Powermetrics is a command that shows very specific information about what’s using your systems power. This makes it handy for troubleshooting what processes are taking up CPU, GPU, etc. To run a basic iteration of the command, we’re going to look at a usage summary report, using the –show-usage-summary option: powermetrics -a --show-usage-summary The output is as follows: Machine model: MacBookAir6,2 OS version: 13A598 *** Sampled system activity (Sun Dec 1 23:04:13 2013 -0600) (5006.04ms elapsed) *** *** Running tasks *** Name PID CPU ms/s User% Deadlines (
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systemstats in OS X
Ever wonder what your computer is up to? Ever wanted to know how much time the computer was awake for, how much battery was left, the exact percentage of use each core was taking up, how much CPU CrashPlan is using, etc? Well, lucky you, there’s systemstats. You just run it: systemstats And it tells you all kinds of juicy stuff. Summary ======= System Version: 13A598 Total Time: 195:13:01 Usage ===== Time on A/C: 165:42:24 Time on Battery: 29:30:35 Wake Time: 181:18:08 User Active: 46:46:18 User Idle: 134:31:49 Dark Wake Time: 00:01:15 Sleep Time: 13:53:37 Standby Time: 00:19:57 Battery ======= Time on Battery: 29:30:35 -10.2 %/hr -21576 mAh -7112 mW Wake:…
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Using the Help Options in OS X Server
Open Server, click Help, then click Server Help. You can then search and browse for information about things you’d like to accomplish using the Help Center. Now, click the arrow for each service for information about configuring that service. You will see an arrow for each service. Click the arrow for more information on that specific service.
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Clear ASL Logs Following Upgrades
I’ve had a couple of servers that after upgrading to 10.9 I’ve noticed were pretty slow to open up Terminal. To fix, I just cleared the ASL logs. To do so, just rm the contents of /var/log/asl. Here, I back them up first: cp -r /var/log/asl/ /Users/krypted/Desktop/asl/ rm -f /var/log/asl/*.asl If you end up not needing them you can just delete the asl directory from your Desktop.
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Repair Permissions From The Command Line
I’ve long been a supporter of building tools in self service portals such as those provided by JAMF and Munki to provide users who don’t have administrative permissions to perform tasks that wouldn’t typically otherwise be destructive. One such example is a simple repair permissions. An administrator can simply open Disk Utility, select their disk and then click Repair Disk Permissions But if you want to do this as a user who doesn’t have administrative privileges you would need to elevate your privileges before doing so. In a larger environment this would be incredibly annoying for dozens, hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of users to bring their computer…
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Debugging and Deploying iBooks
Just got to do my first troubleshooting for the iBooks app in OS X. Wasn’t a ton of info, so went digging for the debug menu that has become a staple of so many Apple apps. And it turns out that it was there. Looking at the plist for iBooksX prefs: defaults read com.apple.iBooksX This shows that we can go ahead and deploy a key to suppress the welcome screen (nice little deployment note made there) and a few other things. But what I was looking for is that BKShowDebugMenu key { BKAlreadyDisplayedWelcomeExperience = 1; "BKBookshelfCategoryManager~012384" = 1; BKBookshelfViewControllerFilterAction = 5; BKBookshelfViewControllerSortAction = 1; BKShowDebugMenu = 0; BKSimulateCrashDuringMigration = 0;…
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View Power Consuming Apps In Mavericks
Mavericks allows you to look at power hungry apps, so you can keep track of what’s draining your batter. To do so, click no the battery icon in the menu bar and then look in the Apps Using Significant Energy section. If you’re concerned about an aggregate of apps using too much energy, hold down the option key when you click on the icon. When you do so, the Condition will be listed; hopefully as Normal.
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Mavericks & Show Hidden Files
I noticed this because part of my postflight imaging task for my lab systems is to show all files, but in Mavericks, the com.apple.finder defaults domain is case sensitive. So if you have com.apple.Finder you’ll need to edit it in such a workflow. So, for example, if you need to see hidden files, use the following commands: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true killall Finder The problem with seeing hidden files is that you see a lot of stuff that you really probably don’t want to see. So to get back to a state where you don’t have to see all of the invisible files, use the following commands: defaults…
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AFP IS NOT GONE!!!
Sorry for shouting. I keep hearing people mention that they can’t upgrade to OS X Mavericks, or Mavericks Server because they need AFP. Well, the change that came in Mavericks isn’t that AFP was deprecated. Maybe it doesn’t get to call shotgun any more when running out to the car, but it’s still there. The sharing output, which shows afp: List of Share Points name: Charles Edge’s Public Folder path: /Users/krypted/Public afp: { name: Charles Edge’s Public Folder shared: 1 guest access: 1 inherit perms: 0 } The Connect to Server over afp: SMB is now the default protocol. Therefore, if you open a Connect to Server dialog and don’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.…