• Mac OS X Server

    Install macOS Server On A Mac Running macOS 10.12 (Sierra)

    The first thing you’ll want to do on any server is setup the networking for the computer. To do this, open the System Preferences and click on Network. You usually 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 static IP address. Your network administrator can provide this fairly easily. Here, make sure you have an IP address and a subnet mask. Since we need to install the Server app from the Mac App Store, and that’s on the Internet,…

  • Windows Server,  Windows XP

    Remotely and Silently Install A Windows MSI Via PowerShell

    One of the easiest things to do in OS X is to remotely run an installation package using the installer command. You can do some similar tasks in Windows, although the commands aren’t quite as cut and dry. The Start-Process command can be used to kick off an executable. Here, we will kick off the msiexec.exe and feed it an argument, which is the msi file to install silently. We’ll then wait for it to complete: {Start-Process -FilePath "msiexec.exe" -ArgumentList "/i TEST.msi /qb" -Wait -Passthru}

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

    Receipts & Bills of Material in 10.8

    When installing a package OS X makes a list of what it installs in /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist. The dictionaries show each package installed, along with the installation date, the name displayed during installation, the version of the package being installed, the identifier of the package and the process name used to install the package. This information, along with the file name of the actual package is stored in corresponding property lists in /private/var/db/receipts. Each bill of material is also stored there, in .bom file. The lsbom command is used to see a list of objects installed by the package. You can also see the options such as the permissions assigned to files…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Xsan

    Installing Final Cut Server on Lion & Mountain Lion Server

    Thanks to Allan Sanderson for the following submission, which outlines how to install Final Cut Server in Lion and Mountain Lion Server. In Server.app ————- Websites: Check “Enable PHP web applications” Install Java ———— Open /Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences.app You’ll be prompted by Software Update service to install Java, click “Continue”, provide admin credentials when promopted. Install Final Cut Server ———————— Run Final Cut Server installer. Then run Software Update to get ProApplications 2010-02 & Final Cut Server v1.5.2 updates. Check Configuration ——————- 1) Check fcsvr user has been created: dscl /Local/Default -search /Users RecordName fcsvr Output should look something like this: fcsvr RecordName = ( fcsvr ) 2) Check “fcsvr” user’s…

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

    Deploy Final Cut Pro Fast

    One of the challenges that we face when building a large Xsan for video environments where we also need to deploy Final Cut is to install Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Studio on all the clients. It can mean a lot of switching out of optical media and kill productivity if you aren’t careful. This is why we started looking to the Xsan to provide some of the speed to the installation process that it will later provide to the clients. First off, extract the installers or create an image of the disk(s). If you extract the disk then you will need to mount it and then start the…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server: Installing the OS

    I have talked about many of the features of Mac OS X Server for years now and now I have had a third request (from Windows guys funny enough) to walk through the basic installation of the operating system in one week.  So, here we go.  This is going to be a bit of a long one as there are a number of screens involved in the installation.  Additionally, all of the screens are going to show the VMware console as I’m installing a fresh copy of Mac OS X Server while flying home from Advanced Camp. So for starters, we’re going to boot to our nifty Mac OS X…

  • Xsan

    Xsan: Installation

    Install Xsan software and Reboot. This will install a bin, config, debug, examples, man and ras folder into your /Library/FileSystems/Xsan folder. The bin folder will contain the Xsan command line binary files that allow you to do all of what you can do within Xsan Admin (and more). The config folder will begin with only a uuid file. Once you setup the SAN it will fill in with more information. Next you will want to place the Xsan Admin application in your dock and open it for the first time. Once open, you will be faced with the Introduction screen. Xsan 2.0 Introduction Screen Here you will click Continue. In…

  • Mac OS X

    Mac OS X 10.5: Custom Installations

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Installing Mac OS X is a fairly simple task to complete and can typically take up to an hour or more depending on the installation options you choose. However, you should review all of your options in the installer as many items are not needed unless you have a specific need for them. Installing any operating system involves choices, which we will reveal throughout this chapter. If you are reinstalling your operating system, just make sure to have a valid backup before you continue on with this chapter. The Installation Process Installing Mac OS X requires little of a user other than agreeging to…