We all know that we need to test the things before we move on to production. Now, I am sure there are more people like me who have very less knowledge on Mac VM creation and just face issue to create it and then enrolment to Intune becomes other challenge. I have seen separate posts where people explained, how to create a Mac OS VM and the other posts on how to enrol them to Intune. So, here is my blog for creating your mac VM step by step and then the procedure to enrol mac VM to Intune.
Note: Pardon me for my English or language mistakes I am not so much good of writer just concentrate on the technical part and things should be easy folks.😉
This post is divided into 3 phases:
Phase 1 – creating VM Image out of Mac OS.
Phase 2 – Download the package of company portal and install the same.
Phase 3 – Steps to enrol your mac VM.
Pre-requisites:
Expectation here is that you already have some hands-on knowledge coming here to check out the mac VM enrolment. Based on that this article explains the procedure step by step.
1. Testlab for Microsoft Endpoint Manager Admin Center(better called as Intune)
2. Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security E5 license for the user who wants to enrol the device.
3. Mac OS ISO image file version 10.14 or later, in this post I am using Mac OS BigSur(11.0.1)
4. VMware Workstation Pro to create a VM.
NOTE: Microsoft suggests that Mac VM should only be used for testing purposes and not in production so please be aware of that and you just might not want to do this in Production.
Ok so once you are done and ready with all the pre-reqs lets just get started with our phase 1 to create the Mac VM
PHASE 1
Download VMware workstation latest version from https://www.vmware.com/in/products/workstation-pro/workstation-pro-evaluation.html and the just run the installation on your windows device. I am using Vmware workstation version 16 for my lab.
Once it starts just click on File and select New Virtual Machine
A new wizard starts and helps you create your new VM just follow the steps below,
Select Typical and then click Next:
Choose, I will select the Operating system later and click Next:
In this window select Guest Operating system to be Apple Mac OS X and then version as Mac OS 11.0 and then next.
Next you would need to choose your VM location where you want to save it as well as provide an appropriate name, click Next.
Specify the disk capacity in here.
Note: Remember to set it up for more than at least 35 GB. As less than 35 GB would not allow you to install Mac.
Select store virtual disk as a single file and then Click Next.
Once every thing is done just click on Finish.
Now, if you have something to change like Assigned memory or Disk size and others you can just right click on the VM you just created and change it accordingly,
In the above window select CD/DVD (SATA) to choose the OS and then browse onto the location where you have your mac ISO downloaded. Select it and click OK.
This here does not mark the completion of your VM creation before starting installation or powering on your VM make sure to make the below changes into your .vmx file. These changes are necessary so that you have no issues powering on your VM and to enrol smoothly into Intune otherwise you will face some issues.
Navigate to the file location of .vmx and right click open it with Notepad like below:
Make sure to add the below lines in the end of this file:
smbios.reflectHost = "TRUE"
hw.model = "MacBookPro14,3"
serialNumber = " "
board-id = "Mac-551B86E5744E2388"
smc.version = "0"NOTE: I have kept the serial number part empty so that you can enter your own, it is of format like below screenshot but make sure you use your own serial number in the same format or try copy from some physical mac and just change the last digit. This is important otherwise Intune will not recognize your device and would not allow you to enrol.
After these changes are appended to Notepad save the .vmx file and now you can power on your VM.
Power on your VM and just wait for it to boot up.
Select English and click on the arrow below to go to next window:
Click on Disk Utility and Continue:
Select VMware Virtual SATA Hard Drive Media and Select Erase
Provide Name and rest keep as it is and then just hit Erase:
Let it complete and then just click Done when completed:
Go to Disk Utility above and then click Quit Disk Utility
Click Install Mac OS Big Sur, click continue
Click Continue
Click Agree and then Agree again:
Select the disk and click Continue
Wait for it to install to complete
PHASE 2
Now once you setup your VM, installation is complete and then you log into your mac, we are ready to execute our second phase i.e., download and install our company portal package.
To download the company portal package copy the below link and paste it in your safari browser.
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=853070
you will get the below notification just click on Allow.
On the Apple dock below you will see the package downloaded and popping up for you to install, select it and start installation.
Click Continue
Read the license and the click Continue
Click on Agree
If you want to change the installation location you can, in my case we had one drive only as seen earlier so just click on Install
You would need to provide your account password again to install the software and the click Install Software
Application starts to install once done click on Continue
Click on Close once the installation is successful.
You will get the below Notice of MS AutoUpdates just click Ok to close.
This marks the completion of Phase 2 and you have now successfully installed Company portal on your Mac. Next we would move onto Phase 3 of our Mac enrolment to Intune.
PHASE 3
From the Apple Dock and click on Launchpad
From Launchpad select Company portal and run it.
Click on Sign In
Provide the user credentials who has the authority to enrol devices
Once logged in you will see the Vendor name at the top in this case TestLab and also notifications will pop up at the top. Click On Begin.
Step1: Review the privacy information. Click Continue
Step2: Install management profile – Click on Download profile and wait for it to pop up Profiles window for installing the management profile.
Select Install to install the management profile and proceed.
Click on Install
Provide Mac login credentials and click enrol.
NOTE: If earlier in Phase 1 we would not have made changes to .vmx file for serial number here your installation of profile would fail as by default mac VM takes serial number of windows host. So, make sure to keep the changes in .vmx file.
Once all the enrolment tasks completed successfully you will see the below line in Profiles highlighted. Close the profiles window.
Step3: Check Device settings completes automatically and once done below message shows up. Click on Done.