/etc/Sudoers is a file that controls what happens when you use sudo. /etc/sudo_lecture is a file that Apple includes in macOS that tells your users that what they’re about to do is dangerous. You can enable a lecture, which will be displayed each time sudo is invoked. To turn on the lecture option in sudo, open /etc/sudoers and add the following two lines (if they’re not already there): Defaults lecture=alwaysDefaults lecture_file = “/etc/sudo_lecture” Then save the file and edit /etc/sudo_lecture. Apple has kindly included the following Warning: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your typing when…
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Show The Software Update Service In Server 5.2 for macOS Sierra
By default, the Software Update Service, long a part of OS X Server, is hidden. This indicates the service is not likely to be long for this world. However, many an organization still likes to leverage cooling off periods for their Mac fleet. To see the service, once you’ve installed the Server app, open the Server app and then from the View menu, select Software Update. You’ll then see the Software Update service. If you click off of the service and close the app, it will be hidden again. If you enable the service, you will then see it each time you open the Server app. We’ll get into enabling the Software…
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Setup FTP in OS X Server 5 for El Capitan and Yosemite
OS X Server 5 (for El Capitan and Yosemite) sees little change with the FTP Service. Instead of sharing out each directory the new incantation of the FTP service allows administrators to share a single directory out. This directory can be any share that has previously been configured in the File Sharing service or a website configured in the Websites service. To setup FTP, first open the Server app and then click on the FTP service. Once open, use the Share: drop-down list to select a share that already exists (output of sharing -l basically) and click on one of the shares or Custom to create a new share for FTP.…
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Configure sFlows on a Brocade 8470
sFlow is an industry standard that allows network equipment with the appropriate agents to send data to sFlow collectors, which then analyze network traffic. You can install sFlow on routers, switches, and even put agents on servers to monitor traffic. Brocade (along with most other switch manufacturers) supports sFlow. Before you do anything log into the switch and check the current flow configuration: show sFlow To configure, log into the switch and use the the int command to access an interface. From within the interface, use the following command: sflow forwarding Then exit the interface using the very difficult to remember exit command: exit Repeat the enablement of forwarding for…
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Scripting PGP Whole Disk Encryption On A Mac (or Windows, really)
The PGP Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) tools have a command line interface for both OS X and Windows. The options are mostly the same across the two. We’ll focus on two for the purposes of this little article. The first is –list-user and the second is –change-passphrase, although there are a number of other options. A general breakdown of the options include the following: –enum – show the disks available –disk-status – show the encryption status disk indicated with the –disk option –stop – stop the encryption or decryption process of a –disk using –passphrase –instrument – Install BootGuard using the –disk option followed by the number of the disk…
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Allow Diskless NetBoot From the Command Line
Client systems don’t have to have drives. Nor should they, in certain circumstances. Therefore, diskless NetBoot has been a part of OS X since the early beginnings. And it’s great provided you have the Server Admin application handy. But if you want to enable/control diskless NetBoot without Server Admin then you’re going to need to use the command line. Each of your NetBoot images will be stored in an array, which can be seen by running the serveradmin command, along with the settings option and then the net boot service, as follows: serveradmin settings netboot Locate the netBootImagesRecordsArray, which shows the images that are served up on the server. Find…
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Ubuntu and Firewalling
Using the firewall in Ubuntu can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it. BSD variants all basically use the ipfw command whereas most of the rest of the *nix world will use netfilter. Netfilter has a number of front ends; the one that comes pre-installed in Ubuntu is ufw, short for ‘uncomplicated firewall’. Ufw is good for basic port management: allow and deny type of stuff. It’s not going to have the divert or throttling options. So let’s look at some basic incantations of ufw (you need to have elevated privileges to do all of this btw). Initial Configuration First you need to enable ufw,…