Applications…. how much trouble can it be? A lot!! I am not an expert in packaging apps but when I tried and I hear colleagues in the business who is experts I hear the same over and over: Its a hard work and takes time.
It looks like the wrapper needs to be updated to support multiple BundleIDs. Packages that might have multiple installs within that each have their own bundleID seem to not allow Intune to report back the app is installed and gives an er. You add a macOS line-of-business (LOB) app to Microsoft Intune, and then you try to deploy the app to macOS devices. However, the app isn't installed on the targeted devices, and no error messages are shown in Intune. For tutoring please call 856.777.0840 I am a recently retired registered nurse who helps nursing students pass their NCLEX. I have been a nurse since 1997. I have worked in a lot of nursing fields.
When putting up custom apps (Line-of-Business) in Intune we have a lot of possibilities for iOS, Android and Windows but are more restricted when it comes to MacOs. Hopefully it will get more and more developed, I am sure MS is working on it.
In Sweden a lot of schools have Mac as their choice for students. Many times they are not managed at all or managed by some 3rd party image solution. Before every school start in August a lot of computers needs to be reimaged and that takes time and is quite boring. Especially if you got thousands of Macs.
If Intune is used for MDM when it comes to iOS, Android or Windows 10 start using it for MAC as well.
Compare Intune what it can do against the non MDM solution that is in place at moment. It there is still need for even more advanced configuration settings and management JAMF is the way to go as an add-on to Intune.
Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool For Macos
The Requirements
Ok, lets get back to the core of this blogpost. What needs to be done to publish a custom application on our MacOS devices and using Intune only.
We are bound to some requirements when pushing these apps:
- The package is a product archive. Only PKG files may be used to upload macOS LOB apps to Microsoft Intune. Conversion of other formats, such as DMG to PKG is not supported. But I do have cases where that actually worked fine.
- The PKG file must be signed using “Developer ID Installer” certificate, obtained from an Apple Developer account.
- File needs to be wrapped prepared for Intune. You cannot upload the PKG file directly.
- The total of the file cannot be over 4 GB.
The Intune App Wrapping Tool for Mac must be run on a macOS machine as most of the other steps here so do all of this work on an Mac!
The steps
Intune App Wrapping Tool Macos Operating System
In short the steps are like this:
- Get an developer account on Apple
- Request an Developer ID certificate
- Download the Intune App Wrapping Tool for Mac.
- Extract the PKG from DMG if necessary
- Sign the PKG file with your own Developer ID Certificate
- Run the Intune App Wrapping tool to prepare the app.
- Publish the application in Intune and assign to the targeted groups
Sign the pkg file and upload
How prepare the file for use with Intune you can find on the link below:
Prepare the .PKG file for Intune
Upload and publish the app in Intune
Go to the Intune portal and then ‘Client apps/Apps’ and add a new Line-of-business app.
Watch the magic
So if the goods of Internet and machines are with us. The app should be installed within 5-10 minutes. Of course is that depending on the size of it.
Somethings to remember when working with MacOs and apps.
- For the Intune service to successfully deploy a new .pkg file to the device you must increment the package
versionandCFBundleVersionstring in the packageinfo file in your .pkg package. - iOS and MacOS LOB apps have a maximum size limit of 4 GB per app.
- On MacOS you can manage deployment of App Store apps but only via a VPP account.