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

    MacSysAdmin Site Now Live

    One of my favorite things to do every year is head to Gothenburg to see Tycho, Patrik, and the rest of the wonderful country of Sweden (and city of Gothenburg). It’s a great city and Tycho does a great job to curate MacSysAdmin into an informative conference. And, the site is now live to buy your tickets for the 2016 event! It’s one of those conferences that sells out, so don’t wait too long to pick up your ticket! 🙂

  • Mac OS X Server

    BCC all mail to an OS X Server to an Email address

    I’m pretty big on privacy. Actually, I don’t need much privacy; I’m an open book. But I try to be very respectful of the privacy of others. Still, there are certain valid circumstances to send all mail that goes to an OS X Server to an email address. Maybe you have an automation that picks up mail from support staff and files it into software for ticketing, maybe you have a legal hold. In many cases, it’s not my place to judge the validity of such requests; only to find ways to implement them. To bcc all mail to an OS X Server, first disable the feature from Postfix so you can…

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

    List of Safe Complex Characters for Passwords

    A number of systems require you to use complex characters in passwords and passcodes. Here is a list of characters that can be used, along with the name and the associated unicode:    (Space) U+0020 ! (Exclamation) U+0021 ” (Double quotes) U+0022 # (Number sign) U+0023 $ (Dollar sign) U+0024 % (Percent) U+0025 & (Ampersand) U+0026 ‘  (Single quotes) U+0027 ( (Left parenthesis) U+0028 ) (Right parenthesis) U+0029 * (Asterisk) U+002A + (Plus) U+002B , (Comma) U+002C – (Minus sign) U+002D . (Period) U+002E / (Slash) U+002F : (Colon) U+003A ; (Semicolon) U+003B < (Less than sign) U+003C (not allowed in all systems) = (Equal sign) U+003D > (Greater than sign) U+003E (not allowed in all systems)…

  • Apple TV,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    The AppleTV Software Update Feed

    AppleTVs automatically update. They do so using a process similar to how iOS updates, but instead of looking at the feed I posted in https://krypted.com//mac-security/how-the-os-x-caching-server-caches-updates/, they look at http://mesu.apple.com/assets/tv/com_apple_MobileAsset_SoftwareUpdate/com_apple_MobileAsset_SoftwareUpdate.xml. The AppleTV feed is similar to that available for iOS updates, with each dictionary having roughly the same data: <key>ActualMinimumSystemPartition</key> <integer>1482</integer> <key>Build</key> <string>13Y6234</string> <key>InstallationSize</key> <string>0</string> <key>MinimumSystemPartition</key> <integer>1534</integer> <key>OSVersion</key> <string>9.2</string> <key>ReleaseType</key> <string>Beta</string> <key>SUDocumentationID</key> <string>PreRelease</string> <key>SUInstallTonightEnabled</key> <true/> <key>SUMultiPassEnabled</key> <true/> <key>SUProductSystemName</key> <string>iOS</string> <key>SUPublisher</key> <string>Apple Inc.</string> <key>SupportedDeviceModels</key> <array> <string>J42dAP</string> </array> <key>SupportedDevices</key> <array> <string>AppleTV5,3</string> </array> <key>SystemPartitionPadding</key> <dict> <key>1024</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>128</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>16</key> <integer>160</integer> <key>256</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>32</key> <integer>320</integer> <key>512</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>64</key> <integer>640</integer> <key>768</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>8</key> <integer>80</integer> </dict> <key>_CompressionAlgorithm</key> <string>zip</string> <key>_DownloadSize</key> <integer>856434408</integer> <key>_EventRecordingServiceURL</key> <string>https://xp.apple.com/report</string> <key>_IsZipStreamable</key> <true/> <key>_Measurement</key> <data>cm8k41In38EOJEj20IwJp5Suskw=</data>…

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

    Automatically Cache Updates To Your OS X Server

    A little while back, I did a little writeup on how the OS X Caching Server caches updates at https://krypted.com//mac-security/how-the-os-x-caching-server-caches-updates/. The goal was to reverse engineer parts of how it worked for a couple of different reasons. The first was to get updates for devices to cache to my caching server prior to 15 people coming in before it’s cached and having caching it down on their own. So here’s a little script I call precache. It’s a little script that can be used to cache available Apple updates into an OS X Server that is running the Caching Service. To use, run the script followed by the name of…

  • personal,  public speaking

    20 Things To Do In Austin While Attending ACES

    Things to Do In Austin In May Diverse, fun and infused with culture, Austin is the capital of Texas and home to a prosperous community and a wide variety of culture, from the world class cuisine in the many fine restaurants, the growing population of infamous tech companies, the summer festivals and creative atmosphere, to the magnificent country music in what is also referred to as the Live music capital of the world (although Nashville, Athens, and other cities might have some arguing of that point). Here are some great things to do when you visit Austin:  Austin City Limits I grew up seeing acts including Willie Nelson, Little Feat,…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Get the OS X Server Version

    You can find the version of the Server app that an OS X Server is running using the serveradmin command. To do so, run the serveradmin command followed by the -version option: sudo /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/sbin/serveradmin --version The output would be as follows: Version 15S5127