Quickly set up and provision Macs with MDS. Within minutes of pulling it out of the box and using MDS, your Mac will be set up, configured, and ready to deploy. MDS works with all Macs (including new Macs) with Secure Boot and System Integrity Protection. MDS sets up all the resources for booting from the recovery partition or an external drive, wiping and installing macOS, and installing required packages. The entire process can be automated with the MDS Automaton to bring the actual time of setting up the Mac to less than 7 seconds. It is the easiest and fastest way to deploy Macs.
MDS 4 raises the level for Mac Deployment. MDS 4 adds in full support for Apple Silicon Macs and Big Sur Auto Advance. Kicking off a workflow takes less than 4 minutes from turning on the Mac; the setup is completely unattended. The MDS 4 includes package management with Munki, inventory fleet management with MunkiReport, MDM with MicroMDM, and much more. Quickly set up and deploy MDS 4 on a Mac and have all the resources you need to successfully deploy anywhere from dozens to thousands of Macs.
Reduce the time in front of each Mac to less than 10 seconds! The MDS Automaton automates the commands to start up in the recovery partition and kick off workflows. Using the Automaton makes it easy to set up and deploy a large number of Macs. Once the workflow starts running, the automaton can be unplugged and plugged into the next Mac. We recommend 5 automatons per tech that will be deploying Macs for peak efficiency!
MDS works by booting from the recovery partition (holding Command-R at boot or holding the power button on an Apple Silicon Mac), restoring from an external drive or web server, and then installing optional packages. In the past, administrators used NetBoot or booting from an external volume, but currently shipping Macs do not support NetBooting or booting from an external drive without changing security settings.
MDS is free! Use it to deploy as many Macs as you want for as long as you want. It is also open source hosted on bitbucket so you can depend on it being around in the future.
MDS does not replace a client management system but instead works seamlessly with it. Whether you are using Munki, FileWave, or an MDM-based client management system, use MDS to install the package that installs the client or enrolls the system.
MDS 4’s built-in MDM server supports the new Auto Advance feature in Big Sur. When a Mac enrolled in Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager starts up for the first time, an auto enrollment record will be downloaded from the MDM service and the Mac will auto advance through the Setup Assistant. Without a single key pressed, the Mac will be fully set up and enrolled in MDM. MDS also supports using 3rd party MDM services that support Auto Advance.
MDS can save the macOS installer, workflows, and configuration on an external volume or Disk Image via a Web Service for quick and easy access. After booting up from the recovery partition, you have all the resources you need for re-installing macOS and installer packages.
If you are deploying many Macs, speed is important. Let the Automaton do the keystrokes for you. MDS turns an inexpensive Arduino Micro into a powerful Automaton that fully automates the process. All you do is start up the Mac with the Option key held down, insert the Automaton into any USB port, and let the automation process happen: the Automaton picks it up from there.
MDS walks you through creating a bootable external disk so you can run workflows from an external drive or do maintenance on macOS without booting into the internal drive.
Auto Advance in Big Sur brings functionality to Deployment Enrollment and MDM that has been missing: Zero-touch setup. Prior to Auto Advance, a Mac that …