You’ve got Open Directory running and humming beautifully in OS X Server (Server 3.5 on OS X 10.10 Yosemite). 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 what all this looks…
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Manage Groups In Yosemite Server
There are a number of ways to create groups in OS X Mavericks Server (Server 3). The first is using the Server app, the second is using Workgroup Manager (which could be running on an older operating system and connecting to the Mavericks Server in question), the third is using the Users & Groups System Preference pane and the fourth is using the command line. In this article we will look at creating groups in the Server app. Once a server has been an Open Directory Master all user and group accounts created will be in the Local Network Group when created in Server app. Before that, all user and…
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Setup The DNS Service In OS X Yosemite Server
Under the hood, OS X Server has a number of substantial changes; however, at first the Server app appears to have had very few changes. The changes in the Server app were far more substantial in the Yosemite version of OS X Server. All of the options from Yosemite are still there and using the new command line interface for managing the service, there are far more options than ever before. The DNS service in OS X Server, as with previous versions, is based on bind 9 (BIND 9.9.2-P2 to be exact). This is very much compatible with practically every DNS server in the world, including those hosted on Windows,…
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Setup The DCHP Service In Yosemite Server
DHCP, or Dynamic Host Control Protocol, is the service used to hand out IP addresses and other network settings by network appliances and servers. The DHCP Server built into OS X Server 3, installed on Yosemite running the Server app (aka Yosemite frickin’ server) is easy-to-use and fast. It’s pretty transparent, just as DHCP services should be. To install the service, open the Server app and then click on the Show button beside Advanced in the server sidebar. Then click on DHCP. At the DHCP screen, you’ll see two tabs: Settings, used for managing the service and Clients, used to see DHCP leases in use by computers that obtain IP…
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OS X Yosemite Server and dnsconfig
DNS is DNS. And named is named. Except in OS X Server. The configuration files for the DNS services in OS X 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/named makes it more portable across Mac DNS Servers. Traditionally, you would edit this configuration data by simply editing the configuration files, and that’s absolutely still an option. In Yosemite Server, a command is available at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DNSManager.framework called dnsconfig, introduced back in Mavericks. The dnsconfig command appears simple at first. However, the options available are actually…
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(Cross-Post) Video from JSS-autopkg-addon Presentation
JSS-autopkg-addon Presentation from Allister Banks on Vimeo. (Guest post by Allister Banks) On June 26th, I had the pleasure of being invited by @Tecnico1931 to the NYC Metro JAMF user group meeting. A worksheet I created for this event may be found here: url.aru-b.com/jssAutopkg See also Shea Craig’s python-jss, and thanks go out to James Barclay, Sam Johnson, and all the folks mentioned in the video.
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Package Based Roundcube Setup For OS X Server
The good people at TopicDesk have released a new version of their Roundcube installer. Now, with Mountain Lion & Mavericks compatibility. Automatic setup of carddav is the biggest new feature, but it’s also been updated to the latest version of Roundcube. The “topicdesk Roundcube Installer 0.9.5a” will: Install Roundcube 0.9.5 (the latest and greatest) as a WebApp in OS X Server Configure sensible defaults for Roundcube and PHP Automatically configure postgres and initializes the roundcube database Configure managesieve server-side filtering (Vacation Replies) Install mcrypt (if you don’t have it installed/functioning already) Automatically configure a carddav plugin, it works on first launch To download, check it out at: http://topicdesk.com/downloads/roundcube/
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MacTech 2013
My MacTech was cut a bit short this year and I was really only able to go for the first day. After my talk, I got to see a lot of excellent people and was, as always, excited to see how our industry continues to grow and thrive. I think a lot of people doubted this type of growth would happen a few years ago, with the cancellation of the server hardware by Apple. But it has thrived and from Gothenburg (MacSysAdmin) to Minneapolis (JNUC) to Pennsylvania (PSU MacAdmins) to Los Angeles (MacTech) to San Francisco (WWDC and MacIT), there are more conferences and more people attending those conferences than…
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Install Your Shiny New VPP Token For Profile Manager
Apple began rolling out new features with the new Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) program this week. There are lots of good things to know, here. First, the old way should still work. You’re not loosing the stuff you already invested in such as Configurator with those codes you might have used last year with supervision. However, you will need an MDM solution (Profile Manager, Casper, Absolute, FileWave, etc) to use the new tools. Also, the new token options are for one to one (1:1) environments. This isn’t for multi-tenant environments. You can only use these codes and options for iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 and above. But this article isn’t…
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Configure RADIUS in Mavericks Server
RADIUS is automatically managed when using Apple Airports. When you open the Server app, if an Airport base station is detected you’ll see it in the Server app sidebar. But what if you want to use RADIUS to authenticate Meraki, Cisco, Aerohive and other device from other vendors? Then we have to enable things differently. To get started, we need to create an com.apple.access_radius, which we can do with Workgroup Manager or with dseditgroup: dseditgroup -o create -n . -u admin -r RADIUS com.apple.access_radius Next, place all of the users that have access to the service in the new group. You will need to show system groups to do so.…