMgr client to be installed, it uses its own client for managing the devices and a set of roles are required to be installed for this management to take place. Parallels desktop enterprise edition. These are:
- The Configuration Manager Console Extension
- The Configuration Manager Proxy
- The NetBoot Server
- The OS X Sofware Update Point
- The MDM Server
In Part One, I will be undertaking the task of installing the Configuration Manager Console Extension
The Configuration Manager Console Extension
The Configuration Manager Console Extension extends the SCCM console enabling you to manage Mac OS X devices. To install the Parallels Configuration Manager Console Extension the pre-requisites are simple, you must install on a computer that has the admin console installed. In the tutorial below I have installed the extension on my site server.
To get hold of a trial installation of Parallels Mac Management for SCCM go to http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/mac-management/ and ‘Request a trial’.
You’ll be provided with a trial key and download links by the Parallels team. Once downloaded, run the ‘Parallels Mac Management for SCCM.exe’ installation file.
Click Next.
Accept the licence agreement and click Next.
From the list of Parallels features choose the Console Extension and click Next.
Parallels For Mac License Agreement
At this stage we are ready to install the extension. Click Install.
Moments later the install will complete. Click Finish to complete the installation.
If you load up the console you’ll see that the Parallels extension features have now been added to various workspaces. Here’s an example in the Administration workspace.
Note at this stage you’ll receive a moan from the System Tray that the Parallels Mac Management for SCCM Problem Monitor has failed to locate a SCCM proxy. Well at this stage we haven’t installed the proxy so that’s to be expected.
I’ll be moving on to the installation of the proxy in Part 2 of the Parallels Mac Management for SCCM blog series.
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