iMac Office Hotdesking Multiple Machines

[bunn89]

I run a small business and we are looking to purchase 6x iMacs for the office

We want to have Hot-Desking capabilities so each member of staff can sit at any desk and login with their own credentials

When they login with their user/pass it will be on their specific profile with Email credentials etc. pre-saved in Mail app

Do apple support this directly, or is it 3rd party support?

[Durzel]

I’m not aware of any federated authentication on Apple only kit. There used to be Apple servers which I presume did this, but as far as I know it was quietly abandoned years ago.

My recommendation would be Microsoft Azure Active Directory with integration with Apple Business Manager.

We do what you’re trying to do at my offices, but we have on premises Active Directory with replication to Azure AD, so the Apple Business Manager stuff isn’t used.

[Captain_Morgan]

What kind of existing admin / infrastructure do have
What software needs to be available on the macs
How many users are hot desking
If they don’t get a desk are they working remotely and if so how


I believe that macOS server is still a thing and might help to a degree but you might well be into realms of 3rd party mdm software

[camel_landy]

Yes... It can be done.

You would need some additional infrastructure, such as an 'Active Directory' Domain Controller or and LDAP server but it is certainly possible.

M

[bunn89]

Thanks for the replies;

There's usually a maximum of 6 staff in the office at any one time. Our work is done via cloud based websites, email and phone.

Its mainly about having the correct email accounts setup on login at any one desk.

There's no current infrastructure setup. It was for the last year, 3 users working from home during covid, but now becoming office based and staff returning to workplace

[Captain_Morgan]

Not really my area but macOS server is still a thing but seems to have very little functionality these days.

Perhaps https://jumpcloud.com is worth investigating

[craigjm]

If everything you do is cloud based why not make the email and file structure cloud based too through the likes of office 365 so it’s all available from anywhere and you don’t need to worry about secure logins to the machines or azure or any of that.