Yay, podcasts! Chuck Joiner was kind enough to have me on MacVoices. We did a show, now available at http://www.macvoices.com/macvoices-14223-charles-edge-helps-take-control-os-x-server Or if you’d like to watch on YouTube or inline: http://youtu.be/AeccoRqIrgc
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My Take Control Of OS X Server Book Now Available!
Thanks to all the awesome work from Adam and Tanya Engst, Tidbits announced today that my Take Control of OS X Server is now available! To quote some of the Tidbits writeup: Some projects turn out to be harder than expected, and while Charles Edge’s “Take Control of OS X Server” was one of them, we’re extremely pleased to announce that the full 235-page book is now available in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket versions to help anyone in a home or small office environment looking to get started with Apple’s OS X Server. As you’ll likely remember, we published this book chapter by chapter for TidBITS members, finishing it in early…
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Bushel: The Device Enrollment Program (DEP) In Action
Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP for short) allows you to automatically setup devices with the settings you need on devices that your organization purchases. In Bushel, we give you the ability to link an Apple DEP account up with your Bushel account. This allows devices to add themselves automatically to your Bushel when the devices are activated. We tend to think this is the coolest thing since sliced bread and so we want to make sure you know how to use the feature. Setup Device Enrollment Program in Bushel To get started, log into your Bushel and click on Devices. Here, click the button for Device Enrollment Program. Download your…
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Bushel Interview with Tech.mn
Slowly but surely information about what I left 318 to do has been leaking out. And I wouldn’t say leaking. More like being broadcast to the world. I’ve worked on a few little things here and there at JAMF Software since my arrival. But my core duty is to shepherd the development and strategy behind a new Mobile Device Management tool called Bushel. A little more about Bushel is available here, and I’ll likely post more about it here when the time is right: http://tech.mn/news/2014/11/04/jamf-software-bushel-apple-device-management/ And to access the Bushel site: http://www.bushel.com And some of the writing that are now finding their way onto the Bushel blog: http://blog.bushel.com
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qlmanage
QuickLook scans file contents before you open those files. Usually this just lets you view a file quickly. But you can also use this same technology from the command line to bring about a change to the Finder without actually opening a file. To access QuickLook from the command line, use qlmanage. qlmanage -p ~/Desktop/MyTowel42.pdf While open, click the space bar to go back to your Terminal session. The most notable use case here is that when you use qlmanage you don’t run the risk of changing the date/time stamp of the files.
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Yosemite and statshares in smbutil
The statshares option has an -m option to look at a mount path for showing the path to the mount (e.g. if the mount is called krypted this should be something like /Volumes/krypted): smbutil statshares -m /Volumes/krypted When run, you see a list of all the attributes OS X tracks for that mount path, including the name of the server, the user ID (octal), how SMB negotiated an authentication, what version of SMB is running (e.g. SMB_1), the type of share and whether signing, extended security, Unix and large files are supported. Additionally, if you’d like to see the attributes for all shares, use the -a option after statshares: smbutil…
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Directory Utility in Yosemite. I’m not Dead Yet… Mapping Attributes 101
The Directory Utility application has moved to /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications. Once open, you can use it to bind to directory services, change search policies and even dink around with NIS if you still rock the flannel with your ripped up jeans. But, the thing that I tend to do in Directory Utility the most is look at user and group attributes. To do so, open Directory Utility and click on the Directory Editor tab. In the bar directly below, you’ll see Viewing and In Node. The Viewing option is what type of object you’re going to look at. The In Node option shows the directory domain you’re viewing. Below, we show the local users in…
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Yosemite Server Guide/Page Live
A blog is a great way to communicate information. But pedagogy, yo… Blogs are not great ways to teach in a guided manner. But they can be. So with a little Table of Contents, or a Guide of sorts, you can easily communicate in a fashion similar to a book. And this makes the third annual OS X Server Guide that I’m publishing in this manner; the guides for Mavericks and Mountain Lion are still available. I doubt I’ll ever actually bother to take them down. I’ve been working on getting the annual guide up for a few weeks and while there are still some posts remaining, but it’s basically done (some articles…
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Demoting An Open Directory Server In Yosemite Server
The command to create and tear down an Open Directory environment is slapconfig. When you disable Open Directory from the Server app you aren’t actually removing users. To do so, you’d use slapconfig along with the -destroyldapserver. When run, you get a little insight into what’s happening behind the scenes. This results in the following: bash-3.2# slapconfig -destroyldapserver The logs are as follows: 2014-09-18 14:42:02 +0000 slapconfig -destroyldapserver 2014-09-18 14:42:02 +0000 CopyReplicaArray: ldap_search_ext_s failed 2014-09-18 14:42:02 +0000 Error retrieving replica array 2014-09-18 14:42:02 +0000 Deleting Cert Authority related data 2014-09-18 14:42:03 +0000 Removed directory at path /var/root/Library/Application Support/Certificate Authority/Take Control Books Open Directory Certification Authority. 2014-09-18 14:42:03 +0000 command: /usr/sbin/xscertadmin…
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Creating Users In Yosemite Server
There are three ways to create users in Yosemite Server (the Server app running on Yosemite if you’re so bored you feel the need to try and correct me). The first is using the Server app, the second is using the Users & Groups System Preference pane and the third is using the command line. In this article we will look at creating users in the Server app. To do so, open the Server app and connect to your server. Then click on the Users entry in the ACCOUNTS list. The list of users is displayed, based on the directory domain(s) being browsed. A directory domain is a repository of…