Last week, Parallels released v7 (build PMA2012-7.0.0.116) of their Mac Management solution for SCCM. I attended an online webinar hosted by the awesome Danny Knox, who ran through some of the new features in this release.

Here’s a couple of the big hitters in v7.

Internet-Based Mac Client Management

Internet based management of Mac devices via the Parallels solution is now available. To achieve this, a Parallels IBCM proxy is required in your DMZ. This acts as a proxy passing requests, via  permanent SSL-secured link, between Parallels Mac Client and Parallels Configuration Manager Proxy.

Note, if you have multiple primary ConfigMgr sites then you will need a Parallels IBCM proxy per Parallels Configuration Manager Proxy.

It’s a pre-requisite of this set up, that you must have at least one Internet enabled Management Point and Distribution Point in your ConfigMgr hierarchy.

Support for Non-OSD Task Sequences

Parallels Mac Management now allows you to create non-OSD task sequences. Previously, the “Deploy macOS Image” task sequence step was required to be added to a task sequence.

This feature adds the flexibility we have been used to with native task sequences in ConfigMgr when managing Windows devices.

The following task sequence steps can be used in a Non-OSD task sequence:

• Install Package
• Install Application
• Join Domain
• Execute Script
• Set Hostname
• Apply Configuration Profile
• Set Variable

Offline macOS Imaging from External USB Drive

Another native feature ConfigMgr admins are used to is the ability to create bootable USB media for OSD builds. Parallels has included this feature with Mac Management in v7.

This eliminates the need to stand up a Netboot server in your environment, or configure IP Helpers. A USB flash drive or external hard disk can be used to kick start the Mac build.

Note that this is creating bootable media only and not standalone. The bootable media will  connect to the Parallels Configuration Manager Proxy and retrieve the task sequences, the operating system images, and any other content from the network.

v7 now supports in-place upgrade of Mac Management from previous releases, easing the transition to the new release. So why not give these cool new features a go by upgrading.