• Mac OS X

    My quick and dirty notes from the Apple event

    25 minutes about TV 13 and 14 inch pros, 14% thinner and comes in at 4 pounds – that’s extreme! Also 12% thinner than a MacBook Air, and 13% less volume 67% Brighter 25% more colors Core i7, Quad-core 2133MHz 4GB VRAM 3.1GB/s storage, up to 2TB, 50% faster storage New thinner thermal architecture, quite New Speakers, 2x dynamic range audio 130% 3d graphics 60% Gaming 57% Video Editor Intel Iris Graphics 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports 100Gbps, all those ports can be USB, thunderbolt, etc – AND OMG a headphone jack Phil didn’t iron his shirt Function keys are now different Force Touch Trackpad 2x larger Butterfly switch mechanism, responsive…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  MacAdmins Podcast

    Episode 13 Of The MacAdmins.Org Podcast Now Available

    Stoked that we got to interview Michael Lynn (@mikeymikey) for the MacAdmins podcast. It turned out to be a great episode on the future of Mac management and MDM. I’m glad we were able to have him join in! Pepijn and Marcus did a great job as well, so all round, a great episode. Hope you enjoy! Or find it on the Podcast site at http://podcast.macadmins.org/2016/10/24/episode-13-mdm-me-maybe/

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

    Quick and Dirty OS Installations with startosinstall

    Automating OS installations is going to eventually be about as easy on macOS as it is in iOS (er, if you have MDM that is). But in the meantime, it’s getting a bit more challenging. The obvious way Apple would prefer this to happen these days is via the startosinstall command that first shipped with El Capitan and with brtool getting moved around all the time, and becoming less of a thing, there’s one quick and easy thing you can do: sudo "/Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall" --applicationpath "/Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app" --agreetolicense --nointeraction --volume /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD In the above command, we’ve dropped “Install macOS Sierra.app” on a machine. While you’d guess that…

  • JAMF

    Get a list of printers with the jamf binary

    The jamf binary can grab a list of printers. It’s easy: sudo jamf listprinters The output looks like this: MSP Lobby HP MSP_Lobby Lobby lpd://192.168.12.201/ HP 6490 C5250 PS If you have more printers, you’ll see more in the list!

  • Mac OS X Server

    Configure NetInstall Services In macOS Server 5.2 for Sierra

    The NetBoot service allows administrators of Apple computers to leverage images hosted on a server to boot computers to a central location and put a new image on them, upgrade them and perform automations based on upgrades and images. Since the very first versions of OS X, the service has been called NetBoot and so the name remains at the command line, but is listed as NetInstall in the Server app. In the Server app, Apple provides a number of options surrounding the NetInstall service, based on Automator-style which we’ll explore further in this article. The first step to configuring the NetInstall service is to decide what you want the service…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Run An Apache Web Server On macOS Server 5.2

    Web Services in macOS Server, Linux and most versions of Unix are provided by Apache, an Open Source project that much of the Internet owes its origins to. Apache owes its name to the fact that it’s “a patchy” service. These patches are often mods, or modules. Configuring web services is as easy in macOS Server 5.2, running on Sierra (10.12), as it has ever been. To set up the default web portal, simply open the Server app, click on the Websites service and click on the ON button. After a time, the service will start. Once running, click on the View Server Website link at the bottom of the pane. Provided the…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Using Wikis In macOS Server 5.2

    A wiki is a repository of dynamically created and managed content, or content created or edited by multiple users collaboratively. This article is about using the wiki service in macOS Server 5.2 (the Apple Server app running on 10.12/Sierra). I reference file services with WebDAV because it is a very nice integration piece that I think a lot of people will find pretty beneficial. To get started with the Wiki service, first turn it on. This one isn’t heavily dependent on host names (other than being able to access the server from a browser) or directory services (other than being able to authenticate users, but local accounts are perfectly functional) and…

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

    Configure The VPN Service In macOS Server 5.2

    macOS Server has long had a VPN service to allow client computers to connect to a network even when they’re out of the office. The server was once capable of running the two most commonly used VPN protocols: PPTP and L2TP. And while PPTP is still accessible via the command line, L2TP is now configured by default when you setup the server using the Server app. Setting Up The VPN Service In OS X Server To setup the VPN service, open the Server app and click on VPN in the Server app sidebar. The VPN Settings  screen has a number of options available, as seen here. The VPN Host Name field is used…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Time Machine

    Manage Time Machine Server In macOS Server 5.2

    The Time Machine service in macOS Server 5.2 hasn’t changed much from the service in previous operating systems. To enable the Time Machine service, open the Server app, click on Time Machine in the SERVICES sidebar. If the service hasn’t been enabled to date, the ON/OFF switch will be in the OFF position and no “Backup destination” will be shown in the Settings pane. Click on the ON button to see the New Destination screen, used to configure a list of volumes as a destinations for Time Machine backups. The selection volume should be large enough to have space for all of the users that can potentially use the Time Machine…