How to install macOS at your organisation

If you're the system administrator for your organisation, you can choose from a variety of macOS installation methods.

Before installing, make sure your Mac is connected to a network with access to the necessary Apple hosts for software updates and installation.

Use Mobile Device Management (MDM)

If your Mac computers are supervised, you can use Mobile Device Management commands to install macOS updates.

Use the 'startosinstall' method

If you're installing from and to your computer's startup disk, you can use the startosinstall command in the Contents/Resources directory of the macOS installer.

  • To specify more packages to install after macOS, add the --installpackage flag. To build these packages, use the productbuild(1) command.

  • If you want to erase your current startup disk first, you can use the --eraseinstall flag. This process erases all volumes in the APFS container unless you also add the --preservecontainer flag.

  • For more information about startosinstall, add the --usage flag to the command.

Use another installation method

These installation methods will work whether macOS is currently installed on the target volume or not:

Find out more

If you're preparing a Mac with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 security chip for another user at your organisation, you can erase all content and settings without reinstalling macOS.

Apple doesn't recommend or support monolithic system imaging as an installation method.  The system image may not include model-specific information, such as firmware updates.

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