Quick little script to read the length of a string: #!/bin/bash echo "Enter some text"read mytextlength=${#mytext}echo $length
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Backup A Mac With Acronis True Image
Acronis True Image is a cloud-based backup solution. Acronis True Image is available at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/trueimage/2018mac/. To install, download it and then open the zip. Drag the Acronis True Image application to your /Applications directory. Then open Acronis True Image from /Applications. The first time you open it, you’ll be prompted to access the licensing agreement. Once accepted, you’ll be prompted to create an account with Acronis. Provide your credentials or enter new ones to create a trial account. At the activation screen, provide a serial or click Start Trial.At the main screen, you’ll first want to choose the source (by default it’s the drive of the machine) and then click on the…
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Migrate From macOS To A Synology Based VPN
Synology is able to do everything a macOS Server could do, and more. So if you need to move your VPN service, it’s worth looking at a number of different solutions. The most important question to ask is whether you actually need a VPN any more. If you have git, mail/groupware, or file services that require remote access then you might want to consider moving these into a hosted environment somewhere. But if you need access to the LAN and you’re a small business without other servers, a Synology can be a great place to host your VPN services. Before you setup anything new, first snapshot your old settings. Let’s…
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Install Directory Services on a Synology
People who have managed Open Directory and will be moving to Synology will note that directory services really aren’t nearly as complicated was we’ve made them out to be for years. This is because Apple was protecting us from doing silly things to break our implementations. It was also because Apple bundled a number of seemingly disparate technologies into ldap. It’s worth mentioning that LDAP on a Synology is LDAP. We’re not federating services, we’re not kerberizing services, we’re not augmenting schemas, etc. We can leverage the directory service to provide attributes though, and have that central phone book of user and group memberships we’ve come to depend on directory…
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Export data from Open Directory for migrating users and groups
Before we have this conversation, I want to give you some bad news. Your passwords aren’t going to migrate. The good news is that you only do directory services migrations every decade or two. The better news is that I’m not actually sure you need a directory service in the traditional sense that you’ve built directory services. With Apple’s Enterprise Connect and Nomad, we no longer need to bind in order to get Kerberos functionality. With MCX long-dead(ish) you’re now better off doing policies through configuration profiles. So where does that leave us? There are some options. On Prem Active Directory. I can setup Active Directory in about 10 minutes.…
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Install DNS Services on Synology
DNS is an integral service to most modern networks. The Domain Name System, or DNS is comprised of hierarchical and decentralized Domain Name Servers, or DNS Servers. This is how we connect to computers and the websites that reside on computers by their names, rather than having to memorize the IP addresses of every single computer out there. So you get to type https://krypted.com/ and come to my website instead of typing the IP address. Or more likely, Facebook.com, but just because my website is older, I’m not mad about that. No really… So you have a macOS Server and you need to take your DNS records out of it…
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Apple Releases Service Migration Guide for macOS Server
Apple won’t be keeping all of the services in macOS Server after the next few months. In the meantime, we have a big old guide to read. I have some overlapping articles I’ve been working on, but I’d say we’re in a similar headspace. The Apple macOS Server Services Migration Guide is available at https://developer.apple.com/support/macos-server/macOS-Server-Service-Migration-Guide.pdf and covers bind, vpnd, freeradius, manual netinstall with bootp and tftp, apache, wordpress, CalendarServer, and ftp. It’s pretty technical, but nothing too crazy in there!Overall, an easy read and I’m glad to see some content coming out to help admins!
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Export DNS Records from macOS Server
DNS is an integral service to most modern networks. The Domain Name System, or DNS is comprised of hierarchical and decentralized Domain Name Servers, or DNS Servers. This is how we connect to computers and the websites that reside on computers by their names, rather than having to memorize the IP addresses of every single computer out there. So you get to type https://krypted.com/ and come to my website instead of typing the IP address. Or more likely, Facebook.com, but just because my website is older, I’m not mad about that. No really… So you have a macOS Server and you need to take your DNS records out of it…
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Install WordPress on a Synology
Earlier, I wrote an article on how to export data from the macOS Wiki Service. But now that you have your data in a file, where are you going to import it into. Well, you could do some kind of custom hosting service. Or if you want to run your own server, you could use a Synology. Synology makes installing WordPress a snap. To get started, first open Package Manager. From Package Manager, search for WordPress.Click Install.Click Yes to install the dependencies.Enter a username and password to pass to Maria DB (root with a blank password).Enter a username and password for the wordpress database and click Next. Click Apply. Click Open…
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New Page Explaining Apple MDM Even Further
Apple has published a new page that goes through all of the settings and commands available via MDM and explains many in much more detail. This is available at http://help.apple.com/deployment/mdm/. The new guide is a great addition to the work @Mosen has done at https://mosen.github.io/profiledocs/ in terms of explaining what each setting, command, and payload do. And let’s not forget the definitive MDM protocol reference guide, available at https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Miscellaneous/Reference/MobileDeviceManagementProtocolRef/1-Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40017387-CH1-SW1. Overall, I’m excited to see so much information now available about MDM, including how to develop an MDM properly, what each setting does, and now what you should expect out of an MDM!