I had a very interesting debate with someone the other day. The debate was around the Total Cost of Ownership of an app on a desktop computer. Let’s say that you have a $5 app. Now let’s say that in order to package that app up and test it for end user deployment, that the cost to your organization is about $400. That’s going to seem high if you just look at it as a number. But when you consider that it takes time to customize an app package so that end user data is preserved and end users aren’t prompted a dozen times, then it takes time to test…
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Come One, Come All: Speaking at ACES Conference 2016 in Austin
The planning for ACES Conference 2016 seems to be in full gear. I’ve been slated to speak not on JAMF or Bushel stuff, but on my time in the Apple Consultants Network (ACN) community. One of the biggest challenges we had as we grew, was to responsibly pick vendors that matched with our customer requirements while also allowing us to scale efficiently. If you’re an ACN, this is a great conference for you. Check it out at https://acesconf.com!
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The Second Edition of the Enterprise Mac Administrator’s Guide Now Available for Pre-Order!
The latest and greatest of the Enterprise Mac Admin’s Guide is now available for Pre-Order at http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Mac-Administrators-Guide-Second/dp/1484217055/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445529968. This is an interesting update. If you happened to see the previous edition, I’d described more about Casper than most of the other third party products on the market. In this edition, there’s still an equal amount of information on Casper, but now there’s also more information on FileWave, and a whole chapter on the open source toolchain of products, including Munki and AutoPKG. The main reason I decided to update this title was actually the change from focusing on directory services (which still has plenty of page count) to focusing on profile management.…
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The Third Edition of Enterprise Mac Security Now Available For Pre-Order!
The third edition of the Enterprise Mac OS X Security book is now available for pre-order on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/148421711X! Another title with Apress, for this edition I welcome Dan O’Donnell as a coauthor and in addition to modernizing everything, added a lot more on FileVault, signing, iCloud and Apple services. I don’t know how long the editorial process for this book will take, but it’s listed on Amazon with a ship date of December 3rd!
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Configure Xsan Clients With OS X Server 5 For El Capitan And Yosemite
Yosemite brought Xsan 4, which included a whole new way to add clients to an Xsan. Xsan Admin is gone. From now on, instead of scanning the network using Xsan Admin. we’ll be adding clients using a Configuration Profile. This is actually a much more similar process to adding Xsan clients to a StorNext environment than it is to adding clients to Metadata Controllers running Xsan 3 and below. But instead of making a fsnameservers file, we’re plugging that information into a profile, which will do that work on the client on our behalf. To make the Xsan configuration profile, we’re going to use Profile Manager. With OS X Server 5, this trend…
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Upgrade OS X to El Capitan
Installing OS X has never been easier than in Yosemite. In this article, we’ll look at upgrading a Mac from OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) to OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) to . The first thing you should do is clone your system. The second thing you should do is make sure you have a good backup. The third thing you should do is make sure you can swap back to the clone should you need to do so and that your data will remain functional on the backup. Once you’re sure that you have a fallback plan, let’s get started by downloading OS X El Capitan from the App Store. Once downloaded, you’ll…
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Create A Bootable El Capitan Installer
A bootable installer is one of the fastest ways to install El Capitan. Rather than copy the installer to a local drive you can run it right off a USB disk (or Thunderbolt if you dare). Such a little USB drive would be similar to the sticks that came with the older MacBook Air, when we were all still sitting around wondering how you would ever install the OS on a computer with no optical media or Ethernet otherwise. Luckily, Apple loves us. To make a bootable USB/flash drive of El Capitan like the one that used to come with the MacBook Air, first name the USB drive. I’ll use mavinstall…
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Encrypting OS X Server 5 Volumes In El Capitan
Encrypting a volume in OS X couldn’t be easier. In this article, we will look at three ways to encrypt OS X El Capitan volumes in OS X Server 5. The reason there are three ways is that booted volumes and non-booted volumes have different methods for enabling encryption. Encrypting Attached Storage For non-boot volumes, just control-click or right-click on them and then click on Encrypt “VOLUMENAME” where the name of the volume is in quotes. When prompted, provide an encryption password for the volume, verify that password and if you so choose, provide a hint. Once the encryption process has begun, the entry previously clicked on says Encrypting “VOLUMENAME” where…
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Profile Manager In OS X Server 5
Profile Manager first appeared in OS X Lion Server as the Apple-provided tool for managing Apple devices, including Mobile Device Management (MDM) for iOS based devices as well as Profile management for OS X based computers, including MacBooks, MacBook Airs, Mac Minis, Mac Pros and iMacs running Mac OS X 10.7 and up. In OS X Mountain Lion, Apple added a number of new features to Profile Manager and revved the software to Profile Manager 2.0, most notably adding the ability to push certain types of apps to mobile devices. In Mavericks Server (Server 3), Apple provided new options and streamlined a bunch of things, most notably App Store and…
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Backup OS X Server Settings
We covered using Time Machine Server previously. Here, we’re going to look at backing up the settings of an OS X Server. To do so, we’re going to install a little app called Bender from the great folks at Robot Cloud. You can download that from http://robotcloud.screenstepslive.com/s/2459/m/5322/l/94467-bender-automated-backup-of-os-x-server-settings. Once downloaded, run the package installer. At the Welcome to Bender screen, click Continue. Agree to the licensing agreement by clicking the Continue button. Click Agree again (assuming of course that you agree to the license). Choose who you wish to install the software for and click Continue. I’d go ahead and install Bender at the default location, so click Install. Once the…