OS X has the ability to delete all of the firmware variables you’ve created. This can get helpful if you’ve got a bunch of things that you’ve done to a system and want to remove them all. If you run nvkram followed by a -p option you’ll see all of the configured firmware variables: nvram -p If you run it with a -d you’ll delete the given variables that you define (e.g. boot-args): nvram -d boot-args But, if you run the -c you’ll wipe them all: nvram -c
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Getting Help With Server 5.2
OS X Server 5.2, running on Sierra, comes complete with lots of awesome features. And these features are made easier with some documentation to help you get up and running, started and owning the configuration of Apple Servers. One such is the built-in options to help manage your servers. Open Server, click Help, then click Server Help. You can then search and browse for information about things you’d like to accomplish using the Help Center. Now, click the arrow for each service for information about configuring that service. And just like that, simple and easy-to-use documentation, available live on OS X Server, guiding you to accessing the features you need.…
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The Official macOS Server Documentation
I’ve written plenty about macOS Server over the years. But way more effort went into the official documentation from our friends at Apple. There’s lots of nuggets here at: http://help.apple.com/serverapp/mac/getstarted/5.2/ Enjoy!
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App Store Preferences To Set In On Server 5.2 for macOS Sierra
By default, OS X now updates apps that are distributed through the Mac App Store (MAS). Server running on macOS Sierra is really just the Server app, sitting on the App Store, installed on a standard Mac. If the Server app is upgraded automatically, you will potentially experience some adverse side effects, especially if the app is running on a Metadata Controller for Xsan, runs Open Directory, or a major release of the Server app ships. Additionally, if you are prompted to install a beta version on a production system, you could end up with issues. Therefore, in this article we’re going to disable these otherwise sweet features of OS X.…
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Capture Smaller Screenshots On Retina Displays In Sierra
By default, screenshots are pretty big on a retina display on a Sierra machine. Like about 4 times the size they should be. I haven’t found a defaults key I can use yet to reduce them, so I’ve been using this little screenshotting app called RetinaCapture, available at https://gumroad.com/l/retinacapture. Basically, when you’re running it, you just open it up and click on the Window button. There, you can select a window to screenshot. Once you’ve selected the window, you’ll be prompted to save it somewhere with a name. I don’t love having to use any 3rd party apps for my screenshotting workflow. In fact, it bugs the crap out of me. Screens get resized…
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Upgrade from OS X to macOS Sierra
Installing OS X has never been easier than it got in Yosemite, when the installers were moved to the App Store. And since then it’s just gotten easier, and easier. In this article, we’ll upgrade a Mac from OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) to macOS Sierra (10.12), the latest and greatest. The first thing you should do is clone your system (especially if you’re upgrading a server). The second thing you should do is make sure you have a good backup. The third thing you should do is make sure you can swap back to the clone should you need to do so and that your data will remain functional on the…
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Script To Sign A Previously Signed .ipa With Your Provisioning Profile
Organizations frequently have another party write iOS apps for them. When doing so, the organization typically wants to sign the .ipa (how iOS apps are deployed) prior to deploying the app to users. To do so, you would sign the .ipa with your provisioning profile. To make doing so easier, here’s ipasign, a python script that does most of the work for ya’: https://github.com/krypted/ipasign/
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Setup And Manage Profile Manager On macOS Server 5.2
Profile Manager first appeared in OS X Lion Server as the Apple-provided tool for managing Apple devices, including Mobile Device Management (MDM) for iOS based devices as well as Profile management for OS X based computers, including MacBooks, MacBook Airs, Mac Minis, Mac Pros and iMacs running Mac OS X 10.7 and up. Profile Manager has seen a few more updates over the years, primarily in integrating new MDM options provided by Apple and keeping up with the rapidly changing MDM landscape. Apple has added DEP functionality, content distribution, VPP, and other features over the years. In El Capitan Server, there are plenty of new options, including the ability to deploy…
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statshares in Server 5.2 for macOS Sierra
I wrote about using the smbutil for DFS in Lion awhile back. I haven’t needed to write anything else as it hadn’t changed since. The statshares option has an -m option to look at a mount path for showing the path to the mount (e.g. if the mount is called krypted this should be something like /Volumes/krypted): smbutil statshares -m /Volumes/krypted When run, you see a list of all the attributes OS X tracks for that mount path, including the name of the server, the user ID (octal), how SMB negotiated an authentication, what version of SMB is running (e.g. SMB_1), the type of share and whether signing, extended security, Unix and…
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Install The Server 5.2 App On macOS Sierra
The first thing you’ll want to do on any server is get all software updates installed on the server (done using the App Store app). Then setup the networking for the computer so you’re not changing IP addresses and stuff like that, once the server is installed. To do so, open System Preferences (aka the Settings app, some day) and click on the Network System Preference pane. You will almost always want to use a wired Ethernet connection on a server, but in this case we’ll be using Wi-Fi. Here, click on the Wi-Fi interface and then click on the Advanced… button. At the setup screen for the interface, provide a good…