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Performing password resets on Yosemite with unsetpassword
One issue that can crop up for Mac admins is the problem of “I don’t want to know my users’ passwords, but I need to set up their accounts.” When setting up accounts from a directory service like...
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fdesetup sync – fdesetup’s misunderstood command
Apple’s fdesetup tool includes a number of commands, including fdesetup sync. In the fdesetup manpage, sync is listed with the following description: Synchronizes information from Open Directory to...
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Managing OS X’s automatic security updates
On Monday, December 22nd, Apple released OS X NTP Security Update 1.0 to fix a vulnerability in ntpd. What caught many folks off-guard was that this update installed itself in many cases, without...
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Adding a self-signed Casper Root CA as a trusted root
Since Elliot Jordan’s presentation at JAMF Nation User Conference 2014, I’ve started using AutoPkgr in combination with Shea Craig’s JSSImporter to automatically package and upload a number of software...
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Managing automatic installation of ConfigData and security software updates...
As mentioned previously, the updates for XProtect’s blacklist moved into Apple’s software update feed starting in Mavericks. Gatekeeper updates are also included in the software update feed on...
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2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here's an excerpt: The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 1,000,000 times in...
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Managing automatic App Store and OS X update installation on Yosemite
To go along with the automatic installation of security updates, there are also options in Yosemite’s App Store preferences in System Preferences to have your Mac automatically install available...
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Hiding user accounts in Yosemite
On December 8th, 2014, Apple posted a KBase article showing a way to hide user accounts in Yosemite that was different than the methods available in previous versions of OS X. In Yosemite, you can add...
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Oracle’s Java 8 and Mac OS X 10.7.x
With Oracle’s Java 8, there’s been some confusion as to whether Java 8 runs on Mac OS X 10.7.5. This issue was lent additional urgency in the wake of Oracle’s announcement that they will begin...
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Yosemite’s FileVault 2 pre-boot recovery options
One of the changes that Apple has introduced with Yosemite is a more straightforward way to recover from login problems at the FileVault 2 pre-boot login screen. When a FileVault 2-encrypted Mac sits...
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Downloading and deploying Adobe Flash Player 16.0.0.296
Over the weekend of January 24th, Adobe released Adobe Flash Player 16.0.0.296 to fix a critical vulnerability. This update was available for installation via the Flash auto-update, but there was...
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FileVault 2 deferred enablement in Yosemite
One of the requirements when enabling an account for FileVault 2 is that the account’s own password must be provided in order for the account to be enabled. This is because the account’s password is...
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Managing Yosemite’s FileVault 2 with fdesetup
With the release of Yosemite, Apple has continued to add functionality to fdesetup, a valuable command-line tool for enabling, administering and disabling Apple’s FileVault 2 encryption. This tool...
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Installing the Xcode command line tools on 10.7.x and later
A number of Mac admins need to provide the Xcode Command Line Tools for the Macs in their environments, either as part of building machines or afterwards. To help with this task, I’ve developed a...
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Free tools for the budget-minded Mac admin
In the ##osx-server IRC room, a question that comes up fairly often from new Mac admins is one similar to this: I’m on a tight budget. Are there any free tools that I can use to help manage my Macs?...
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Certificate authority expiration and Apple software updates
A while back, there was an issue when the certificate Apple used to digitally sign installers expired. This issue was handled by Apple in a couple of ways: Reissuing installers signed with an updated...
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Oracle’s Java 8 Update 31 has been updated to …. Java 8 Update 31
Oracle has released a new update for Java 8, but this update has an interesting wrinkle. Oracle has put out a new build of Java 8, but didn’t bump the version number from Java 8 Update 31. So folks who...
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AutoPkg slides from the January 2015 MacDMV meeting
The January 2015 MacDMV meeting on Saturday, January 24th was quite the event, between having to move from our planned meeting place due to a fire and figuring out the best way to give Keynote...
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Deploying Sophos Enterprise Anti-Virus for Mac 9.2.x
With the release of Sophos Enterprise Anti-Virus 9.2.x, Sophos changed how their enterprise antivirus solution for Macs was installed. While previous versions of Sophos Enterprise used an Apple...
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IRC and the Mac admin community
One of the interesting developments of the past few years has been the use of IRC by the Mac admin community to get more of us “together” in the same place to ask questions and get help from each...
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