• Bushel,  iPhone

    Blueprints and Bushel

    Bushel shipping a new feature this week call Blueprints. Blueprints are similar to groups, and allow you to assign different options in Bushel to different devices that have a blueprint assigned to them. This also allows you to define one device per blueprint and therefore have different options for different computers. Pretty cool on a few different fronts. And it provides a lot of flexibility for some really, really cool new features we’ve planned for the product. For more on this great new feature, check out this great article from the new Bushel Product Manager, Michael Devins.

  • Mac OS X Server

    Manage Groups in OS X Server 5

    There are a number of ways to create groups in OS X Server 5, running on Yosemite or El Capitan. The first is using the Server app, the second is using Workgroup Manager (which requires a little work to get working in El Capitan), the third is using the Users & Groups System Preference pane and the fourth is using the command line. In this article we will look at creating groups in the Server app. Once a server has been an Open Directory Master all user and group accounts created will be in the Local Network Group when created in Server app. Before that, all user and group objects…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Manage Groups In Yosemite Server

    There are a number of ways to create groups in OS X Mavericks Server (Server 3). The first is using the Server app, the second is using Workgroup Manager (which could be running on an older operating system and connecting to the Mavericks Server in question), the third is using the Users & Groups System Preference pane and the fourth is using the command line. In this article we will look at creating groups in the Server app. Once a server has been an Open Directory Master all user and group accounts created will be in the Local Network Group when created in Server app. Before that, all user and…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Setting Up And Using Web Services in OS X Mountain Lion Server

    Configuring web services is as easy in OS X Mountain Lion Server (10.8) 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 stock OS X Server page loads, you are ready to use OS X Server as a web server. Before we setup custom sites, there are a few things you should know. The first is, the server is no longer really designed to remove the default…

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

    Integrating Mac OS X Lion Server's Profile Manager With Active Directory

    Over the years, the terms Magic, Golden, Triangle, Augments, Directory, Domains and Active have given the administrators of Mac OS X environments fits. So when you think about using Active Directory to manage iOS devices through the Profile Manager service, built into Lion Server, you may think that it’s a complicated thing to piece together. You may remember those days when you had to manually craft service principals because xgrid wouldn’t play nice with Acive Directory, or you might think of twisting augmented records to support CalDAV. But you’re gonna’ have to forget all that, ’cause getting Profile Manager to talk to Active Directory is one of the easiest things…

  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    Create Groups Using dscl

    The directory services command line (dscl) command can be used to create a group. Here we’re going to use dscl to create a group called Local Admins (or ldadmins for short).  First up, create the group: dscl . create /Groups/ladmins Now give our ladmins group the full name by creating the name key: dscl . create /Groups/ladmins RealName “Local Admins” Now to give the group a password: dscl . create /Groups/ladmins passwd “*” Now let’s give the group a Group ID: dscl . create /Groups/ladmins gid 400 That wasn’t so hard, but our group doesn’t have any users. dscl . create /Groups/ladmins GroupMembership localadmin Why create a group with just…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X: Groups with Leading Underscores

    Have you noticed all those groups in Mac OS X with names that start with an underscore (_)?  What do they mean?  Well, that’s just the naming convention in 10.5 for service accounts.  So in most flavors of *nix you would have an lpadmin group but in OS X you now have _lpadmin instead.  Nothing sinister or weird, just a naming convention.