I just finished up a small article on my companies new blog about gaining access to a server or client system via single user mode and resetting the root password without any deamons running using nicl. I provide a general outline of how the basics work for local account passwords as well. Hopefully an interesting read for those lab admins who are still on the fence about using Firmware Passwords, or those not familiar about some of the local DirectoryService basics.You can find it here

The next MacEnterprise.org webcast, Intermapper, will take place on Tuesday, June 19th 2007 at 10:00am PDT.

In this webcast, join John Sutton from Dartware and Matt Federoff from Vail Unified School District as they discuss InterMapper.  Learn how InterMapper, a  cross-platform network monitoring, mapping, alerting and fault finding software, can maximize uptime with 24/7 monitoring of your network's health.  See how, with InterMapper RemoteAccess, the server/client configuration adds tremendous scalability and flexibility to monitoring your network.

The webcast ID needed to view the June 19th 2007 webcast is "MacEnterprise".

The passcode for the webcast is "257782"

For more information on how to view the webcasts, please visit: http://macenterprise.org/content/blogcategory/113/96/

To view the webcast, go to the following web page 5-10 minutes prior to the webcast start time:
http://webcast.training.apple.com/

There’s no doubt that the Command Line Interface can be a powerful way to control any machine. Many also call it fast, which IMHO isn’t always the case. Mundane tasks like changing directories and performing repetitive commands (as opposed to using keyboard shortcuts) and the lack of Undo/Redo can sometimes be anything but quick. Luckily with a few tricks, we can make the whole experience much more enjoyable…

The next MacEnterprise.org webcast, DiskWarrior, will take place on Tuesday, May 15th 2007 at 10:00am PDT.

In this webcast, join Rusty Little, an Engineering Manager and DiskWarrior Project Manager from Alsoft, Inc. This webcast will be an in-depth look at DiskWarrior. It will talk about what the directory of a Mac disk is comprised of. It will also talk about what DiskWarrior does and how it works. There will also be ample time for Q&A.

The webcast ID needed to view the May 15th 2007 webcast is "MacEnterprise". The passcode for the webcast is "880127"

For more information on how to view the webcasts, please visit: http://macenterprise.org/content/blogcategory/113/96/
Go to the following web page 5-10 minutes prior to the webcast start time:
http://webcast.training.apple.com/

iftop is a free network bandwidth analyzer. In the words of it’s creators “iftop is for network usage what top is for CPU usage”. It has many useful features including filtering by protocol and network (f) or an arbitrary regex (l) and is now available as a Universal Binary in installer package format. It’s installed into /usr/local/sbin.

The interface is fairly self-explanatory (the 3 columns on the right are transmission statistics for the last 2, 10 and 40 second intervals) but you might want to check the manpage for a complete explanation. You can also press “h” to get a help screen while it’s running.

10.4.9 brings some welcome improvements to rsync on OS X, but they might not be everything that you're looking for.

An exhaustive look at what is and what doesn't seem to be working with rsync through various iterations of OS X 10.4. Read on for the gory details…

(Ed. Note: It would appear that both versions of the 2007-004 Security Update re-breaks much of the rsync progress. This is corrected by the 2007-005 SecUpd, so be sure to test those patches!)

So a few people on the macos-x-server mailing list noticed that recent versions of OS X Server seem to be building up large numbers of Disabled/Asleep connections on their AFP servers, even with appropriate disconnection settings when users don't have files open.

 I'm even seeing this for servers where AFP session caching has been disabled, and this is as good a time as any to again point readers towards Apple's article on Understanding the "disconnect when idle" feature for AFP connections.

 I've been doing a little bit of work lately on scripts that parse out the result of serveradmin commands, so I thought I'd post up a script I put together that illustrates how you can do this with PHP command line scripting.  

Read on to download the script and read a brief description of how it works. 

The next MacEnterprise.org webcast, LANrev, will take place on Tuesday, April 17th 2007 at 10:00am PDT.

In this webcast, join Peter Frankl and Bao Tran from LANrev.  LANrev enables enterprises to manage their heterogeneous clients throughout the systems lifecycle.  Unlike other tools, both the LANrev server and administrator console can run on a Mac OS X or Windows server.  LANrev's role-based administration, asset management, Mac OS X imaging, software distribution, license tracking & monitoring, patch management and remote configuration are designed to scale from small organizations to the largest, most complex, corporate, educational and government enterprises.  This webcast will provide a company overview and live demonstration of LANrev.

The MacEnterprise.org group will be presenting a Webcast on Group Logic ExtremeZ-IP Tuesday March 20th at 1:00pm EDT.

In this webcast, Derick Naef and Geordie Korper of Group Logic will discuss the common challenges IT managers face when integrating Macs with Windows file servers, and how ExtremeZ-IP is being used to address those challenges.  The webcast will also discuss Active Directory integration, clustering, performance monitoring, and the new scalability and performance enhancements in ExtremeZ-IP 5.0.

The webcast ID needed to view the March 20th 2007 webcast is "MacEnterprise"
The passcode for the March 20th 2007 webcast is "223636"

For more information on how to view the webcasts, please visit:
http://macenterprise.org/content/blogcategory/113/96/

Go to the following web page 5-10 minutes prior to the webcast start time:
http://webcast.training.apple.com/

Sponsored by IronGate Server Management & Consulting, in association with Digital Transitions the next OS X Integrators Birds of a Feather gathering is taking place at MaRS Discovery District on College St. at University Ave., Toronto, Canada on Tuesday March 20th from 6:30PM-8:30PM.

In this session we’re looking to provide an understanding of how directory services work in general, how directory services are implemented on Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server, and how to configure Mac OS X to integrate into an Active Directory setup. We plan to cover Open Directory on OS X Server and integration into an existing Active Directory environment.
This seminar series aims to introduce administrators and technical co-ordinators to real life implementations of OS X and OS X Server, in a wide range of practical situations. Presentations are given by industry experts and/or system administrators, in a format which fosters open discussions and group collaboration.

Registration and more details of the event are available on Apple’s Seminar Website.