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

    Encrypting Volumes in OS X Mountain Lion

    Encrypting a volume in OS X Mountain Lion couldn’t be easier. In this article, we will look at three ways to encrypt OS X Lion volumes. The reason there are three ways is that booted volumes and non-booted volumes have different methods for enabling encryption. The third way to enable encryption on a volume is to do so through Encrypting Attached Storage For non-boot volumes, just control-click or right-click on them and then click on Encrypt “VOLUMENAME” where the name of the volume is in quotes. When prompted, provide an encryption password for the volume, verify that password and if you so choose, provide a hint. Once the encryption process…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Running DHCP on Mountain Lion Server

    DHCP is one of the services that Apple has removed from its server product in the latest release, Mountain Lion Server. Given that the Server app and serveradmin command line tools no longer support using DHCP, it would seem on the outside that Apple no longer supports DHCP. However, when enabling Internet Sharing, the DHCP service is enabled and started. When this happens, a file called /etc/bootpd.plist is created and the LaunchDaemon located at /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/bootps.plist is configured to load and started. When enabled using the Internet Sharing option in the Sharing System Preference pane, the DHCP pool is automatically configured to use the LAN IP scheme of the LAN adapter…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Changes in Mountain Lion Server

    Mountain Lion Server is now available on the OS X App Store and as with the last few updates there are some things missing that you might be expecting and depending on. First up, three major services are gone: Podcast Producer, RADIUS and dhcp. You can still do dhcp as you always did with OS X client as those features work on OS X Server, but the more granular controls available in OS X Server are now gone. The biggest impact of dhcp is probably in testing NetBoot services when there are network issues and you need to prove to network admins that it’s the network and not your server……

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

    Disable Shadows on Screencapture in OS X Mountain Lion

    The process has changed a little bit in Mountain Lion for disabling shadows on screen shots, sometimes… By default, there’s no com.apple.screencapture manifest, so the first step is to create it with the boolean disable-shadow key set to true. This part is the same as with Lion: defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool TRUE Now check that disable-shadow shows as a 1: defaults read com.apple.screencapture But where it’s a little different is that you previously killed SystemUIServer w/out sudo: killall SystemUIServer SystemUIServer would then open back up and screenshots wouldn’t have shadows. And this still works sometimes. But now, I’ve noticed across the 30 or so systems in my lab that…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Where Did All My Server Commands Go In Mountain Lion Server?!?!

    Mountain Lion Server is a lot more self-sufficient as an app than it used to be. Not only do you no longer need the Server Admin and Workgroup Manager applications to manage the server, but the Server app actually has a faux root for the tools that were once distributed almost haphazardly  across the rest of the file system. These objects are now stored in a faux root, where /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot is the path to the faux root itself. If you need to access any command line tools, they are relatively placed to that path. For example, if you’re experimenting around with Profile Manager and need to wipe the database with…

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

    Cascading Software Updates in Mountain Lion Server

    A number of files got shuffled around in Mountain Lion Server. One is the swupd.plist file used to daisy chain multiple servers so they act as a cascade of software update servers. The new path for the property list is /Library/Server/Software Update/Config/swupd.plist. Here, the metaIndexURL key is sill the location that points to an internal Software Update Server that the server you are editing should look to for updates. To set a server to look at another internal server for software updates, edit the metaIndexURL key in the /Library/Server/Software Update/Config/swupd.plist file to include the path to the new server. The path should always have /content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist after the FQDN of the host…

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

    Jump Straight From Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion

    That’s right folks, Apple has been kind enough to allow users of Snow Leopard to go straight to Mountain Lion. I’m not saying I’d take a Snow Leopard Server directly to Mountain Lion Server without stopping off at the trusty Lion upgrade path grill for a burger and some fries, but for client systems, the Mountain Lion installer is built to upgrade either Snow Leopard or Lion clients directly to Mountain Lion. To install, just get to 10.6.8 and get all available updates installed and search for Mountain Lion in the App Store and click Install. Click Continue ’till the installer is finished and you’ll have a shiny new cougar…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Xsan

    Copy Files Status in Mountain Lion

    Of the new features in Mountain Lion, one I have already started to love is the fact that when you’re copying folders, you see a status in the Finder screen that lists the folders. This allows me to do a bunch of Finder level copies and rather than tile out the screens that I’m using to copy, I can just watch them from the parent folder. Sometimes it’s the little things…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Manage Gatekeeper from the Command Line in Mountain Lion

    Gatekeeper is the new feature of OS X that controls what types of apps can be opened. To configure Gatekeeper, open the Security & Privacy System Preference pane. Click on the General tab and unlock to make changes. Here, you’ll see “Allow applications downloaded from:” along with the following 3 options: Mac App Store: Only apps downloaded from the App Store can be opened. “Mac App Store and identified developers”: Only apps downloaded from the App Store and those signed can be opened. Anywhere: Any app can be opened. Configuring Gatekeeper is as easy as selecting one of these options. Now, under the hood, the state of Gatekeeper is kept…

  • Mac OS X

    Notification Center, Mountain Lion and Me

    I love Notification Center on my phone. I think it’s great to receive a simple list of items that have changed since the last time I looked at the phone.  I can also quickly dismiss the screen so the fact that there’s often 20 or more items in the list when I’ve been sitting at my computer for 10 minutes and not looking at the phone doesn’t really bum me out much. In Mountain Lion, Notification Center comes to the Mac. What I’ve grown to love on the iPhone, I’m not sold on for OS X. You see, the alerts that pop up on the screen are great for a…