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

    Install Xcode Command Line Tools On A Fresh Mac Image

    September 15, 2014

    I didn’t figure this out myself but can’t remember the source to attribute. Anyway, I image a lot of systems in my home lab for testing. Many tools I use (e.g. ant, metasploit, etc) need the Xcode Command Line Tools. The easy way to install these is to run xcode-select sung the –install option, as follows: /usr/bin/xcode-select --install

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

    Installing A Java JDK On Beta Versions Of OS X

    August 11, 2014

    Open the installation DMG and expand the package so we can edit objects inside the package, done with pkgutil: pkgutil —expand “/Volumes/JDK 7 Update 67/JDK 7 Update 67.pkg” “/tmp/JDKTEMP.flat” Next, we’re going to edit that Distribution file, which is what’s checking the OS version, using vi: vi /tmp/JDKTEMP.flat/Dstribution Then we’re going to look for the OS version (currently 10.7) in the pm_install section: Edit OS version to 10.10 Then let’s save the file and then flatten the package, again using pkgutil: pkgutil —flatten “/tmp/JDKNEW.flat” “/tmp/JDK7.pkg” Finally fire up the package: open /tmp/JDK7.pkg And of course, finish running the installer. Good luck!

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  • Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  MobileMe,  Network Infrastructure

    Network Port Testing With Netcat

    July 29, 2014

    You can do some pretty simple testing of ports and network communications using strategies I’ve outlined in the past with tcpdump, trace route, telnet, curl, stroke and of course ping. However, netcat has a few interesting things you can do with it; namely actually run a port super-quickly to test traffic between subnets, forcing scans of ipv6 traffic, debugging sockets, keeping connections alive, parodying through SOCKS 4 and 5 and just checking for daemons that are listening rather than actually sending data to them. In this first example, we’re going to just check that Apple’s web server is accessible (adding -v for verbose output): /usr/bin/nc -v www.apple.com 80 The result would be pretty verbose…

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  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  public speaking

    MacAdmins 2015

    July 15, 2014

    I was super-bummed that I missed the MacAdmins conference at Penn State University. But, all is not lost as MacAdmins will be held July 8-10 in 2015 at the Penn Stater Conference Center and I’ll be able to see all those awesome people there next year! In the meantime, something fun and new is the 2014 MacAdmins Playlist to maybe get exposed to some new stuff: http://spoti.fi/VTdxLX. As an aside, here’s a fun pic of @derflounder and I (and others) doing a round table from a few years ago on the Penn State site:  

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

    Come One, Come All: To The JAMF Nation User Conference

    June 11, 2014

    If you do deployments of Apple products, there are a few conferences to look at. Based on where you are and what industry you are in, some of these are better than others. But if you use the Casper Suite or are considering doing so, it would be really hard to beat JNUC, the JAMF Nation User Conference. And yes, I’d of said all this and posted this even if I hadn’t of come to work here a week and a half ago! So come one, come all to Minneapolis. And if you’re really nice, we’ll hook you up with some good old fashioned Minnesota lutefisk!

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

    Take Control Of OS X Server Now Available

    May 12, 2014

    For what amounts to my 12th book, I decided to try something a little different, which is namely to shoot for a slightly different audience than I’ve done with the rest of my books. The kind folks at Take Control Books have been great to work with and I’m super excited that Adam has posted the first part of Take Control of OS X Server on TidBits.com. And, the first few chapters are totally free for TidBits members! Chapter 1 is available at http://tidbits.com/article/14748 and Chapter 2 is available at http://tidbits.com/article/14749. Fun times, hope you enjoy!

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  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  Unix,  Windows Server,  Xsan

    Make iMovie Work With Network Volumes

    April 25, 2014

    I work with a lot of network storage and video world stuff. While most in the editorial world prefer FinalCut, Avid, Adobe and other tools for video management, I do see the occasional task done in iMovie. By default, iMovie doesn’t support using assets stored on network volumes. However, you can make it. To do so, just use defaults to write com.apple.iMovieApp with a boolean allowNV key marked as true: defaults write com.apple.iMovieApp allowNV -bool TRUE

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