The NetBoot service allows administrators of OS X computers to leverage images hosted on a server to boot computers to a central location and put a new image on them, upgrade them and perform automations based on upgrades and images. Since the very first versions of OS X, the service has been called NetBoot. In the Server app, Apple provides a number of options surrounding the NetInstall service, based on Automator-style actions, now calling the service NetInstall. The first step to configuring the NetInstall service is to decide what you want the service to do. There are three options available in System Image Utility (available under the Tools menu of…
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Xcode Server On OS X Server 5
OS X and iOS developers need a continuous integration system. This automates the build, analysis, and testing solution for software development using Xcode. OS X Server has an Xcode service, capable of integrating your developer account with git, providing many of the options required to build a continuous integration system. Before you configure the Xcode service that can take committed code and then test and build your software, you’ll need an Apple developer account. The Xcode service then links git to a developer account and runs automations, referred to as bots, in Xcode. Therefore, you’ll also need to have Xcode installed on the computer running the Xcode service. Bots are then managed and reported on using a…
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Use The profiles Command Line In El Capitan
You might be happy to note that other than the ability to interpret new payloads, the profiles command mostly stays the same in El Capitan, from Yosemite. You can still export profiles from Apple Configurator or Profile Manager (or some of the 3rd party MDM tools). You can then install profiles by just opening them and installing. Once profiles are installed on a Mac, mdmclient, a binary located in /usr/libexec will process changes such as wiping a system that has been FileVaulted (note you need to FileVault if you want to wipe an OS X Lion client computer). /System/Library/LaunchDaemons and /System/Library/LaunchAgents has a mdmclient daemon and agent respectively that start…
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Use dnsconfig in OS X Server 5
DNS is DNS. And named is named. Except in OS X Server. Sometimes. The configuration files for the DNS services in OS X Server are stored in /Library/Server/named. This represents a faux root of named configuration data, similar to how that configuration data is stored in /var/named on most other platforms. Having the data in /Library/Server/ makes it more portable across systems. The current version of BIND is 9.9.7-P2. Traditionally, you would edit this configuration data by simply editing the configuration files, and that’s absolutely still an option. In OS X Server 5 (for El Capitan and Yosemite), a new command is available at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DNSManager.framework called dnsconfig. The dnsconfig command appears simple at…
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statshares in OS X Server 5
I wrote about using the smbutil for DFS in Lion awhile back. I haven’t needed to write anything else as it hadn’t changed since. The statshares option has an -m option to look at a mount path for showing the path to the mount (e.g. if the mount is called krypted this should be something like /Volumes/krypted): smbutil statshares -m /Volumes/krypted When run, you see a list of all the attributes OS X tracks for that mount path, including the name of the server, the user ID (octal), how SMB negotiated an authentication, what version of SMB is running (e.g. SMB_1), the type of share and whether signing, extended security, Unix and…
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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,…
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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…
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Disable Automatic Updates On OS X Servers
By default, OS X now updates apps that are distributed through the Mac App Store (MAS). OS X Server is really just the Server app, sitting on the App Store. If the Server app is upgraded automatically, you will potentially experience some adverse side effects, especially if the app is running on a Metadata Controller for Xsan, runs Open Directory, or a major release of the Server app ships. Therefore, in this article we’re going to disable this otherwise sweet feature of OS X. To get started, first open the System Preferences. From there, click on the App Store System Preference pane. From the App Store System Preference pane, uncheck the…
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Demote An Open Directory Server In OS X Server 5
OS X Server, Server 5, El Capitan Server can have problems with Open Directory. Sometimes, you just need to reset your directory service. You can demote and restore the server if needed. But buyer beware, you may end up screwing things up while the directory server is being demoted and you’re restoring a backup. Or if you haven’t built out the directory server, you may end up just demoting the server and starting over. In this article, we’ll look at demoting the server. To get started demoting the Open Directory master, first open the Server app and then click on Open Directory. From the Open Directory screen, click on the minus button…
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Promote an OS X Server 5 Open Directory Replica To An Open Directory Master
You’ve got Open Directory running and humming beautifully in OS X Server 5 (running on OS X Yosemite or OS X El Capitan). You show up to work and the hard drive has died on that perfectly configured Open Directory Master. Luckily, you have a replica and you have an archive of your Master. You can restore or you can promote your Replica to a Master. What to do? Well, I can’t tell you what you should do, but I can tell you that Apple has planned for this. Here, we’re going to look at promoting that Replica to a Master. Because after all, hard drives fail. Let’s look at…