• certifications,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Snow Leopard Certifications

    Apple has released the Snow Leopard certification information and site. To make a long story short, for those who are ACSA inclined, you basically have the Apple Certified Support Professional, which is just one exam based on the Snow 101 course. You then have the Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC), which is the Support Essentials Exam along with the Server Essentials Exam, based on the Snow 201 course. Now for where the changes come into play. First and foremost security has returned, although it’s been lumped in with mobility, likely to focus the syllabus on settings through managed client (ie – automated FileVaulting). Therefore, I guess the SANS course will…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Hey Snow Leopard, Where's My QuickTime Broadcaster

    As you may have noticed, I’m posting a lot about where tools have moved or what happened to them right now. Next on my list is QuickTime Broadcaster. It’s no longer included in Mac OS X client. So to install it, go to the /Applications folder on Mac OS X Server 10.6. I’ll try and put future items into a single post so as not to pollute news readers out there. Thanks for the patience.

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment

    Snow Leopard & Directory.app

    If you grew accustomed to using Directory.app in Leopard and you’re thinking about an upgrade to Snow Leopard then you might want to pause, if only for a moment. You see, there is no Directory.app in Snow Leopard. If you were using Directory.app to allow users to create Blogs and Wikis, then check out the new web interface and see if the specific functionality you seek is there; otherwise look into SACLs and consider pushing out Workgroup Manager. If you were using it to hook into LDAP and allow for looking up contact information then check out Address Book Server, included in 10.6 Server…

  • Active Directory,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment

    Directory Utility in Snow Leopard

    In Leopard, the Kerberos application got mad because the other utilities were making fun of him. So he went and hid in /System/Library/CoreServices and became an application that was summoned by other applications (ie – Keychain Utility) when they couldn’t do their own work and needed him. Directory Utility saw this and decided it looked like a pretty darn appealing way to go. So Directory Utility has now moved into /System/Library/CoreServices. Not that you will always need to use her. You see, if you open the Accounts System Preference pane and click on Login Options you’ll see Network Account Server. Here you can click on Join. With more space in…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Using Podcast Composer in Podcast Producer 2

    In Snow Leopard Server, Apple has introduced a whole new way to make Podcast workflows. It’s now simple to use, but still with amazing and powerful new automations that give Podcast Producer admins the ability to configure a host of new options quickly and easily. To get started, first setup Podcast Producer. Then, fire up Podcast Composer and go through 7 quick steps. First, provide a default name, author name and title for your workflow, then click on step 2. In step two you’re going to configure the source of the video and audio. For each of the three options, Single Source, Dual Source and Montage, you’ll have an i…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Snow Leopard Server Videos

    A number of videos I’ve been working on for Snow Leopard Server topics. My first time experimenting with YouTube playlists so please be gentle if it’s weird looking… They’ll be posted individually into the 318 TechJournal shortly. These are mostly covering the new features of Mac OS X 10.6 Server, although some of the older videos might be on other topics.

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Xsan

    Hey Spotlight, Skip This Folder…

    Whether it’s an Xsan with a wacky mdworker thread, a regular old box trying to scan a whole bunch of files you want it to skip or even a directory that you want to keep private, you can tell Spotlight not to scan a specified folder on your system. Simply use the following command, with the working directory of the shell as whatever directory you want skipped: touch .metadata_never_index In other words, create a file called .metadata_never_index in a folder and Spotlight will skip it. This isn’t to say it skips subfolders…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Kickstarting ARD

    The Command Line Fibre Channel Management and Setting up the Network Stack from the Command Line articles I did on Xsanity covered a couple of tasks that you more than likely perform on every client system you setup.  Now let’s look at another.   Whether you are deploying Xsan or managing it, assuming you have more than 1 machine to manage (and why would you use Xsan if you don’t) then a little Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) can make your life a lot easier.  You might be deploying a package to install the Final Cut Server.app or you might be installing Xsan remotely.  Or maybe you’re quitting Final Cut Pro…