A blog is a great way to communicate information. But pedagogy, yo… Blogs are not great ways to teach in a guided manner. But they can be. So with a little Table of Contents, or a Guide of sorts, you can easily communicate in a fashion similar to a book. And this makes the third annual OS X Server Guide that I’m publishing in this manner; the guides for Mavericks and Mountain Lion are still available. I doubt I’ll ever actually bother to take them down. I’ve been working on getting the annual guide up for a few weeks and while there are still some posts remaining, but it’s basically done (some articles…
-
-
Upgrading To OS X Server (4.0) on Yosemite
Setting up OS X Server has never been easier. Neither has upgrading OS X Server. In this article, we’ll look at upgrading a Mac from OS X 10.8 or 10.9 running Server 2 or Server 3 to OS X 10.10 (Mavericks) running Server 4. The first thing you should do is clone your system. The second thing you should do is make sure you have a good backup. The third thing you should do is make sure you can swap back to the clone should you need to do so and that your data will remain functional on the backup. The fourth thing you should do is repeat all that…
-
Create a Yosemite Installation Drive
A bootable installer is one of the fastest ways to install Yosemite. Rather than copy the installer to a local drive you can run it right off a USB disk (or Thunderbolt if you dare). Such a little USB drive would be similar to the sticks that came with the older MacBook Air, when we were all still sitting around wondering how you would ever install the OS on a computer with no optical media or Ethernet otherwise. Luckily, Apple loves us. To make a bootable USB/flash drive of Yosemite like the one that used to come with the MacBook Air, first name the USB drive. I’ll use yosinstall for…
-
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…
-
Three New Take Control Books Titles On Yosemite
Kudos to Take Control (including Joe Kissell and Schools McFarland here) for being on the spot with getting Yosemite titles out in alignment with the release of the actual operating system. To put you in control of Apple’s new OS X 10.10 Yosemite they have three books for you today: the first two are straightforward and useful, and the third has more real-world, practical advice for the modern Mac user than anything we’ve published recently. To quote the release information today, they are: * “Take Control of Upgrading to Yosemite,” by Joe Kissell * “Yosemite: A Take Control Crash Course,” by Scholle McFarland * “Digital Sharing for Apple Users: A Take…
-
Add Your VPP Token To Profile Manager Running on Yosemite (OS X Server)
Apple began rolling out new features with the new Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) program last year. There are lots of good things to know, here. First, the old way should still work. You’re not loosing the stuff you already invested in such as Configurator with those codes you might have used last year with supervision. However, you will need an MDM solution (Profile Manager, Casper, Absolute, FileWave, etc) to use the new tools. Also, the new token options are for one to one (1:1) environments. This isn’t for multi-tenant environments. You can only use these codes and options for iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 and 10.10. Also, if you install…
-
Yosemite and The Xsan Command Line
Let’s start out with what’s actually available in the Server Admin CLI: serveradmin. The serveradmin command, followed by settings, followed by san shows a few pieces of information: bash-3.2# serveradmin settings san san:computers = _empty_array san:primaryController = "95C99FB1-80F2-5016-B9C3-BE3916E6E5DC" san:ownerEmail = "krypted@me.com" san:sanName = "krypted" san:desiredSearchPolicy:_array_index:0 = "" san:serialNumbers = _empty_array san:dsType = 0 san:ownerName = "Charles Edge" san:managePrivateNetwork = yes san:metadataNetwork = "10.0.0.0/24" san:numberOfFibreChannelPorts = 2 san:role = "CONTROLLER" Here, we see the metadata network, the GUID of the primary (active) MDC, the name of the SAN, an array of serial numbers (if applicable – in a purely Mountain Lion/Mavericks SAN they aren’t), the owner info plugged in earlier and the metadata network interface being used. Next, we’ll take a peak at…
-
Setting Up An Open Directory Replica In Yosemite Server
Previously, we looked at setting up an Open Directory Master in OS X 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 to make…
-
Setup NetInstall On OS X Yosemite Running the Server app
The NetBoot service allows administrators of OS X computers to leverage images hosted on a server to boot computers to a central location and put a new image on them, upgrade them and perform automations based on upgrades and images. Since the very first versions of OS X, the service has been called NetBoot. In the Server app, Apple provides a number of options surrounding the NetInstall service, based on Automator-style actions, now calling the service NetInstall. The first step to configuring the NetInstall service is to decide what you want the service to do. There are three options available in System Image Utility (available under the Tools menu of…
-
Promote A Yosemite Open Directory Replica To A Master
You’ve got Open Directory running and humming beautifully in OS X Server (Server 3.5 on OS X 10.10 Yosemite). You show up to work and the hard drive has died on that perfectly configured Open Directory Master. Luckily, you have a replica and you have an archive of your Master. You can restore or you can promote your Replica to a Master. What to do? Well, I can’t tell you what you should do, but I can tell you that Apple has planned for this. Here, we’re going to look at promoting that Replica to a Master. Because after all, hard drives fail. Let’s look at what all this looks…