For the second time this month, Apple has released a major new operating system. Today, OS X 10.11 El Capitan became available in the Mac App Store. We are pleased to announce that, even with the significant changes in the operating system, Bushel extends full compatibility to Macs running this latest release. That means that all of your managed Macs within Bushel can be upgraded to OS X 10.11 and new Macs can be enrolled as well. In other words, your users should take advantage of this free software update! Read More About Bushel’s Same Day Support for OS X El Capitan On The Bushel Blog
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Promote an OS X Server 5 Open Directory Replica To An Open Directory Master
You’ve got Open Directory running and humming beautifully in OS X Server 5 (running on OS X Yosemite or OS X El Capitan). You show up to work and the hard drive has died on that perfectly configured Open Directory Master. Luckily, you have a replica and you have an archive of your Master. You can restore or you can promote your Replica to a Master. What to do? Well, I can’t tell you what you should do, but I can tell you that Apple has planned for this. Here, we’re going to look at promoting that Replica to a Master. Because after all, hard drives fail. Let’s look at…
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Configure the Calendar Server In El Capitan Server
Configuring Calendar Server in OS X Server 5 (running on El Capitan or Yosemite) is a fairly simple and straight forward process. The Calendar Server is a CalDAV Server, leveraging HTTP and HTTPS, running on ports 8008 and 8443 respectively. To enable the Calendar service in OS X Server (Server 5), open the Server application and click on Calendar in the SERVICES section of the sidebar. Once open, click on Enable invitations by email to enable email notifications of invitations in the Calendar Server. Provide the email address and then click on the Next button. At the Configure Server Email Address screen, provide the type of incoming mail service in use, provide the…
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Upgrade the OS X Server App To OS X Server 5
OS X Server 5 is now available to be installed. To do so, first backup your server. Then, backup your server again, making sure you have a functional, bootable clone. Once you’re sure you have a solid backup of your server, open the App Store and search for Server. When you find the Server app, click on it. At the OS X Server screen, click on Install. The download will begin. Once complete, you’ll see a notice that the “Server app replacement detected.” Click OK. Then, open the Server app. When the Server app opens, you’ll be prompted to update the server. Click Continue. At the Licensing Agreement screen, click…
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Manage File Services In OS X Server 5
File Services are perhaps the most important aspect of any server because file servers are often the first server an organization purchases. This has been changing over the past few years, with many a file being hosted by cloud solutions, such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and of course, iCloud. But many still need a terrestrial server and for predominantly Apple environments, a Server app running on OS X El Capitan isn’t exactly a bad idea. There are a number of protocols built into OS X Server dedicated to serving files, including AFP, SMB and WebDAV. These services, combined comprise the File Sharing service in OS X Server running El Capitan or…
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Xsan Command Line Options
Let’s start out with what’s actually available in the Server Admin CLI: serveradmin. The serveradmin command, followed by settings, followed by san shows a few pieces of information: bash-3.2# serveradmin settings san san:computers = _empty_array san:primaryController = "95C99FB1-80F2-5016-B9C3-BE3916E6E5DC" san:ownerEmail = "krypted@me.com" san:sanName = "krypted" san:desiredSearchPolicy:_array_index:0 = "" san:serialNumbers = _empty_array san:dsType = 0 san:ownerName = "Charles Edge" san:managePrivateNetwork = yes san:metadataNetwork = "10.0.0.0/24" san:numberOfFibreChannelPorts = 2 san:role = "CONTROLLER" Here, we see the metadata network, the GUID of the primary (active) MDC, the name of the SAN, an array of serial numbers (if applicable – in a purely Mountain Lion/Mavericks SAN they aren’t), the owner info plugged in earlier and the metadata network interface being used. Next, we’ll take a peak at…
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Manage the VPN Service in Mac OS X Server 5
OS X Server has long had a VPN service that can be run. The server is capable of running the two most commonly used VPN protocols: PPTP and L2TP. The L2TP protocol is always in use, but the server can run both concurrently. You should use L2TP when at all possible. Sure, “All the great themes have been used up and turned into theme parks.” But security is a theme that it never hurts to keep in the forefront of your mind. If you were thinking of exposing the other services in OS X Server to the Internet without having users connect to a VPN service then you should think again,…
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Using the serverinfo Command in OS X Server 5
OS X Server 5 (for El Capitan and Yosemite) comes with the /usr/sbin/serverinfo command (introduced in Mountain Lion Server). The serverinfo command is useful when programmatically obtaining information about the very basic state of an Apple Server. The first option indicates whether the Server app has been downloaded from the app store, which is the –software option: serverinfo --software When used, this option reports the following if the Server.app can be found: This system has server software installed. Or if the software cannot be found, the following is indicated: This system does NOT have server software installed. The –productname option determines the name of the software app: serverinfo --productname If…
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Casper 9.8 and Bushel Now Support El Capitan
JAMF Software has long had 0 day support for new Apple releases. The latest version of Bushel allows you to enroll El Capitan devices. Casper 9.8 also allows you to enroll devices. There are certainly going to be subsequent updates that allow us to do even more. This was a tricky one, as the jamf binary had to be moved and there were some new enrollment policies, to keep your Apple devices as secure as possible! Bushel is SaaS, so it’s available today. Casper should be updated. You can access our installers using your My Assets page on JAMF Nation. Happy updating!