“My computer sometimes just runs slow,” “the fan on my laptop won’t turn off sometimes,” and “my network connection keeps dropping.” These are amongst the most annoying off problems to solve for our users because they are intermittent. And to exacerbate things, many of these users have these problems at home or at remote locations, making it difficult for systems administrators to see them. There is something I use in these cases, though, that has helped isolate these problems from time to time. Simply tell users to Control-Option-Command-Shift-Period when they have these problems. Doing so will run the sysdiagnose command and then open a Finder window with the output of the…
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New 3rd Party Apple Certification Exams Now Available
After hearing about these new certifications for a good 3 or 4 years, I’m stoked that Tech2000 has now made the new Advanced OS X Certification exams available. Currently, there are three exams: OS X Directory Services Specialist Certification Exam OS X Deployment Specialist Certification Exam OS X Mobile Device and Profile Specialist Certification Exam These exams are a more modern rendition of what Apple Training would be providing if they still did any courses beyond the OS X Server ACTC. Basically, you can think of it as though the previous Security or Xsan exams were swapped out with Mobile Devices, which makes sense given the changing climate of things.…
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My New Book on Apple Configurator
My next book, coauthored with Mr. TJ Houston, is now available. The rough draft was mostly complete the week of MacSysAdmin in Sweden. I announced the book at the conference and was busy at work after to get as much as possible complete. And after many an hour and month spent editing this book (props to TJ for doing a lot of the editing), it’s finally available on Packt Publishing. To quote the site, this is what the book is on: The Apple Configurator is an incredible piece of software which grants full control in mobile device management, but on a larger scale. The popularity of people taking their own…
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iPads In The Enterprise Training From TrainSignal
TrainSignal, a popular site for computer based training videos, has built a course for iPads in the Enterprise. As a technical reviewer, I’ve had a chance to check out all the content, and it’s a good overview of what it takes to deploy iOS in enterprise environments. The course covers Apple Configurator, iPhone Configuration Utility and other tools common in such a deployment as well as the general concepts that those not yet familiar with iOS should get before embarking on such a deployment. The course is narrated by and developed by John O’Neill Sr., who brings a really upbeat and refreshing tempo to the table. To access the content, check…
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Apple Pro Training Series for ACTC
Arek Dreyer and Ben Greisler have been at it again. The latest editions of the Apple Training Series books are now out, providing a guide to getting certified with OS X Server. I haven’t gotten mine yet, but I suspect that the book, as with the previous books, will be excellent. To quote the book description: The only Apple-certified book on OS X Server on Mountain Lion, this comprehensive reference takes support technicians and ardent Mac users deep inside the server for the latest operating system, covering everything from networking technologies to service administration, customizing users and groups, and more. Aligned to the learning objectives of the Apple Certified Technical Coordinator…
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Creating Groups in Mountain Lion Server
There are four ways to create groups in Mountain Lion Server. The first is using the Server app, the second is using Workgroup Manager, 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 group objects are stored locally when created in Server app. Once promoted to an Open Directory server, local groups must be created…
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Signing Installation Packages
In OS X, installers are known as packages. The trend in OS X is to sign anything going onto a computer so that it can then be installed without concern that the product is not authentic. The productsign command provides the ability to sign packages in much the same way that the codesign command can be used on apps. For example, let’s say that we wanted to sign a package called Alpha.pkg in /tmp with Apple DeveloperID 31415926535897932384626 and have it result in a new package, Omega.pkg in the same directory. The command would be as follows: productsign --sign 'Developer ID Installer: 31415926535897932384626' '/temp/Alpha.pkg' '/temp/Omega.pkg' You can also timestamp the…
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10 Features I Miss From Mountain Lion & Mountain Lion Server
Apple’s not going to slow down innovation just to make me happy. I get that. But what have I noticed most about the differences between Mountain Lion and Mountain Lion Server and their predecessors, and maybe what to do to get some of them back? Podcast Producer: I am going to just put it out there. I liked Podcast Producer. I hope it shows back up in the future, even though I’m controlling my expectations. As someone who deals with a lot of video, there are a number of features that were really helpful to me, with or without Xgrid. I’ve replaced the command line aspects with tools such as…
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Setting Up & Troubleshooting An Open Directory Replica In OS X Mountain Lion Server
Yesterday we looked at setting up an Open Directory Master in OS X Mountain Lion Server. An Open Directory Replica keeps a copy of the Open Directory database available for users even when the Master goes offline. But it can also take a part of the load from the Open Directory Master and when using the new Locales feature, balance network traffic. To get started with an Open Directory Replica, first enable SSH, now disabled by default. Next, use the changeip to check the host name. While the Server app is cool, it caches stuff and I’ve seen it let things go threat shouldn’t be let go. Therefore, in order…
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Installing and Managing NetBoot Services in OS X Mountain Lion Server
The NetBoot service has allowed administrators of Mac OS X computers to leverage images hosted on a server to boot computers to a central location since OS X was first introduced by Apple. Since the very first versions of OS X, the service has been called NetBoot. In the Server app, Apple has added a number of options surrounding the NetBoot service. It is now called NetInstall. The first step to configuring the NetBoot service is to decide what you want the NetBoot service to do. There are three options: Create a NetBoot Image: Allows Macs to boot over the network to a disk image hosted on a server. Create…