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Security issues keep every IT professional up at night. Even for Apple admins, you're just one zero-day exploit away from a nightmare. Equally troubling is that your fleet of computers does not comply with your organization's IT policy regarding macOS updates. Hundreds of organizations use Nudge to update their Macs, and it's one of the most underrated macOS admin tools available.
About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed the enterprise IT network from 2009 to 2021. With experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, MDM, enterprise Wi-Fi, thousands of Macs, and thousands of iPads, Bradley will share how Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, and train users , tell stories about the intricacies of IT management and ways Apple can improve its products for IT departments.
What is Nudge to macOS?
Nudge is a user-friendly, lightweight, open-source application designed to gently nudge employees to upgrade their company's Macs, ensuring everything meets IT department expectations. It cleverly puts reminders right where you can't miss them, and those reminders start appearing more frequently until your Mac is updated and ticks all the right boxes. Below is an old but still relevant presentation on Nudge.
How does Nudge work?
Nudge runs silently in the background via LaunchAgent. You define its behavior by setting the update frequency and version requirements in a profile or JSON file. It works by comparing the installed version of macOS with your specified requirements. Nudge remains inactive if the current system version meets or exceeds the required one. Conversely, if the system version is behind, Nudge outputs. notification to the user, highlighting the discrepancy between the current and required versions of macOS.
Whenever Apple releases a new update, your job is to update the profile with the latest version requirement and associated deadline, and then deploy that updated directive. While I haven't looked into the JSON method, it seems like a viable and perhaps preferable alternative.
As the update deadline approaches, Nudge's reminder frequency increases. After the deadline has passed, his persistence increases even more. Essentially, your role as an Apple IT Administrator in Nudge is to update and manage the profile or JSON file with the necessary instructions that can be adapted at any time in response to Apple updates. It also offers several additional configuration options.
How to deploy Nudge?
Although you can deploy the Nudge configuration directly to the Mac using package deployment through your device management system. It is generally recommended to create a managed configuration profile (.mobileconfig) and run it through the device management system.
Summary
If Nudge were a commercial application, it would still be one of the most invaluable tools for macOS administrators. Because it's an open source tool, we all owe it to the team behind it that thousands of companies are better protected. It does a great job of “nudging”; People are eager to update their Macs to the required version in a time system that allows them to remain productive, but telling them that very soon you will have to spend time upgrading
To get started. , visit Nudge's Github page.
