• JAMF,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Jamf Pro 9.98 Now Available

    The next release of iOS (10.3), macOS (10.12.4), and tvOS (10.2) bring us a host of new management features. These include DEP configuration, remote wipe, single app mode, conference room mode, and remote reboot for Apple TVs. The next evolution of iOS brings us sounds in lost mode, the ability to prevent users from connecting to unmanaged wireless networks (just make sure to push that policy after sending down the actual managed wireless networks – or eek), the option to remotely shut down and reboot devices, The Mac options includes some of the above but also restricting the feature to unlock macOS devices with Touch ID, restrict documents and desktop…

  • SQL

    Your First SQL Statement

    Databases and Tables A SQL database is an organized collection of data. Or at least that’s what they taught me in college. In real life, it’s only as organized as the people putting data into the database. Databases contain schemas, tables, stored procedures, reports, views and other objects. Most databases will contain multiple tables. Tables contain rows that have data in them. I like to think of a database kinda’ like an Excel spreadsheet. Each tab on a spreadsheet is similar to a table; each row is similar to a row in a database and each column in the spreadsheet is somewhat similar to a column, or attribute. The headers…

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

    Take Control Of OS X Server (Yosemite) Now Available

    I’ve been light on posting here, mostly because I’ve been swamped with work, selling my old house, buying a new house, doing some crazy taxes, wrapping production on a new book and updating the Take Control of OS X Server book to Yosemite Server. Well, earlier this week I sold my house, got the next version of Bushel ready to rock and filed my taxes. Aaaaannnnnndddddd, the Yosemite version of Take Control Of OS X Server is now available at http://tid.bl.it/1xuCJUC. Boom. Will get back to my normally scheduled postings shortly!

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

    Cascading Software Update Service Updates In Yosemite Server

    The swupd.plist file used to daisy chain multiple servers so they act as a cascade of software update servers. The new path for the property list is /Library/Server/Software Update/Config/swupd.plist. Here, the metaIndexURL key is sill the location that points to an internal Software Update Server that the server you are editing should look to for updates. The default server is http://swscan.apple.com/content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist. To set a server to look at another internal server for software updates, edit the metaIndexURL key in the /Library/Server/Software Update/Config/swupd.plist file to include the path to the new server. The path should always have /content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist after the FQDN of the host name. So if your internal software update…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Configure Apple Push Notifications In Yosemite Server

    Push Notifications can be used in most every service in the Server app, especially in 3.5 for Yosemite (which I still like to call Yosemite Server as it makes me think of Yosemite Sam in a tux, pouring champagne). Any service that requires Push Notifications will provide the ability to setup APNS during the configuration of the service. But at this point, I usually just set up Push Notifications when I setup a new server. To enable Push Notifications for services, you’ll first need to have a valid AppleID. Once you have an AppleID, open the Server app and then click on the name of the server. At the Overview…

  • 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,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    ARD 3.7

    Apple has released the client and server updates for Apple Remote Desktop. Both are now available on the App Store. For official information of the server update, see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5896?viewlocale=en_US. New features include: Support for OS X Mavericks A shared clipboard which allows automatic copy and paste between local and remote computers Improved support for Mac systems with multiple displays or multiple IP addresses Enhanced multi-observe with gesture support for swiping between screens Output of remote UNIX commands is no longer truncated The client update documentation is at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5896?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US.

  • Mac OS X,  Unix,  Windows XP

    Subversion Cheat Sheet

    I’ve done a few articles in the past on different tasks in svn and git, but I have a little cheat sheet of sorts I’ve been using for awhile for Subversion on Mac OS X and thought I would share it. Before you get started, check your version. I use 2.0 but I seem to remember all of these are about the same as they were previously: svn --version To get started, Subversion uses a repository to store projects. Each client needs a repository and these should be on direct attached drives. The repository hosts a Berkeley database a folder per project you check out, or import. To create a…

  • Mass Deployment

    KACE 3.3 & the Mac

    Version 3.3 of the KACE 2000 appliance introduces a few enhancements for the Mac OS X operating system. These include the following: International Keyboards are now supported in the KACE NetBoot environment Hardware inventory is now supported Pre-installation tasks now support error handling Post-installation tasks now have ByHost support Overall, a nice update if you’re invested in the KACE appliances, although the Windows enhancements are far more substantial (understandably), with updates to user profile migration (now hive based), driver harvesting and other features, primarily for the Windows 7 clients in your environments.

  • Unix,  WordPress

    Resetting a WordPress Password

    Sometimes you can bite yourself a little when you experiment around with things. I installed a security plug-in and the next thing you know I couldn’t log into my own website. Ouch. Not a huge deal as it actually led to experimentation with the MySQL tables for WordPress, which oddly enough, I’ve typically just left well enough alone. But this I figured was gonna’ need to be updated eventually (although I relished the opportunity to get caught up on some stuff in the meantime). So first up, SSH into your box. Then fire up mysql: mysql -u root -p Turns out there’s a wp_users table in there. For my user…