macadmin.info
A resource for beginning and experienced Mac/Apple administrators.
High-level of what is here.
Getting Started
Meetups and Conferences
Reading: Books and Blogs
Management Tools
Admin Software
Security
Personal Development
Jobs
More Lists and Resources
New to Mac/Apple administration? This is a list of things to looks at to get started. Mostly just the foundations so you can ask the right questions. Books, conferences, and meetups are listed separately.
Apple has a few docs to get you going.
Apple doesn't always provide the documentation you're looking for. The community often does, though.
Flat Packages - an introduction
Flat Packages - the missing documentation
MacAdmins Configuration Profile Reference
Reading and experimenting are great. However, meeting up with your peers just can't be beat. This section is broken into meetups: often monthly, and just for an evening, conferences: typically multi-day, annual events, and online: mailing lists, message boards, and chat resources.
Meetups are casual, regular gatherings where you can ask questions of your peers, and very likely, make a presentation yourself.
Macbrained
Macbrained MSP
MacAdmin Monthly
Seattle Mac Admins
London Apple Admins
Austin Apple Admins
Dallas Apple Admins
Houston Apple Admins
Macbrained YVR
MacDMV (Washington, DC)
Atlanta Apple Admins
Greater Philadelphia Mac Admins
East Midlands Apple Admins
Conferences are larger, often annual events that generally span more than one day.
Technical Conferences
Mac Admin and Developer Conference UK (MacADUK) - London, England
MacDevOps:YVR - Vancouver, Canada
MacDeploy - Calgary, Canada
Penn State MacAdmins - Penn State College, PA, USA
X-World - Sydney, Australia
MacSysAdmin - Gothenburg, Sweden
MacTech Conference - Los Angeles, CA, USA
MacTech Pro - Various cities and dates across the US
Objective By The Sea - Twice a year Apple-focused security conference in Hawaii and Europe
JAMF Nation User Conference - Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
MacAdminsUA - Kyiv, Ukraine
You're an Apple-focused consultant or freelancer running your own business or managing your time? Want to connect with others that are both technical *and* on top of their business acumen? Here's the place to look.
For the day-to-day reaching out to the community, online resources are the way to go.
MacAdmins Slack
MacEnterprise Mailing List
Apple Mailing Lists
Apple Discussions
JAMFNation
Munki User Mailing List
AutoPkg (command line tool) Mailing List
AutoPkgr (GUI app) Mailing List
Microsoft Office for Mac Resources
There are plenty of things to read out there to get you up to speed, or learn more advanced topics.
For our purposes, "books" will include physical dead-tree versions, along with digital downloads/iBooks.
macOS Support Essentials 12 (Adam Karneboge, Ben Levy, with Steve Leebove)
Packaging for Apple Administrators
PropertyLists, Preferences and Profiles for Apple Administrators
macOS Installation for Apple Administrators
Apple Device Management (Charles Edge, Rich Trouton)
The Apple community is pretty great about sharing knowledge. While there are plenty of great blogs, the ones listed here focus on the technical aspects of macOS and iOS.
DerFlounder - Rich Trouton's site
Krypted - Charles Edge's site
Managing OS X - Greg Neagle's site
MacMule - Ben Toms' site
Scripting OS X - Armin Briegel's site
OK...some of these aren't technically "reading", but like reading, they are a one-direction experience.
Both commercial and open source software for centralized fleet management.
Munki - Endpoint software and package management
Munkireport-php - A reporting server for Munki
Sal - Multi-tenant reporting for Munki
Chef - Configuration management
Puppet - Configuration management
Salt Stack - Configuration Managmenet
Ansible - configuration managment
Zentral - Endpoint monitoring
RudolphA Santa sync server
Tools that make use of Apple's Mobile Device Management APIs.
SimpleMDM - Mac MDM management
Kandji - Mac MDM Server with managment capability
JAMF Pro - You know....JAMF
MicroMDM - Open source Mac MDM management
MDMDirector - An opinionated orchestrator for MicroMDM
Mosyle
Besides management, there are a number of tools to make your admin life easier.
AutoDMG - Create deployable system images.
Packages - A package-building utility.
AutoPKG - Automate package building with the help of the community.
The Luggage - Repeatable, reviewable package automation.
Munki-Pkg - Another repeatable, reviewable package automation tool.
JAMF Composer - Package building tool
SUS-Inspector - Inspect Software Update Service
Suspicious Package - Quicklook a peek into packages
ProfileCreator - macOS app to create configuration profiles
Keeping a fleet of Macs—or just one—safe.
Stuff to buy/install. Hey, I don't judge.
Santa - Binary whitelisting agent for macOS
OSQuery - Endpoint visibility
Crypt - FileVault encryption and key escrow solution.
Cauliflower Vest - Scalable key escrow solution for FileVault, BitLocker, LUKS, and Duplicity.
Zentral - Endpoint monitoring
Pareto Security - MenuBar app to promote basic security hygiene
Objective-See Security Tools
Lock Rattler - Quickly check a Mac's security settings
Apple Security Announce Mail List
Security is a process. Here's where you can learn more about it.
Apple Platform Security guide
MacAdmins #security - Join the #security room after you sign-up for MacAdmins Slack.
Getting started in macOS security
Learning is a never-ending task. Here are some ways to keep your skills sharp and level up.
A 1-to-1 relationship with someone that you can run ideas by and get tips on improvement.
Need a job or looking to switch? Here are some places to be looking.
MacAdmins #jobs-board - Join the #jobs-board room after you sign-up for MacAdmins Slack.
indeed.com and LinkedIn with keyword searches like “Jamf”, “Munki” or “iOS”
JAMF Nation job boards
Eligo (UK)
There are other Mac Admin lists, each with a particular focus. Here are pointers to the ones we know about.
Krypted - The Apple Toolchain - A pretty comprehensive list of everything.
Awesome Mac Admin Tools - A list of "awesome" tools.
Python Mac Admin Tools - Only open source tools written in Python make this list.
Krypted - Mac Admin Conferences - A bigger list of conferences.
Mac Admins Documentation - Documentation for popular products, utilities, and how-tos.
all-the-macadmin-conference-videos - List of the video feeds/channels from varios Mac Admin conferences and Meetups
This is a community resource. This site is hosted on GitHub, so please send pull requests to add, update, or offer corrections, or file a new issue.
A big thank you to the people that have contributed to the information on this site.
@mrnickmcspadden
@zoocoup
@macjustice
@ctdawe
@fuzzylogiq
Armin Briegel
@head_min
@daz_wallace
@meck
@jhbush1973
@bruienne
@dials_mavis
@grahamrpugh
@phillymacadmns
@phillipboushy
@NReilingh