Now that we’ve covered using dscl to create a group, let’s look at using dseditgroup to do the same thing. In the previous example we created a group called Local Admins or ladmins for short. First let’s read that group’s information. To do so, run dseditgroup followed by the operation, which can be read, create, delete, edit or checkmember as the operations (verbs). The -o is optional, so : dseditgroup -o read ladmins Or the following has the same output: dseditgroup read ladmins In the case of a namespace collision between two ladmins in two directory services then the one listed highest in the Search Policy would be displayed. The…
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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…
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Bubble Alerts w/ Silent Installs
When you push software to a Windows computer there’s an annoying little alert that pops up to tell the user that new software was installed. In one organization I was recently at this accounted for approximately 20 calls to the help desk every time they pushed out an update (patch Tuesday for them is one week after patch Tuesday for Microsoft). To turn off the bubbles in your image, right-click on the start button and click on properties. Then click on the Customize button. Click Advanced and uncheck the box for Highlight newly installed programs. Not too bad. But don’t want to touch all of the existing machines. Open HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced…
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Suppressing the Microsoft Office Setup Assistant en masse
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.plist has a nifty key called 2880FirstRunSetupAssistCompleted which, when set to an integer value of 1 can suppress the Office Setup Assistant. To deploy, simply install Workgroup Manager on a client machine that you have Office on and then from the Preferences->Details screen click on the + sign and browse to that file. Once imported, remove all the keys except that one if you want to and then click on the Apply Now button. Associate to users as needed.
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Setting up DFS in Windows Server 2008
The first task that you will complete setting up any WIndows Server 2008 is to set up a Server Role. To do so, open Server Manager and click on Add Roles. At the Add Roles Wizard, click on the Next button to show a list of roles to add. Check the box for File Services and click on the Next button. Click on Next again. At the Select Role Services screen, you’ll see that File Server is checked. This will install the SMB/CIFS services. You’ll also see Distributed File System. Check the box for Distributed File System and the then check the boxes for DFS Namespaces if you want to…
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Making MacWorld Cover Art
Cover creation from Peter Belanger on Vimeo. -Thanks to Max for forwarding this on.
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Setting up a Dual Directory with Snow Leopard Server
In Snow Leopard Server it seems that someone at Apple figured out that a bunch of people were building these weird triangle, or dual directory, thingies. So, if you bind a Mac OS X Server to Active Directory and then open Server Admin and then click on Open Directory you’ll see a button to Kerberize Services. Once you’ve Kerberized the services, if you click on the Change… button for Role you’ll see a different option than you normally see when setting an Open Directory Master. In the Choose Directory Role screen you’ll see a new screen that tells you that you’re connected to another directory. It will then ask if…
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Virtual Private Clouds
VPN-Cubed was a solution that Amazon listed for some time, allowing users of EC2 or S3 cloud services to VPN their resources in Amazon’s cloud to their own offices. But Amazon recently went a step further with their own offering and now provide the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud. Pricing is based on a per-VPN connection, running at a nickel per hour that the VPN Connection is alive. Data transfer over the VPN is charged at a dime per gig into the cloud and between 10 and 17 cents per gig out of the cloud. There have been a number of concerns about security with regards to cloud services. The ability…
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Snow Leopard & networksetup (802.1x + Locations)
One of the best new features of the Snow Leopard command line, for those of us who need to do automation at least, is the addition of a few new options in networksetup. That’s why I did a little write-up on the new options at afp548.com. Check it out here!