Deploy Tailscale with JumpCloud

You can use the JumpCloud mobile device management (MDM) solution to deploy Tailscale across your organization. JumpCloud lets you distribute and install Tailscale automatically on your fleet of devices. You can then configure a number of system policies, and use JumpCloud to deploy these policies across the devices in your organization. Tailscale system policies via JumpCloud are supported on Windows, macOS, iOS/tvOS, and Android.

If you need help deploying Tailscale using JumpCloud, or would like to suggest any feature enhancements, contact our support or sales teams.

Deploying Tailscale on macOS using JumpCloud

To deploy Tailscale to a fleet of Macs managed via JumpCloud, follow these steps. You'll first configure JumpCloud to fetch and distribute the Tailscale .pkg installer. Then, if needed, you'll be able to configure and deploy a set of system policies to customize the behavior of the Tailscale client according to the needs of your organization.

Distributing the Standalone variant of the client

Follow these steps to add Tailscale to the deployable apps in the JumpCloud admin console:

1. Log in to the JumpCloud admin console for your organization at https://console.jumpcloud.com.

2. Navigate to Software Management in the sidebar, and then navigate to the Apple section to bring up your library of deployed macOS apps.

3. Select the + button at the top-left to add a new app. Choose the Self-hosted option, which lets you define a new application by providing a URL to a .pkg installer.

   

4. In the Software Description field, enter Tailscale.

5. In the Software Package URL field, enter the download URL for the Tailscale installer, such as https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/Tailscale-1.76.1-macos.pkg. To determine the URL to use, navigate to our packages server to find the latest available version of the client. Replace 1.76.1 with the current version number.

1. Select the Validate button to verify that JumpCloud is able to fetch the installer package. If successful, you'll see the version field populate with the version you chose.

Then, assign the Tailscale app to a device or a group of devices:

1. Navigate to either the Devices or Device Groups sections, and select one or more device or device groups that you wish to deploy Tailscale on.

2. Select Save to confirm the selection. After confirming, JumpCloud will begin to silently run the Tailscale .pkg installer on the devices or device groups you selected.

Deploying system policies on macOS using JumpCloud

We suggest reading the system policies topic to identify configuration options suitable for your organization. Once you know which policies you want to deploy to your fleet of devices, follow these steps to define them in JumpCloud:

1. Log in to the JumpCloud admin console for your organization at https://console.jumpcloud.com.

2. Navigate to the Policy Management section in the sidebar.

3. Select the + button at the top-left of the view to add a new policy. In the modal window that appears, choose Mac.

4. In the list of available policy types, choose MDM Custom Configuration Profile, which will allow you to upload a custom .mobileconfig file.

   

5. Choose a descriptive policy name and description (optional). For instance, Tailscale System Policies.

   

6. In the Mobile Configuration File section, upload a .mobileconfig file containing your policies. You may find an example within our macOS MDM setup guide.

7. Assign the policies to a group of devices or one or more device by selecting items in the Device Groups or Devices section respectively.

8. Select Save to save the policies. JumpCloud will begin deploying the configuration profile to selected devices momentarily. The Tailscale client must be restarted in order for all policies to be applied.