Offer 0-day support for new Apple operating systems

[lukeheath]

Problem

When Apple releases new versions of its operating system, it sometimes causes bugs in write operations on the host like scripts and configuration profiles.

Jamf offerts same-day support.

Potential solutions

1. Determine how/when to get a pre-release of a new Apple operating system.
2. Define ritual to ensure this continues to happen whenever a new OS update is released.
3. Conduct smoke testing on the new OS version and report/fix any bugs as priority items.
4. Confirm passing smoke tests with no new OS version-specific bugs before the OS version is pushed out to general release, and announce 0-day support.

[noahtalerman]

Hey @lukeheath, this makes sense to me. Do we have a QA DRI? I think it makes sense for that DRI to own this: gather instructions, define the ritual, etc.

What do you think? Moving this request to feature fest for now.

Leaving a couple questions for whoever ends up owning this here:

• Do we do this ritual for Apple's minor/patch releases? Maybe we start with major? I'm assuming this request is inspired by the upcoming macOS Sequoia (15) release.
• Do we have smoke tests defined for iOS and iPadOS?

[lukeheath]

@PezHub suggested this and has already arranged some testing, so I suggest he be the DRI for this.

(cc @georgekarrv)

[PezHub]

• @noahtalerman for now, this would just be for major releases, like the upcoming macOS Sequoia you mentioned.
• I'm not sure if @xpkoala has added smoke tests for iOS and iPadOS yet but that's a good call out since we'll want to do the same for those major releases

[noahtalerman]

Makes sense. I added this issue to the product board and added the story label.

I think we can take it through drafting => estimation like other stories.

@PezHub want to take a crack at updating this issue to use the user story issue template?

Once the issue is updated and the plan is filled out I think it makes sense to bring this one to an upcoming MDM design review (drafting process).

@georgekarrv and I can give feedback live that call.

[noahtalerman]

George: To do 0 day support we would do something like the following:

• When the release candidate is out, we prioritize firing up macOS 15 and fixing bugs.
• Con here is we can't address as many roadmap items

George: Alternative (3-6 week support) is we wait until macOS 15 is out and prioritize fixing bugs.

• Con is we don't catch bugs before customers do

@lukeheath and @zayhanlon what do you think?

[lukeheath]

@noahtalerman @zayhanlon I'm unclear how important this is to our customers. Of course we ideally want to be fully tested for 0 day support, but if that means bumping requested features to the next sprint it may not be worth the trade off. Right now, I think the disruption to our roadmap would not be worth it unless there is strong demand for 0 day support.

[zayhanlon]

i'm in agreement @lukeheath

[noahtalerman]

I think the disruption to our roadmap would not be worth it unless there is strong demand for 0 day support.

@zayhanlon and @lukeheath agreed.

Maybe the following can be our plan?

• When Apple ships macOS 15, the QA DRI for the MDM product group (@PezHub) opens a smoke testing ticket to test Fleet against macOS 15.
• Smoke tests are completed as part of whatever the current engineering sprint is and bugs are filed and we prioritize according (using P- labels as needed).

What do y'all think?

cc @georgekarrv

[georgekarrv]

Yes that's what the current process is (which equates to day 7-15 support and not 0) that I am totally fine with

[lukeheath]

Sounds like a plan! I am closing this issue.

[fleet-release]

Apple's OS updates, Fleet keeps pace, secure and swift, In a cloud city's drift.