One of the most misunderstood items in Tiger is launchd which basically replaces inetd, xinetd, cron and at. It’s enough to drive a Unix admin mad. This video is a presentation of launchd by its creator at Apple and he talks about the changes coming in Leopard.
Displaying all posts for Mac
Apple adds RAID card option for Xserves and Mac Pro
by Patrick August 8, 2007
It looks like Apple has silently added a hardware RAID option for the Xserve and Mac Pro. They are not the same card but share the same price, $999 ($899 education). The card for the Xserve replaces the built-in SATA/SAS controller so it does not use a PCI Express slot. Read more »
Mac Software Packaging Utilities List
by Patrick July 14, 2007 » Add more comments.
As Mac OS X admins, it is important to know why and how to package up software. Packaging is a generally simple process that will make software deployment easier. ARD (Apple Remote Desktop) and LANDesk require software be in be in the .pkg format so it uses the Apple Installer.app Read more »
Mac OS X 10.4.10 Unnessesarily replaces sshd_config
by Patrick July 10, 2007 » Add more comments.
It looks like Apple did a very unpleasant modification in the 10.4.10 update. They outright replaced the /etc/sshd_config for a tiny bit of “tidying up” of the GSSAPI section. Before 10.4.10: # GSSAPI options#GSSAPIStrictAcceptorCheck yes#GSSAPIKeyExchange yes # GSSAPI options#GSSAPIAuthentication yes#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes After 10.4.10: # GSSAPI options#GSSAPIAuthentication yes#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes#GSSAPIStrictAcceptorCheck yes#GSSAPIKeyExchange yes Read more »
OS Images vs. The Santa Rosa MacBook Pro 2.2/2.4Ghz
by Patrick July 5, 2007 » Add more comments.
Back on June 5, Apple updated the MacBook Pro to include faster cpu’s, LED-backlit display and a video card upgrade. This MBP came with a newer build of 10.4.9 so of course, our image had to be updated. But by the time these actually started shipping to us, 10.4.10 became Read more »
How to add an AD user as a local admin
by Patrick July 3, 2007 » Add more comments.
We all know the obvious way to allow a given group(s) to be an admin of a Mac bound to Active Directory (see image below). Although the “Allow administration by group” setting in Directory Access allows users in that group to installsoftware and perform certain other admin functions, there is Read more »
John DeTroye’s Tips and Tricks doc updated
John DeTroye has updated his T&T doc which has always been a great best practices guide to client management. It covers subjects such as Open Directory, setting up accounts, managed client settings (MCX) and ARD. You can get the doc from here.
