In order to use the Apple Volume Purchase Program, you will need an MDM solution (Profile Manager, Casper, MobileIron, Meraki, FileWave, etc). Also, token options were traditionally for one to one (1:1) environments until iOS 9, which marked a change where you can now leverage per-device licensing. This removes the requirement that you need an Apple ID running on each device that you choose to install apps on. Suddenly, VPP is for multi-tenant environments. You can also use codes and options for iOS 7 and up as well as OS X 10.9 and up, but those will use Apple IDs. Also, if you install your vpptoken on OS X Server and you’re running that…
-
-
Take Control Of OS X Server (Yosemite) Now Available
I’ve been light on posting here, mostly because I’ve been swamped with work, selling my old house, buying a new house, doing some crazy taxes, wrapping production on a new book and updating the Take Control of OS X Server book to Yosemite Server. Well, earlier this week I sold my house, got the next version of Bushel ready to rock and filed my taxes. Aaaaannnnnndddddd, the Yosemite version of Take Control Of OS X Server is now available at http://tid.bl.it/1xuCJUC. Boom. Will get back to my normally scheduled postings shortly!
-
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…
-
Using the Help Options in OS X Server
OS X Yosemite, running the Server app comes complete with lots of awesome features to help you get up and running, started and owning the configuration of Apple Servers. One such is the built-in options to help manage your servers. 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. And just like that, simple and easy-to-use documentation, available live on OS X…
-
Yosemite Server: Configure Clients In Xsan 4 Environments
Yosemite brings Xsan 4, which brings a new way to add clients to an Xsan. Xsan Admin is gone. From now on, instead of scanning the network using Xsan Admin. we’ll be adding clients using a Configuration Profile. This is actually a much more similar process to adding Xsan clients to a StorNext environment than it is to adding clients to Metadata Controllers running Xsan 3 and below. But instead of making a fsnameservers file, we’re plugging that information into a profile, which will do that work on the client on our behalf. To make the Xsan configuration profile, we’re going to use Profile Manager. To get started, open the Profile…
-
Yosemite Server And Logs
OS X Yosemite running the Server app 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 Yosemite Server. Some of these include the configuration of amavisd, docecot and alerts. These scripts can also be used for migrating services and data. Sometimes the…
-
Demoting An Open Directory Server In Yosemite Server
The command to create and tear down an Open Directory environment is slapconfig. When you disable Open Directory from the Server app you aren’t actually removing users. To do so, you’d use slapconfig along with the -destroyldapserver. When run, you get a little insight into what’s happening behind the scenes. This results in the following: bash-3.2# slapconfig -destroyldapserver The logs are as follows: 2014-09-18 14:42:02 +0000 slapconfig -destroyldapserver 2014-09-18 14:42:02 +0000 CopyReplicaArray: ldap_search_ext_s failed 2014-09-18 14:42:02 +0000 Error retrieving replica array 2014-09-18 14:42:02 +0000 Deleting Cert Authority related data 2014-09-18 14:42:03 +0000 Removed directory at path /var/root/Library/Application Support/Certificate Authority/Take Control Books Open Directory Certification Authority. 2014-09-18 14:42:03 +0000 command: /usr/sbin/xscertadmin…
-
Creating Users In Yosemite Server
There are three ways to create users in Yosemite Server (the Server app running on Yosemite if you’re so bored you feel the need to try and correct me). The first is using the Server app, the second is using the Users & Groups System Preference pane and the third is using the command line. In this article we will look at creating users in the Server app. To do so, open the Server app and connect to your server. Then click on the Users entry in the ACCOUNTS list. The list of users is displayed, based on the directory domain(s) being browsed. A directory domain is a repository of…
-
Configure Messages Server In OS X Yosemite Server
Getting started with Messages Server couldn’t really be easier. Messages Server in the OS X Yosemite version of the Server app uses the open source jabber project as their back-end code base (and going back, OS X has used jabber since the inception of iChat Server all the way through Server 3). The sqlite setup file is located at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/private/var/jabberd directory and the autobuddy binary is at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/bin/jabber_autobuddy. The actual jabberd binary is also stored at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/libexec/jabberd, where there are a couple of perl scripts used to migrate the service between various versions as well. Setting up the Messages service is simple. Open the Server app and click on Messages…
-
Changing the Xcode Server Log Path in OS X 10.10 Yosemite Server
The logs in Xcode Server (Server 3) by default point to /Library/Server/XcodeLogs/credserver.log. This takes all of the output from xcscredd and xcscredhandler. If you’re doing a lot of debugging then logs can be pointed to another location, such as another drive. The path to the logs is defined in the /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LogConfiguration directory. The file to edit is a standard property list, XCSCredentialServer.plist: <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”> <plist version=”1.0″> <dict> <key>claimedFacilities</key> <array> <string>servermgrd</string> <string>servermgr-listener</string> <string>servermgr-notify</string> </array> <key>claimedSenders</key> <array> <string>servermgrd</string> <string>servermgr-listener</string> <string>servermgr-notify</string> </array> <key>logMaximumLevel</key> <string>debug</string> <key>logPath</key> <string>/Library/Server/Logs/servermgrd.log</string> </dict> </plist> Once open, look for a key called logPath. Change that to the desired path, such as /Volumes/MyDrive/Logs/credserver.log…