For the Accidental Mac Admin
Admin Crossover translates Windows administration concepts into practical macOS, Jamf Pro, PowerShell 7+, and Apple platform workflows.
Building DDM Declarations, Part 1: The Data Schema Shift (XML to JSON)
Explains the shift from XML configuration profiles to DDM JSON declarations, mapping legacy payload concepts to Type, Identifier, ServerToken, and Payload.
Building DDM Declarations, Part 2: PowerShell Object Manipulation for DDM
Shows how to build DDM Configuration and Activation declarations with PowerShell objects, arrays, nested hashtables, predicates, and ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10.
Building DDM Declarations, Part 3: Deployment via the Jamf Pro API
Explains the supported Jamf Pro path for custom DDM declarations: deploy with Blueprints, authenticate to the API, and verify DSS and DDM status data.
DDM Architecture Shift, Part 1: The Polling Bottleneck
Explains why legacy macOS MDM's polling model creates a server-side bottleneck: APNs, mdmclient, command queues, and the computational cost of repeated delta calculations.
DDM Architecture Shift, Part 2: The Autonomous Endpoint
How the macOS client becomes an autonomous desired-state engine: parsing declarations, evaluating predicates, applying configurations, and enforcing state without waiting for server commands.
DDM Architecture Shift, Part 3: Status Channel and Delta Reporting
How DDM status subscriptions let Apple devices report subscribed state changes without legacy inventory polling, using status item key paths, delta reports, FullReport, and Base64 JSON.
The Shell Crossover, Part 8: Logs and Troubleshooting from the macOS Terminal
Translate Event Viewer habits to macOS terminal troubleshooting with unified logging, log show, log stream, predicates, install.log, and tail.
The Shell Crossover, Part 7: Installing Software from the Terminal
Bridge MSI and EXE habits to macOS terminal installs with pkg, app, dmg, installer, hdiutil, pkgutil, ditto, and system_profiler.
The Shell Crossover, Part 6: Permissions, Ownership, and sudo on macOS
Map Windows permission and elevation habits to macOS ownership, POSIX modes, ACL inspection, sudo, root, admin users, and SIP boundaries.
The Shell Crossover, Part 5: LaunchDaemons Are Not Windows Services
Translate Windows Services and Scheduled Tasks into macOS launchd concepts, including LaunchDaemons, LaunchAgents, plist keys, and launchctl.