Push Notifications can be used in most every service that macOS Server 5.4 (for High Sierra) can run. Any service that requiring Push Notifications will often provide the ability to setup APNS during the configuration of the service. But at this point, I usually just set up Push Notifications when I setup a new server. To enable Push Notifications for services, you’ll first need to have a valid AppleID. Once you have an AppleID, open the Server app and then click on the name of the server. Then click on the Settings screen and click on the checkbox for Notifications. At the Settings screen for your server, click on the check-box for…
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Manage The Contacts Service In macOS Server 5.4 High Sierra
Every Mac by default has an application called Contacts. Every macOS Server 5.4, running on High Sierra, has a service called Contacts. While the names might imply very different things that they do, you’ll be super-surprised that the two are designed to work with one another. The Contacts service is based on CardDAV, a protocol for storing contact information on the web, retrievable and digestible by client computers. However, there is a layer of database-driven obfuscation between the Contacts service and CardDAV. The Contacts service is also a conduit with which to read information from LDAP and display that information in the Contacts client, which is in a way similar to how the Global…
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Use SSH, ARD, SNMP, And The Server App Remotely on Server 5.4
SSH allows administrators to connect to another computer using a secure shell, or command line environment. ARD (Apple Remote Desktop) allows screen sharing, remote scripts and other administrative goodness. You can also connect to a server using the Server app running on a client computer. To enable any or all of these, open the Server app (Server 5.4 for High Sierra), click on the name of the server, click the Settings tab and then click on the checkbox for what you’d like to enter. All of these can be enabled and managed from the command line as well. The traditional way to enable Apple Remote Desktop is using the kickstart…
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Manage The Software Update Service In macOS Server 5.4
The software patching configuration built into most operating systems is configured so all that a user has to do is open a box at home, join the network and start using the computer right away. As environments grow from homes to small offices and then small offices grow into enterprises, at some point software updates and patches need to be managed centrally. macOS heavily leverages the App Store. This allows administrators to pretty much be hands off when it comes to managing updates. But some environments need to control the flow of updates anyway. Apple has had this ability since the early days of OS X and in macOS, you…
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Before You Upgrade to macOS Server 5.4 on High Sierra (macOS 10.13)
The latest version of the Apple Server app is out (macOS Server 5.4), and before you upgrade, there are a few points to review: As always, make a clone of your computer before upgrading. During the upgrade to High Sierra, if the operating system is running on a solid state drive, the drive will automatically upgrade to APFS. You cannot share APFS volumes over AFP, so if you’re running file services, make sure you’re aware of that. You can choose not to upgrade to APFS using the command line to upgrade a server. Even though the file sharing services are not in the Server app, you can still configure ACLs…
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Use Startup Profiles In macOS
Startup profiles configure profiles to install at the next boot, rather than immediately. Useful in a number of scenarios. Use the -s to define a startup profile and take note that if it fails, the profile will attempt to install at each subsequent reboot until installed. To use the command, simply add a -s then the -F for the profile and the -f to automatically confirm, as follows (and I like to throw in a -v usually for good measure): profiles -s -F /Profiles/SuperAwesome.mobileconfig -f -v And that’s it. Nice and easy and you now have profiles that only activate when a computer is started up.
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Programatically Manage DNS In macOS Server
DNS is DNS. And named is named. Except in macOS Server. Sometimes. The configuration files for the DNS services in macOS Server are stored in /Library/Server/named. This represents a faux root of named configuration data, similar to how that configuration data is stored in /var/named on most other platforms. Having the data in /Library/Server/ makes it more portable across systems. The current version of BIND is BIND 9.9.7-P3 (Extended Support Version). This has been the case for a number of macOS Server versions, and can easily be located by doing a cat of the /Library/Server/named/.version file. Traditionally, you would edit this configuration data by simply editing the configuration files, and that’s absolutely still…
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Programatically Manage Jabber Chat Rooms In macOS Server
Server comes with a command called RoomsAdminTool located at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/bin/RoomsAdminTool. This tool can list available rooms using a -l flag: RoomsAdminTool -l You can also create new rooms, using the following format, where krypted is the name of the room, the persistent option means the room is, er, persistent. The description option indicates a description used for the room. RoomsAdminTool -n krypted -c persistent yes description "This room is for friends of krypted only” To then delete the room, use the -d option: RoomsAdminTool -n krypted -d Add the -v to do it all verbosely. There are lots of other options as well, as follows (from the man page): Valid…
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Quick and dirty: Pull a list of all filevault encrypted users on a Mac
In the following example script, I’m going to pull a list of just the usernames from fdesetup. sudo fdesetup list The output would be as follows: charlesedge,F4D8B61D-1234-1234-98F4-103470EE1234 emerald,2E1203EA-1234-4E0D-1234-717D27221234 admin,50058FCF-88DF-1234-1234-91FCF28C0488 I’ll then pipe them into sed and use the , as a delimiter, pulling * or everything before it: sudo fdesetup list | sed 's;,.*;;' As follows: charlesedge emerald admin
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Logs, Logging, And Logger (Oh My)!
Apple has a number of different logging APIs. For the past few releases, Apple has tried to capture everything possible in logs, creating what many administrators and developers might consider to be a lot of chatter. As such, an entirely new interface needed to be developed to categorize and filter messages sent into system logs. Writing Logs The logger command is still used to create entries in system logs. However, if you are then using tail to view /var/log/system.log then you will notice that you no longer see your entry being written. This is because as the logs being created in macOS have gotten more complex, the tools to read…