Simian is an enterprise-class Mac OS X software deployment solution with Google App Engine-based hosting to scale with the needs of your growing enterprise, and a future proof client based on the Munki open-source project.
Simian offers the user a whole server, ready to run on App Engine, which Munki clients connect to.
Running on App Engine provides multiple benefits:
· Scaling to N number of clients is automatic; as your Mac fleet grows, so does App Engine.
· No deployment or management of additional infrastructure in your organization is required; App Engine is hosted entirely on Google's servers.
· Clients can connect globally using any Internet connection, without needing a VPN or corporate network changes to expose services.
Additionally, Simian offers you a dynamic, programmed server capable of adapting to clients, rather than a static server of files. Because of this:
· Simian can generate software manifests dynamically, on the fly, based on client properties.
· The administration overhead of static manifest management is removed.
· Any possible customizations to client software offerings are possible by modifying the server.
Detailed instructions on how to install and use the Simian utility on your Mac are available HERE.
Here are some key features of "Simian":
· Deploy new or updated software by targeting a single Mac or tens of thousands.
· Deploy updates whether the Mac is on an internal network/VPN or not.
· Force unattended/background installation of some packages, while allowing others to be optional.
· Forcefully deploy security patches and reboot Macs after a given date, with varying levels of warning notifications.
· Tightly manage Apple Software Update catalogs and update release, or let updates auto-promote automatically.
· Dynamically target clients based on user, hostname, os version, and more.
· Obtain reports on all of this and the fleet overall.
Requirements:
· Python 2.5 or later
· setuptools, and other third-party packages.
What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
· Enhanced web UI functionality, logging, and Munki crash reporting.
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