Coming Soon - macOS Big Sur Support

  • 20 November 2020
  • 13 replies
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Userlevel 3

The Automox agent will be compatible with macOS’s latest major release, Big Sur, which debuted as a stable release on November 12, 2020. All of Automox existing functionality will be available on macOS Big Sur.


Please note that all new mac hardware will only run macOS Big Sur. Additionally, older hardware will ship with Big Sur installed out of the box (technically downgrade-able).


We will continue our work to eventually support ARM based devices, however, Apple’s Rosetta 2 emulator will ensure compatibility for newer mac hardware in the meantime.


We are planning on release in early December. Please check back for updates!


CC: @ncolyer


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Userlevel 4
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Thanks for the update,


Currently what is the functionality of the agent if we upgrade to Big Sur? Will it continue to check-in but not patch? Additionally, will we need to reinstall once support comes online for it?


Thanks!

Userlevel 3

Hey @Mrichards, Thanks for the response.


Our recommendation is to not upgrade your hosts to Big Sur until we release the new agent, if you can avoid it. Agent 29 (current) is in fact compatible with Big Sur, however, the Agent Notifier will not work which means users won’t be able to defer reboots if they’re required.


When we release the new agent with the Notifier fixes a reboot will be required. No reinstall necessary.


If you’re planning on upgrading for testing purposes knock yourself out!

Userlevel 1

Did this happen yet?

Userlevel 3

Hello idf,

It did indeed! We support BigSur in Agent 30. The only thing I would want to mention is we do not truly support M1 processors yet but we have seen no problems utilizing the emulator with our agent on M1 systems.

Userlevel 3

Thanks, @BrandonCampbell.


@idf, we’re hoping to release ARM chip support in the next version of the agent (31) which hopefully will go out by the end of the quarter. As Brandon mentioned, Rosetta2 will cover Agent 30 in terms of Big Sur support for the time being.

Any updates?

Userlevel 3

Hey @jesse, we did in fact release Agent 31, but it focused on some security updates for the agent itself. I’m tagging my colleague @Chris who is working through requirements for supporting M1 chips. We ran into a bit of a snag in terms of being able to execute device commands on M1 machines and are actively in discovery for a solution.

Userlevel 4

Scott is correct. Full M1 support is still in development.


The current version of the agent will install and run (using Apple’s Rosetta2 emulation).


However, Apple made a significant change to macOS on ARM that effectively blocks macOS updates from downloading when using a software update command. Other vendors have been affected by this as well.


Apple now requires a volume owner to authenticate any software update. Our agent runs as “root”, which is not a volume owner.


Our teams are working on a solution, but I don’t have an exact release date just yet. Please note that this is an extremely high priority for us, and we’ll continue to work it as such until we have full M1 support.

Any news on the M1 support? Thanks

Userlevel 4

Sorry for the slow response. We just published a page on our support site to track updates for M1 Mac support: Apple Silicon (M1) Support | Automox Knowledge Base


Let me know if you still have questions, and I can work with the team to get answers.

Is there any news or an exact release date when the M1 devices will be fully supported (in detail the OS patching)? Due to the current supply situation, Intel-based Apple devices will soon no longer be available and a switch to M1 chips will be necessary.

Does it install by script yet? Thanks

Userlevel 4

@gbhg no exact date yet, but we’re expecting to have full support this quarter (Q3).


@richhickson yes, the bug that was blocking script installs was fixed. If it still doesn’t work for you, please let us know and we’ll take a look!