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

    Enabling Spotlight For Network Volumes

    Spotlight doesn’t automatically index network volumes. To configure spotlight to index network volumes, use the mdutil command followed by an arbitrary path, with the -i option and then the on parameter. For example, for a volume called Galvatron, you would enable indexing using the following command: mdutil /Volumes/Galvatron -i on To monitor the status of the indexing process: mdutil /Volumes/Galvatron -s If this happens to cause any problems, use the off parameter instead, along with the same command to disable indexing of that volume. mdutil /Volumes/Galvatron -i off You can send the mdutil commands through Apple Remote Desktop. For example, I’ve needed to toggle indexing on and then off, for…

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

    Setting Up Profile Manager in Lion Server

    New in Lion Server, Profile Manager is the most substantial new service added to Mac OS X Server in recent memory. A lot of engineering has gone into it since the introduction in 10.7.0 and in 10.7.3, Profile Manager represents a service that is ready for actual deployments. I have written a number of articles about Profile Manager, but they all revolved around working with Profile Manager once the service is setup and configured. Therefore, I have decided to document the steps used to take a system out of the box and configure it for Profile Manager. Before we get started, let’s prep the system for the service. This starts…

  • Articles and Books,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    'Using Mac OS X Lion Server' Now Finished

    My next book, Using Mac OS X Lion Server, from O’Reilly is all done. I accepted the final changes last week and it was sent to the printer on Wednesday. The digital copies should be shipping shortly and the print copies should be shipping in about one to two weeks. If you haven’t yet ordered it, you can pick it up on Amazon, here, or directly from O’Reilly, here. Hope you enjoy! Also, for those interested, we’ve already begun updating the book for all the new features in Mountain Lion Server. Now that I’m pretty in tune with publishing through O’Reilly and the various technical aspects of doing so, I…

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

    Managing iOS Devices with Apple Configurator

    My traditional interpretation of Apple’s vision on how iOS devices are used is that everyone has an AppleID. That AppleID enables them to access their apps from any iOS device they own or Mac that they own. That AppleID enables them to access mail, contacts, calendars and even files through iCloud. That AppleID also allows users to remotely wipe their device through Find iPhone and track their friends iOS devices (as in social networking via breadcrumb tracking) through Find Friends. All of this “Just Works” in a consumer sense. And it even allows for a little sharing of content across devices you own. However, larger organizations need more. They need…

  • Football,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  Time Machine

    2012 Penn State MacAdmins Conference

    Don’t let the theft of the Paternoville sign fool ya’, State College is as safe as ever. That is, until a bunch of Mac guys descend on the Nittany Lion Shrine. Yes, it’s that time of the year again when Mac guys from around the world (and yes, all of the speakers are male) descend upon Pennsylvania State University from throughout the Big 10 and beyond to discuss the Penn State mascot, the Nittany Lion. Actually, it’s a mountain lion, so we can’t discuss it quite yet at that point, but we can talk about a slightly bigger cat: Lion. Lion deployment, scripted tools, Munki, InstaDMG, Puppet, migrations, “postPC,” PSU…

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

    Podcasting in Lion Server

    There have been a number of articles on using the Podcast Producer service in Snow Leopard and previous operating systems. The Podcast Producer service itself in Lion remains unchanged. It still needs shared storage (e.g. NFS, Xsan, etc), Xgrid, Kerberos (for Xgrid) and while seeming to sit atop a house of cards, is one of the coolest and most complex services in Mac OS X Server. But there have been a lot of environments where Podcast Producer seemed out of reach where it shouldn’t have. If you have a single server, why do you need shared storage, a truly scalable grid computing cluster and all that complex workflow goodness at…

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

    Pentesting Mac OS X Server With Nessus 5

    One of my favorite tools for penetration testing is Nessus from Tenable Network Security. Nessus 5 is the latest release in the family of vulnerability scanners that is probably amongst the most prolific. Nessus 5 does discovery, configuration auditing, profiling, looks at patch management and performs vulnerability analysis on a variety of platforms. Nessus can also run on a Linux, Windows or Mac OS X and can be used to scan and keep track of vulnerabilities for practically any platform, including Mac OS X. To install Nessus, go to the Nessus site and click on the Download button, around the middle of the page. Agree to the download agreement and…

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

    Google Open Sources FileVault 2 Code (aka Cauliflower Vest)

    In an email to the Mac Enterprise list, Ed Marczak of Google announced that Google is open sourcing their much heralded FileVault 2 code, once again proving how awesome the Mac team at Google really is: I’m very happy to announce Cauliflower Vest: a new, open source product that is an end-to-end Mac OS X FileVault 2 recovery key escrow solution. In short, this brings missing features that allow you to better manage FileVault 2 machines. Cauliflower Vest allows you to: – Forcefully enable FileVault 2 encryption. – Automatically escrow recovery keys. – Delegate secure access to recovery keys so that volumes may be unlocked or reverted. If you *just*…

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

    iOS Device Sales Outpace All Macs Ever (in 2011 alone)

    In search of the American Dream? Apple has sold approximately 122 million Macs over the course of 28 years. They have sold 55 million iPads since those were released in April 2010 (in less than 2 years) and sold 156 million iOS Devices for 2011 alone, bringing the total of iOS devices to 316 million. The handset market is set to increase by around 33 percent and there’s really no telling where the tablet market is set to go over the course of the next few years. What does all of this mean? It means that iOS is continuing to increase in visibility, that App Store sales will continue to rise…