• iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  Microsoft Exchange Server,  Network Infrastructure,  Ubuntu,  Unix,  VMware

    Quick nmap Hacks

    January 24, 2014

    The nmap application is a pretty easy-to-use tool that can be used to port scan objects in a network environment. To obtain mmap in an easy-to-use package installer, for OS X check out the download page at http://nmap.org/download.html#macosx (use the same page to grab it for Windows or *nix as well). Once downloaded run the package/rpm/whatever. Before I scan a system, I like to pull the routing table and eth info to determine how scans are being run, which can be run by using the mmap command anong with the —iflist option: nmap —iflist Basic Scanning To then scan a computer, just use the mmap command followed by the host…

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  • Windows Server,  Windows XP

    Net Stats & Windows Server

    December 16, 2013

    Windows Server tracks the sessions that have been authenticated into the system, those that have been timed out, those that have errored, kb sent/received, response time, errors, permission problems, password problems, files opened, print job spooling and buffers quickly and easily. Simply use the net command we’ve all been using for 20 years, followed by stats or statistics: net statistics When prompted choose server or workstation. In this case, we’ll use Server. net statistics Server Here’s the output from a new server: And if you’re trying to troubleshoot client/server communications, keep in mind that you can look at much of this on the workstation side as well, but from the…

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  • Mac OS X

    AFP IS NOT GONE!!!

    October 24, 2013

    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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  • Uncategorized

    Configure A Mavericks File Server

    October 23, 2013

    File Services are perhaps the most important aspect of any server because file servers are often the first server an organization purchases. There are a number of protocols built into OS X Mavericks Server dedicated to serving files, including AFP, SMB and WebDAV. These services, combined comprise the File Sharing service in OS X Mavericks Server (Server 3). File servers have shares. In OS X Mavericks Server we refer to these as Share Points. By default: File Sharing has some built-in Share Points that not all environments will require. Each of these shares is also served by AFP and SMB, something else you might not want (many purely Mac environments…

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  • Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Logs, Scripts and OS X Mountain Lion Server

    August 21, 2012

    OS X Mountain Lion has a lot of scripts used for enabling services, setting states, changing hostnames and the like. Once upon a time there was a script for OS X Server called server setup. It was a beautiful but too simplistic kind of script. Today, much of that logic has been moved out into more granular scripts, kept in /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/ServerSetup, used by the server to perform all kinds of tasks. These scripts are, like a lot of other things in Mountain Lion Server. Some of these include the configuration of amavisd, docecot and alerts. These scripts can also be used for migrating services and data, such as /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/ServerSetup/MigrationExtras/30-ipfwmigrator. Sometimes the scripts…

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  • Mac OS X Server,  Windows Server

    Disable ACLs for SMB

    June 15, 2012

    I had a pretty strange issue recently with how QuickBooks works with Samba. The fix was to disable ACLs for SMB. While this seems like a silly issue for silly software, it’s worth noting the fix. Before doing so, it’s worth mentioning that defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server AclsEnabled -bool NO If yore having saving issues from QuickBooks and this doesn’t fix your issue I’d immediately switch back: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server AclsEnabled -bool YES

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  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  Windows Server

    Limiting The Number of Windows Users in Lion Server (aka How-to of hidden serveradmin settings)

    June 8, 2012

    Lion Server doesn’t have an option in the GUI for throttling the maximum number of users that can connect to the server via SMB. Nor does it have said option in the  serveradmin interface. If you run the following, you would have previously seen the required setting: serveradmin settings smb The required setting (if controlled via serveradmin) is MaxClients= followed by the number of clients that you want to be the max: serveradmin settings smb:MaxClients=10 This is pretty easy stuff, but I have a point that goes beyond limiting the number of users. Not all of the settings that can be run through serveradmin are actually in the preferences any…

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  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Managing iOS Devices with Apple Configurator

    March 15, 2012

    My traditional interpretation of Apple’s vision on how iOS devices are used is that everyone has an AppleID. That AppleID enables them to access their apps from any iOS device they own or Mac that they own. That AppleID enables them to access mail, contacts, calendars and even files through iCloud. That AppleID also allows users to remotely wipe their device through Find iPhone and track their friends iOS devices (as in social networking via breadcrumb tracking) through Find Friends. All of this “Just Works” in a consumer sense. And it even allows for a little sharing of content across devices you own. However, larger organizations need more. They need…

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