macOS Server 5.2, running on Sierra, comes with a few new alerting options previously unavailable in versions of OS X. The alerts are sent to administrators via servermgrd and configured in the 5th version of the Server app. To configure alerts on the server, open the Server app and then click on Alerts in the Server app sidebar. Next, click on the Delivery tab. At the Delivery screen, click on the Edit button for Email Addresses and enter every email address that should receive alerts sent from the server. Then click on the Edit button for Push Notifications. Here, check the box for each administrator of the server. The email address on file…
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Disable The Connect To Server Option
You can disable the Connect to Server menu in OS X. This can be done via MDM or using defaults. To do so with the defaults command, send a ProhibitConnectTo key into com.apple.finder as True and then restart the Finder, as follows using the defaults command: defaults write com.apple.finder ProhibitConnectTo -bool true ; killall Finder To undo: defaults write com.apple.finder ProhibitConnectTo -bool false
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hostinfo
The hostinfo command displays information about your host; namely your kernel version, the number of processors the kernel is configured for, the number of physical processors active, the number of logical processors active, the type of those processors, which ones are active, the amount of memory available, tasks, threads, and average load. Run hosting without any arguments or options: hostinfo The output would be as follows (ymmv per system): Mach kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 15.0.0: Wed Aug 26 19:41:34 PDT 2015; root:xnu-3247.1.106~5/RELEASE_X86_64 Kernel configured for up to 4 processors. 2 processors are physically available. 4 processors are logically available. Processor type: x86_64h (Intel x86-64h Haswell) Processors active: 0 1…
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Dark Knight Mode In El Capitan Server
In case your Mac just isn’t emo enough for ya’, Apple’s provided us a cool little new feature in Yosemite called dark mode. No, this won’t cause Hellboy to leap forth from your MacBook Air. Well, maybe he’ll visit your MacBook Pro, but I haven’t tested that so please don’t quote me on that. Instead, you’ll get the nice new dark menu bar: But that’s not all folks! Your dock will also get all dark and gothy! To turn it on, just open the General System Preference pane and check the box for “Use dark menu bar and Dock”. Enjoy! Oh, and if that’s not emo enough for you feel…
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Use dnsconfig in OS X Server 5
DNS is DNS. And named is named. Except in OS X Server. Sometimes. 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/ makes it more portable across systems. The current version of BIND is 9.9.7-P2. Traditionally, you would edit this configuration data by simply editing the configuration files, and that’s absolutely still an option. In OS X Server 5 (for El Capitan and Yosemite), a new command is available at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DNSManager.framework called dnsconfig. The dnsconfig command appears simple at…
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Remotely and Silently Install A Windows MSI Via PowerShell
One of the easiest things to do in OS X is to remotely run an installation package using the installer command. You can do some similar tasks in Windows, although the commands aren’t quite as cut and dry. The Start-Process command can be used to kick off an executable. Here, we will kick off the msiexec.exe and feed it an argument, which is the msi file to install silently. We’ll then wait for it to complete: {Start-Process -FilePath "msiexec.exe" -ArgumentList "/i TEST.msi /qb" -Wait -Passthru}
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Ask serveradmin If an Open Directory Certificate Authority is Available
The serveradmin command has an option to run commands. I’ve talked about these in past articles, for doing tasks like asking how many concurrent NFS connections are open on a host. Well, here’s another, and it’s a simple command. Here, we’re going to look at whether the Open Directory server has a CA. To do so, we’ll use the serveradmin command, along with the command verb. Then, we’ll add the certs option, followed by command= and then the payload of the command. In this case that’s isODCAPresent: sudo serveradmin command certs:command = isODCAPresent This is a simple, informational command, similar to the web:command of getSites or the mail:command of getConnectedUsers.…
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More Command Line Service Control In OS X
The serverctl command can be used to start and stop services in OS X Server. Use serverctl with a list verb to show a list of services: serverctl list Grab a service (without the quotes) and feed it back into serverctl with the enable option and a service= option to identify the service: serverctl enable service=com.apple.servermgrd.xcode Or disable, using the disable verb: serverctl disable service=com.apple.servermgrd.xcode
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2 New Take Control Books
From Take Control: Apple Mail. It’s hard to get by on a Mac or iOS device without it. But living with Mail can be a recipe for hair-pulling frustration, whether because of connection failures caused by Mail’s mysteriously unreliable automatic settings detection or trying to figure out the difference between long and short swipes in the iOS version. No one knows more about Mail than Joe Kissell, and he has distilled his most important advice into the second edition of “Take Control of Apple Mail,” now completely revised and updated to explain Mail in 10.10 Yosemite and iOS 8. 183 pages of goodness is only $15. Point others here > http://tid.bl.it/tco-apple-mail Apple’s…
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My Take Control Of OS X Server Book Now Available!
Thanks to all the awesome work from Adam and Tanya Engst, Tidbits announced today that my Take Control of OS X Server is now available! To quote some of the Tidbits writeup: Some projects turn out to be harder than expected, and while Charles Edge’s “Take Control of OS X Server” was one of them, we’re extremely pleased to announce that the full 235-page book is now available in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket versions to help anyone in a home or small office environment looking to get started with Apple’s OS X Server. As you’ll likely remember, we published this book chapter by chapter for TidBITS members, finishing it in early…