Archive for category: Articles

UEFI, 10.13/APFS, and You(r Imaging)

UEFI, 10.13/APFS, and You(r Imaging)

Let’s discuss the basic input/output system for IBM PC compatible computing devices, aka BIOS. Wait, that’s not a good start, P.eople C.an’t reM.ember C.omputer and I.nternet A.cronyms. Ok, EFI – that’s a thing that’s like BIOS, right? You can lock it, it makes sure all your most vital hardware components […]

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Proactive Mac Security, Introduction

Proactive Mac Security, Introduction

Let’s say your company is a place where no one works day-to-day logged in as an admin on their Mac. Everybody in this environment is also a computer expert, and therefore aren’t as prone to tomfoolery such as letting family members use their login to play Chrome games, and of […]

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Enhancing Sal with Facter and Profiles

In a previous post, I showed how to set up Sal. Sal‘s basic functionality is useful on its own, for the basic Munki reporting – what are the completed installs, pending updates, what OS versions, how many devices checked in the past 24 hours, etc. In this post, I’m going […]

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VMware ESXi 5.5 on the Mac Pro (2013)

VMware ESXi 5.5 on the Mac Pro (2013)

Five years ago, it was not uncommon to see many cabinets full of Xserves fulfilling serving roles in the enterprise.  Today those servers are on their last legs and warrant replacement by modern hardware and software design. Luckily there isn’t much of a need of OS X Server by IT […]

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Securing a Munki deployment with Puppet SSL certificates

Securing a Munki deployment with Puppet SSL certificates

Munki and Puppet have become very popular tools in the last few years, and make a great team for Mac management.  While Puppet is inherently secure due to its use of client-certificate based SSL for all communication, most Munki deployments still run over plaintext HTTP.  One of the best features […]

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Virtualize OS X using vSphere on Mac hardware

On my blog, I have written a 3 page blogpost about virtualizing OS X using vSphere on Mac hardware. In the blogpost I try to answer the below questions: What is required to virtualize OS X? Which hardware is supported, and which hardware works? How to license OS X in […]

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Hidden AirPlay feature in the AppleTV 6.1 (iOS 7.1) update

Hidden AirPlay feature in the AppleTV 6.1 (iOS 7.1) update

Here’s one that will make educators and education network administrators realllllly happy. There’s a hidden gem in the AppleTV 6.1 update that was released today. In addition to Bonjour over UDP negotiation for AirPlay, iOS 7.1 devices will also look for AirPlay sources using Bonjour over bluetooth when doing its […]

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Exploring Apple’s new Device Enrollment Program

Exploring Apple’s new Device Enrollment Program

On February 26, 2014 Apple announced its new Device Enrollment Program (DEP). You can read about the features of the DEP here. In a nutshell, for US customers who have purchased devices directly from Apple, you can: 1) Force enrollment with your MDM when device is set up (every time) […]

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Clean Migration of Existing Open Directory Users to a New Mavericks Server

Clean Migration of Existing Open Directory Users to a New Mavericks Server

For many reasons, you may find yourself needing to start a new Mavericks Open Directory server from scratch. In this article, I’ll go over how to import your existing users from an older Open Directory server and import them to your new Mavericks server. I will also use a tool […]

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InstaUp2Date + AutoDMG

If you use InstaDMG/InstaUp2Date and are worried that your workflow is going to break sooner than later, swapping AutoDMG in for InstaDMG may be your best bet. This article shows you how to make it work.

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