Using the Jamf Pro API to mass-delete computers and mobile devices

Periodically, it may be necessary to delete a large number of computers or mobile devices from a Jamf Pro server. However, there is currently a problem in Jamf Pro 10 where trying to delete multiple devices can fail. Jamf is aware of the issue and has assigned it a product issue code (PI-004957), but it has not yet been resolved and remains a known issue as of Jamf Pro 10.4.1.

To work around this issue, you can delete computers and mobile devices one at a time. This does not trigger the performance issues seen with PI-004957, but this can get tedious if you have multiple devices to delete. To help with this, I’ve adapted an earlier script written by Randy Saeks to help automate the deletion process by using a list of Jamf IDs and the API to delete the relevant computers or mobile devices one by one. For more details, please see below the jump.

I’ve adapted Randy’s original script into two scripts, one for deleting computers and the other for deleting mobile devices. Both scripts work with a text file of Jamf Pro IDs, and also include error checking to make sure that the text file’s entries contained only positive numbers.

To use these scripts, you will need four things:

1. A text file containing the Jamf Pro computer or mobile device IDs you wish to delete.
2. The address of the appropriate Jamf Pro server
3. The username of an account on the Jamf Pro server which has the necessary privileges to delete computers and/or mobile devices.
4. The password to that account.

The test file should contain only the relevant Jamf Pro IDs and its contents should appear similar to this:

Once you have the text file and the other prerequisites, the scripts can be run using the following commands:

To delete computers:

/path/to/delete_Jamf_Pro_Computers.sh /path/to/text_filename_here.txt

To delete mobile devices:

/path/to/delete_Jamf_Pro_Mobile_Devices.sh /path/to/text_filename_here.txt

For authentication, the scripts can accept manual input or values stored in a ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.jamfpro-info.plist file.

The plist file can be created by running the following commands and substituting your own values where appropriate:

To store the Jamf Pro URL in the plist file:

defaults write com.github.jamfpro-info jamfpro_url https://jamf.pro.server.goes.here:port_number_goes_here

To store the account username in the plist file:

defaults write com.github.jamfpro-info jamfpro_user account_username_goes_here

To store the account password in the plist file:

defaults write com.github.jamfpro-info jamfpro_password account_password_goes_here

It is also possible to simulate a run of the script, to make sure everything is working before running the actual deletion. To put the script into simulation mode, comment out the following line of the script.

To take it out of simulation mode, uncomment the line.

In simulation mode, you can test out if the script is reading the text file properly and the authentication method. For example, the following output should be seen in simulation mode if the text file is being read properly and manual input is being used.

The following output should be seen in simulation mode if the text file is being read properly and the needed values are being read from a ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.jamfpro-info.plist file.

The scripts are available below, and at the following addresses on GitHub:

https://github.com/rtrouton/rtrouton_scripts/tree/master/rtrouton_scripts/Casper_Scripts/delete_Jamf_Pro_Computers

https://github.com/rtrouton/rtrouton_scripts/tree/master/rtrouton_scripts/Casper_Scripts/delete_Jamf_Pro_Mobile_Devices

delete_Jamf_Pro_Computers.sh:

delete_Jamf_Pro_Mobile_Devices.sh: