Deploying Parallels Desktop via MDM App Catalog (as seen in Jamf Pro)

As mentioned before, we recommend you to deploy the licensing/PPPC profile first, and follow it up with the Parallels Desktop for Mac app from your MDM's app catalog.

This chapter uses Jamf Pro for demonstration purposes. If you use a different device management solution, check their respective guide on distributing profiles and using built-in app catalogs.

Note: If you cannot find Parallels Desktop for Mac in your MDM solution's app catalog (or it does not have a built-in app catalog), and you would like to use a script to create the deployment package, use the following permanent link to get the latest version of the Parallels Desktop for Mac DMG: https://link.parallels.com/link/66a0eecfbfZ6/

Deploying configuration profiles in Jamf Pro

To add your pre-made configuration profile to Jamf Pro and distribute it to your users' Macs, from the main Dashboard, go to Computers > Content Management > Configuration Profiles and click the Upload button in the top-right corner, selecting the .mobileconfig file with the configuration profile made in the previous chapter.

This will open the profile for editing, where you will be able to switch to the Scope tab and select the target machines or specific user groups.

Note: One of the benefits of Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise Edition is that you can mix per-device (license key) and per-user (SSO) activation methods within the same corporate setup. Therefore, you may need to provision some machines with a license key profiles, and some with SSO profiles. Make sure you distinguish user groups and don't end up deploying two different profiles to the same machine.

Refer to your MDM solution's guide for syncing user groups with your identity profider.

Deploying Parallels Desktop for Mac from Jamf Pro app catalog

To deploy Parallels Desktop for Mac using Jamf Pro's built-in app catalog, from the main Dashboard, go to Computers > Content Management > Mac Apps and click the + New button in the top-right corner. Select Jamf App Catalog as source and choose Parallels Desktop 20.1 or newer for deployment.

Attention: Parallels Management Portal requires the local installations of Parallels Desktop to be version 20.1 or newer to establish and maintain connection.

During the setup, you can choose a group of computers that the app will be deployed to. You can set up groups under Computers > Groups.