System Updates via MDM and DDM

Addigy supports deploying System Updates for your devices via Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Declarative Device Management (DDM) by setting rules per policy.  These settings can be combined with Auto Assignment (Flex), allowing you to manage the OS of all devices within your policy or organization.  System Updates via MDM and DDM brings new functionality to updating and allows administrators to deploy new operating systems.

• Requirements
• Setting System Update Rules in Your Policy
• Restart Options
• Prompting
• Deployment Scheduling and Timing
• Available Updates and Update Status
• System Update History and Reports

Requirements

System Updates via MDM require the below for your devices:

• Device is Supervised
• macOS 12 and newer
• If macOS Silicon, either ADE or Reduced Security Mode
• iOS 9 and newer
• iPadOS 13 and newer
• tvOS 12 and newer

System Updates via DDM require the below for your devices:

• Device is Supervised
• macOS 14 and newer
  
  • ADE enrolled 
  • If non-ADE enrolled
    • Reduced Security Mode
• iOS 17 and newer
• iPadOS 17 and newer

Note: Devices with an Apple Silicon processor that have not been enrolled via Automated Device Enrollment will need to be set to Reduced Security Mode. See our article How to fix the Kernel Extensions and Software Updates Warning on Apple Silicon for instructions to enable Reduced Security Mode.

Setting MDM System Updates Rules in Your Policy

There are three options for rules inside the Policies > [policy name] > Updates > System Updates section. 

• Set maximum version (Addigy recommended)
• Keep devices updated to the latest OS (including major versions)
• Re-send update command if last status is older than (default is 24 hours)

In the example above, setting the maximum version number to 13.9.99 allows for devices in this policy to get all of the minor and patch versions of macOS Ventura (13) while not deploying via MDM macOS Sonoma (14).  This field follows the major.minor.patch versioning standard. Additionally, the update command will be sent again if the update status is older than 24 hours to ensure the status does not remain stuck. These same rules apply to the iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS options.

By default, all Enable options are unchecked.  Moreover, when you check an Enable option, the Set maximum version option is selected by default.

After setting up your rule set, click Save Settings to apply these settings to your policy.  These settings will inherit down through any descendant policies you have underneath this policy.

Update Method/Restart Options

System Updates via MDM follows the restart options listed in Apple's documentation.  iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS only have the Default restart option available.  macOS has the below options available:

• MDM Updates
  • Default
    • Download or install the update or upgrade, depending on the current state.
      • End user will get 60 second count down in Notification Center if a reboot is needed
  • InstallForceRestart
    • Perform the default action, and then force a restart if the update requires it. An upgrade always requires it. Important: InstallForceRestart may result in data loss.
  • InstallLater (this option supports end user deferrals)
    • Download the software update or upgrade and install it at a later time.
    • With Deferrals allowed set, the system will prompt the user once a day, up to the maximum amount of times, before showing the reboot pending (in Notification Center just like Default option) and having the device to continue with the minor update.
    • If "Allow user to defer minor updates" is not selected, the user will be able to infinitely defer updates.
  • DDM Updates
    • Update will be run on the macOS, iOS, or iPadOS device after the defined value of days after the release of the update and the macOS, iOS, or iPadOS device sees the update available from Apple when doing it check from Apple's software update servers. On that day at the defined time (device local time) the device will force the update. Prior to that date and time the end user will get prompts and when the clock runs down to 24 hours they will get an hourly prompt if the device is awake and then 60 min. from install the prompts will increase.
      • Note: On iOS devices an update can be deferred by the end user even if the install time is lapsed if they chose the emergency call option and then back out of that menu, however minutes later the device will prompt again.

End User Prompting (MDM)

If allow user to defer minor updates is enabled for macOS devices, then the end user will receive a prompt like this below. They can click on install immediately, try the install tonight, or remind them tomorrow.
 

If the allow user to defer minor updates setting is disabled but InstallLater is still being used, the end user will receive a prompt similar to the following:

If the Default or InstallLater option is selected, and the download process has completed, then the prompt to restart the device will show to the end user. The prompt will appear once during the Time Window set; if one is not set, it will appear once daily.

If the end user clicks on the 60-second prompt, then the installation of the update will be indefinitely postpone until the end-user reboots or shuts down their device.

End User Prompting (DDM)

The DDM based OS updates have a richer prompting experience to the end user. They will first be show a notification that an update is going to be installed at a date and time, and will be given the option to update early if they so chose. If the end user navigates in to System Settings to view the details of the update they can see the date and time that update enforcement is enabled for.

macOS

iOS

If that date and time of the enforced update is past due it will then go into a prompt and countdown cycle to the install point.

Deployment Scheduling and Timing (MDM Updates)

There are three timing options by which MDM System Updates will run.

• Nightly at 2AM UTC (default, automatic)
  • This process will automatically run at the time listed above and send the appropriate commands to all devices.  If the devices are offline, the commands will be queued and then executed when the device comes back online.
• On-Demand by Administrators (manual)
  • This process can be started by administrators and will start the System Update process immediately.  This supersedes any schedule that you have set.  This can be done device by device or by an entire policy.
• Schedule
  • If enabled, the Schedule disables the "Nightly at 2AM UTC" default process.
  • The process now will start based on the schedule settings created.
  • macOS 12+, iOS 14+, iPadOS 14+, tvOS 14+ will have this process run based on the device's time and time zone.
    • iOS 13-, iPadOS 13-, tvOS 13- will continue to run on UTC time as MDM does not report device time zone in iOS 13 and lower.
  • A time window can be set in 2 hour increments.
  • Moreover, you can have Addigy stop sending commands 30, 45, or 60 minutes from the end of the time window so that devices in your fleet can finish up prior to the end of the time window set for your System Updates.

If a device has more than 1 minor update, System Updates will always select the latest version to deploy skipping all lower versions.

Example: I have a macOS device that's on Monterey 12.3.1.  The policy that the device is in has a System Updates setting that states the maximum version allowed is macOS 12.5.  When checking the Available Updates for the device, it shows that it has macOS 12.4, macOS 12.5, macOS 12.5.1, macOS 12.6, and Safari 16 available.  When the System Update process runs for this device, it will be updated to macOS 12.5 and will also install Safari 16 (skipping macOS 12.4 and not installing macOS 12.5.1 or 12.6).

When update commands are deployed, the following will be included (if applicable):

• 1 update that requires a restart
• Any other updates that do not require a restart

The On-Demand updates via MDM option, Start System Updates can be found in the following locations within Addigy:

• Policy-wide: Policies > [policy name] > Updates > System Updates

• Per Device: Policies > [policy name] > Devices

The MDM Update Workflow from Start to Finish

1. If macOS, the System Updates process is started by sending the ScheduleOSUpdateScan command. If non-macOS, the process will start with the AvailableOSUpdate command
2. Addigy waits until we receive the response from the device that the command was executed, then, we go ahead and queue the AvailableOSUpdate command to check if any OS updates are available
3. Once we receive a response from the device via the AvailableOSUpdate command, we go through the list of available updates and validate what needs to be installed on the device depending on the version requirements configured in the Policy. If the Available Updates match the criteria, we will then send the ScheduleOSUpdate command to queue applicable updates
4. We use the OsUpdateStatus command to track the progress of the update. This command is sent to devices as part of our audits that occur automatically, approximately every hour
5. When we receive a list of statuses that are missing a previous status, we will try to use a combination of ScheduleOSUpdateScan and AvailableOSUpdate to determine if the update was installed or interrupted. If the update was installed, we will mark it as complete and move it into the history of installed updates.

Ways Update Scans can be Initiated

1. If using the "Default" scheduling, the devices will scan at 2 AM UTC
2. Overriding the recurring schedule via the Schedule Updates section in System Updates via MDM
3. By individual device by clicking on “Fetch updates from device” via GoLive > Updates (individual device)
4. By APIv2 via System Updates Scan endpoint to kick off the scan, and then the System Updates Available endpoints to narrow down what is available on the device(s)

Available Updates and Update Status

GoLive and the Policies > [policy name] > Devices section provide ways to know which updates are available for a device as well as the status of an update that is currently in progress.

• GoLive: Click the OS link found in the upper section

• Policies > [policy name] > Devices: Click the Actions menu and select System Updates

This will bring up a modal showing what updates are available for the device and the status of an update if it is currently in progress.

System Update History and Reports

GoLive and the Policies > [policy name] > Devices section provide ways to know which updates have been installed on the device.  The System Updates Status modal has a History tab that will show the last 90 days worth of historical data.

Moreover, you can request a report giving you the historical data around System Updates for a policy and its devices.  By heading over to Policies > [policy name] > Updates > System Updates, you can click Send Report (found on the top right) to have a report sent to your email with this data.