• Mac OS X Server

    BCC all mail to an OS X Server to an Email address

    I’m pretty big on privacy. Actually, I don’t need much privacy; I’m an open book. But I try to be very respectful of the privacy of others. Still, there are certain valid circumstances to send all mail that goes to an OS X Server to an email address. Maybe you have an automation that picks up mail from support staff and files it into software for ticketing, maybe you have a legal hold. In many cases, it’s not my place to judge the validity of such requests; only to find ways to implement them. To bcc all mail to an OS X Server, first disable the feature from Postfix so you can…

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

    List of Safe Complex Characters for Passwords

    A number of systems require you to use complex characters in passwords and passcodes. Here is a list of characters that can be used, along with the name and the associated unicode:    (Space) U+0020 ! (Exclamation) U+0021 ” (Double quotes) U+0022 # (Number sign) U+0023 $ (Dollar sign) U+0024 % (Percent) U+0025 & (Ampersand) U+0026 ‘  (Single quotes) U+0027 ( (Left parenthesis) U+0028 ) (Right parenthesis) U+0029 * (Asterisk) U+002A + (Plus) U+002B , (Comma) U+002C – (Minus sign) U+002D . (Period) U+002E / (Slash) U+002F : (Colon) U+003A ; (Semicolon) U+003B < (Less than sign) U+003C (not allowed in all systems) = (Equal sign) U+003D > (Greater than sign) U+003E (not allowed in all systems)…

  • Apple TV,  iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  precache

    Precache Now Supports AppleTV

    Precache, available at https://github.com/krypted/precache, is a script that populates the cache on an OS X Caching server for Apple updates. The initial release supported iOS. The script now also supports caching the latest update for an AppleTV. To use that, there’s no need to include an argument for AppleTV. Instead, you would simply  run the script followed by the model identifier, as follows: sudo python precache.py AppleTV5,4

  • Apple TV,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    The AppleTV Software Update Feed

    AppleTVs automatically update. They do so using a process similar to how iOS updates, but instead of looking at the feed I posted in https://krypted.com//mac-security/how-the-os-x-caching-server-caches-updates/, they look at http://mesu.apple.com/assets/tv/com_apple_MobileAsset_SoftwareUpdate/com_apple_MobileAsset_SoftwareUpdate.xml. The AppleTV feed is similar to that available for iOS updates, with each dictionary having roughly the same data: <key>ActualMinimumSystemPartition</key> <integer>1482</integer> <key>Build</key> <string>13Y6234</string> <key>InstallationSize</key> <string>0</string> <key>MinimumSystemPartition</key> <integer>1534</integer> <key>OSVersion</key> <string>9.2</string> <key>ReleaseType</key> <string>Beta</string> <key>SUDocumentationID</key> <string>PreRelease</string> <key>SUInstallTonightEnabled</key> <true/> <key>SUMultiPassEnabled</key> <true/> <key>SUProductSystemName</key> <string>iOS</string> <key>SUPublisher</key> <string>Apple Inc.</string> <key>SupportedDeviceModels</key> <array> <string>J42dAP</string> </array> <key>SupportedDevices</key> <array> <string>AppleTV5,3</string> </array> <key>SystemPartitionPadding</key> <dict> <key>1024</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>128</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>16</key> <integer>160</integer> <key>256</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>32</key> <integer>320</integer> <key>512</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>64</key> <integer>640</integer> <key>768</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>8</key> <integer>80</integer> </dict> <key>_CompressionAlgorithm</key> <string>zip</string> <key>_DownloadSize</key> <integer>856434408</integer> <key>_EventRecordingServiceURL</key> <string>https://xp.apple.com/report</string> <key>_IsZipStreamable</key> <true/> <key>_Measurement</key> <data>cm8k41In38EOJEj20IwJp5Suskw=</data>…

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

    Automatically Cache Updates To Your OS X Server

    A little while back, I did a little writeup on how the OS X Caching Server caches updates at https://krypted.com//mac-security/how-the-os-x-caching-server-caches-updates/. The goal was to reverse engineer parts of how it worked for a couple of different reasons. The first was to get updates for devices to cache to my caching server prior to 15 people coming in before it’s cached and having caching it down on their own. So here’s a little script I call precache. It’s a little script that can be used to cache available Apple updates into an OS X Server that is running the Caching Service. To use, run the script followed by the name of…

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

    Run A Caching Server On A Computer Without Ethernet

    I do a lot of testing on MacBook Airs and the latest MacBooks. Neither have a built-in Ethernet port and I try not to travel with one. But, when you enable the Caching Server service in OS X on a machine without an active Ethernet connection, the AssetCache will report an error of the following: Wireless portable computer not supported The cause is pretty obvious, but bypassable because of how the sanity check was built. Simply run the following: sudo serveradmin settings caching:Interface = en0 Now try again. Enjoy. PS: Since people always jump on the article where I talk about how to do things that shouldn’t be done in…

  • Articles and Books,  iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Migrating Objects From Active Directory To Apple School Manager

    Apple School Manager is a portal used to create classes, import students, manage Managed Apple IDs, and link all these things together. You can use a Student Information System (SIS) to create these classes, import students, etc. But, only if you have a SIS with an API that Apple links to. If you don’t, you’ll need to import data using csv files. And you’ll need to import four csv files: Classes, Instructors, Staff, and of course Students. Many schools will already have this data in Active Directory or another LDAP-based solution. Here, we’ll look at getting the information out of Active Directory and into csv. The LDIFDE utility exports and imports objects from…