Parallels For Mac For Server Administration

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In this blog post, we will talk about how Iceland’s capital Reykjavik city administration manages Mac with Parallels Mac Management for Microsoft SCCM.

“The expense of the comparatively small Mac flotilla in our organization sometimes made me break out in a sweat… Thanks to Parallels Mac Management, this nightmare is now over. If I don’t get a good night’s sleep now, it’s for different reasons.” Halldór-Ingi H. Guðmundsson, It-Administrator of Reykjavik city administration.

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The Initial Situation

The IT department of Reykjavik city administration has over 50 employees and manages over 10,000 computers that run every major operating system.

A large variety of applications in Windows®, Mac®, and Linux® environments were being used in the different departments of the city administration. In addition to standard solutions from SAP®, Autodesk®, Microsoft®, Adobe®, and Citrix®, a wide range of customized programs met the specific requirements of individual functions. In order to be able to manage this heterogeneous IT landscape as efficiently as possible, the administration implemented Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) in 2006, making it possible to carry out inventories, distribute software, monitor licenses, and perform remote maintenance and anti-malware management of the entire fleet in a centralized manner.

Parallels For Mac For Server Administration Job

By 2015, however, approximately 200 Mac devices, belonging mostly to the graphics team, were excluded from this central system. Because they weren’t automatically recognized by SCCM, the hardware and software inventories of Apple® computers were inaccessible, with serious consequences for the security of the IT infrastructure, among other things. Administratiors were unable to ensure that all Mac users had the latest security patches installed, and there was no clear overview as to which programs were used in which versions on the Mac machines. New software versions had to be installed manually on MacBook®, Mac mini, and iMac devices, which were scattered throughout the organization. In contrast to Windows machines, remote maintenance was impossible. Every time a problem arose that could not be solved by the user, an employee from the IT department had to be called in.

The Solution

In the summer of 2015, a friend and IT colleague recommended that Guðmundsson take a closer look at Parallels Mac Management for SCCM because it could solve all his problems at once. His colleague told him that Parallels Mac Management had several benefits:

  • It made it possible to recognize and register Mac devices in the network automatically.
  • It could provide software packages, security patches, entire configuration profiles, and OS X® images centrally.
  • Instead of sending his employees throughout the building as before, Guðmundsson could use the Parallels solution to install authorized applications for the users via a self-service portal, and even set up any number of virtual machines, as and when necessary.
  • The full integration of the Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP) could be used to deliver new Mac machines without the IT department having to handle them. As soon as a user turned on a new device for the first time, DEP would provide a profile-based configuration of account settings, applications, and access to the organization services via an MDM server.

Guðmundsson’s curiosity was piqued and he immediately requested a Parallels Mac Management trial. Over subsequent weeks of intensive testing on Hyper-V® servers, it turned out that Parallels Mac Management had several advantages compared to the alternate OS X Server from Apple as an admin platform. After testing all functions and easily addressing any problems that arose as a result of the enormous number of hosts, the city administration chose the Parallels Mac Management solution. It has been an essential part of the IT infrastructure of Reykjavik’s city administration since autumn 2015.

The Results

“The expense of the comparatively small Mac flotilla in our organization sometimes made me break out in a sweat. Although most of our Mac users are technically competent to deal with problems or administrative tasks themselves, we had to go out regularly to restore operations. As you can imagine, there is hardly anything worse for the security and efficiency of a huge IT infrastructure than not knowing exactly what is and isn’t installed on the staff’s computers. Thanks to Parallels Mac Management, this nightmare is now over.” Halldór-Ingi H. Guðmundsson, It-Administrator of Reykjavik city administration.

For Guðmundsson, there are several core features that make Parallels Mac Management indispensable to his organization:

  • the automatic detection and registration of all Mac devices including software inventory
  • central management of the configuration profiles
  • the smooth distribution of software updates and security patches

He explains, “We now keep a close eye on our Mac devices, like our Windows computers, through the SCCM Reporting Dashboard. By leveraging native Microsoft SCCM reports, Parallels Mac Management provides us with all the relevant information, and through OS X configuration profiles, we can significantly improve adherence to compliance requirements. Through the Parallels Mac Management license management portal, we keep a close eye on the most important information, like licensing and usage statistics, and have a real-time overview of licensing activities, which makes it easier to manage all deployed licenses. As an administrator, I can view, deploy, disable, and set a blacklist through a dedicated account. The times when Mac devices were separate entities, and when we didn’t know what unpleasant surprises they contained, are thankfully over. Since every Apple user no longer has to work as an administrator and can concentrate on his/her own job, I am sure that Parallels Mac Management has not only had a very positive effect on the productivity of the IT department, but also on that of the departments we serve.”

For more information on the Reykjavik city administration and its usage of Parallels Mac Management with Microsoft SCCM .please click here.

Plenty of Mac users are already familiar with Parallels Desktop, which makes it easy to run virtual Windows applications on a Mac computer. IT administrators should become familiar with Parallels Desktop too, because it also comes in a business edition that provides centralized deployment and management features for Parallels Desktop on Macs across the enterprise.

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In a typical installation, Parallels Desktop runs locally on a Mac and provides a virtual environment for the Windows operating system (OS). That makes it possible to run Windows-based programs either side by side with Mac-based applications or within a dedicated space isolated from the Mac environment. With Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition, IT administrators can centrally deploy Windows-based virtual machines (VMs) and manage their settings, while providing a secure environment for conducting business and protecting sensitive data.

Getting started with Parallels Desktop Business Edition

To get started with the business edition, organizations must acquire the necessary licensing and set up a Parallels business account to manage the license keys. Administrators can register license keys and view detailed license information in the licensing portal.

A computer running Parallels Desktop automatically sends license renewal requests to the Parallels Key Administrator server, which makes that information available to the portal. From the portal, administrators can view a list of computers with active licenses, deactivate licenses on specific computers and even blacklist computers to prevent future licensing.

In my preview of Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac in San Francisco, California, I found that Windows 10 runs fluidly and swiftly on Apple’s MacBook Pro 15-inch and MacBook Pro 13-inch with TouchBar, and full support for the iMac Pro’s hardware could mean that Parallels could be one of the fastest Windows 10 experiences. Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac supports Apple’s latest hardware additions, specifically the TouchBar on the company’s latest MacBook Pro models as well as up to 32 virtual CPU cores and up to 128 GB of vRAM per virtual machine on the powerful iMac Pro hardware when it becomes available b. /free-parallels-for-mac-os-x-1075.html. This year’s release brings the software to version 13 and promises full compatibility with Microsoft’s Windows 10 Fall Creator update as well as Apple’s High Sierra operating system when these OS launch.

Preparing the Parallels Desktop VMs

An organization planning to implement Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition will likely want to deploy its own VMs to users, which means first creating one or more master VMs to include in the deployment package. Administrators start by setting up a Mac computer with the business edition installed, and then create and configure the Windows VM exactly as they want to deploy it.

Admins should install the Parallels Tools suite of utilities on the guest operating system to facilitate seamless operations between Mac OS X and Windows. Parallels Tools includes features such as the Mouse Synchronization Tool, which detects when the mouse input is inside the guest OS window, allowing users to go back and forth smoothly. This is also a good time to set up shared folders and user profiles, install applications and take any other steps necessary to prepare the environment for the end user.

The business edition supports a number of features not available to the Parallels Desktop basic edition, which admins can configure when setting up the master VM. For example, administrators can assign asset tags to the basic I/O system to help track and control VMs across the enterprise. They can also password-protect configuration settings, encrypt the VMs, or set an expiration date so the VMs work only for a specific period of time.

Regardless of the features they want to include, administrators should use this time to get the VM images just right. This will make the overall deployment and management processes easier going forward, and keep the user experience as painless as possible.

Deploying and updating Parallels Desktop packages

Next, administrators can download the Parallels Desktop Mass Deployment package, which includes the necessary files and instructions for installing the business edition on the local Macs, configuring the virtual environment and then adding VMs.

The configuration file (deploy.cfg) is a special script that automatically runs on Macs and controls the installation of Parallels Desktop Business Edition and VMs on the target computer. Administrators should update the script to customize their installations. This includes adding the license key to the script's licensing section. They can also configure settings such as restricting users from changing VM settings, controlling where the VM images reside, customizing the Parallels Desktop Control Center window and specifying how Parallels Desktop should check for updates.

There are also several options for how to deploy the packages. For example, admins can integrate their deployments with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), which allows them to deploy Parallels Desktop packages directly from the SCCM console. Administrators can also use Apple Remote Desktop to deploy the packages from a Mac on the corporate network. In addition, they can deploy Parallels Desktop packages from the JAMF Casper Suite or IBM Endpoint Manager.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition can also link with an update server on the local network. Administrators can download available updates from Parallels to the update server, which then updates the company's Mac computers with the new version. Most admins prefer that option over the alternative, which is downloading Parallels updates for each computer via the Internet.

Making the most of Mac in the enterprise

Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition makes it easier than ever to integrate Windows applications on enterprise Macs. The software package also includes extensive command-line utilities, support for NetBoot and a headless mode that allows the business edition to run as a service on a central Mac computer to support remote desktop access. Parallels Desktop also provides a software developer's kit to allow further customization of the service and can support additional guest OSes including Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, Android and Chrome.

Parallels Desktop does not guarantee that all apps will run as expected within their virtualized environments, but most do, and they usually perform well. That said, before implementing Parallels Desktop Business Edition on a mass scale, administrators should first test the applications they plan to run in the virtualized OS. They might run into a glitch here or there that they will need to address.

Even so, administrators will likely find that Parallels Desktop Business Edition takes Window/Mac interoperability to a whole new level, bringing the best of both worlds into a single desktop.

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