Software for mac management

[xeroxxe]

Could somoene please give me information on any software that is out there at a resonable price that is able to manage mac's. We need to for backing up the macs limiting user's rights and brininging some control to the admin. At the moment we only have a handful of mac's and the kids have free reign over them, even though they are not set as administrators they are persistent and will find ways around doing anything they are not supossed to be doing. Cheers in advance.

[bladedanny]

Could somoene please give me information on any software that is out there at a resonable price that is able to manage mac's. We need to for backing up the macs limiting user's rights and brininging some control to the admin. At the moment we only have a handful of mac's and the kids have free reign over them, even though they are not set as administrators they are persistent and will find ways around doing anything they are not supossed to be doing. Cheers in advance.

 

AFAIK the only way to do this is with an xserve using server admin and workgroup manager.

Edited March 9, 2010 by bladedanny
Spelling

[Danjns]

AFAIK the only way to do this is with an xserve using server admin and workgroup manager.

 

just buy a macmini and snow leopard server - You can get a macmini server for about £750

 

Configure - Apple Store (U.K.)

[xeroxxe]

We have a mac mini spare actually, does that mean we could use that but do all the mac's need to be running snow lepord, they currently run lepord. Cheers.

[Danjns]

No your macs can run leopard with a snow leopard server - thats your best bet!

 

If you've got another spare mac mini lying around... i'll take it off your hands!

[sammya]

AFAIK the only way to do this is with an xserve using server admin and workgroup manager.

 

There are other options besides an Xserve.

 

It depends on how many macs you have to manage and how reasonable you want the price to be:)

 

You could modify your AD schema to include the attributes for management of OS X clients. This is free but a bit daunting for most admins.

 

If you only have a handful of macs, then you could use a Mac Mini server instead of an Xserve, this will be substantially cheaper but performance will not be as good.

 

Another option is to install some 3rd party software such as Centrify, this allows management of OS X clients from AD. It's licensed per mac client so can get pricey if you have lots of macs. More info and a 30 day trial from here.

 

Centrify DirectControl Overview

 

Sammy

[bladedanny]

There are other options besides an Xserve.

 

It depends on how many macs you have to manage and how reasonable you want the price to be:)

 

You could modify your AD schema to include the attributes for management of OS X clients. This is free but a bit daunting for most admins.

 

If you only have a handful of macs, then you could use a Mac Mini server instead of an Xserve, this will be substantially cheaper but performance will not be as good.

 

Another option is to install some 3rd party software such as Centrify, this allows management of OS X clients from AD. It's licensed per mac client so can get pricey if you have lots of macs. More info and a 30 day trial from here.

 

Centrify DirectControl Overview

 

Sammy

 

Yeah what I actually meant was os x server and for some reason put xserve, not a good sign this early on in the week

[brookesandrew]

Don't know what its like these days but 5-8yrs ago when I was Chieft Technician in a university school of art and design my mac technicians used to swear by Hi Resolutions Mac Administrator (http://www.hi-resolution.com) for locking down and keeping control of early versions Mac OS-X.

Since leaving the university i've not had reason to look at MacOS, but thats changing as one school has just bought a few MacBooks and i'm on a "Mac support for PC technicians course" at the end of this week, if i get the chance i'll ask about administration tools and post back any sensible reply.

 

Andy

[Ric_]

Check out Bombich.com: Leveraging Active Directory on Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server for a document on how to go about management using AD.

 

IIRC you can also use Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) to control and manage things.

 

Easiest way is to use a Mac mini (or old Mac of some description) running OS X Server so that you can use Open Directory to lock down the machines and control preferences and use AD to authenticate.

[HodgeHi]

It doesn't actually say that he is bound to the AD, unless i missed it. If he is then OS X Server will be required/ad Schema extended. If not and he only has a few machines, he could just use the built-in parental controls found under users in system prefs. This will only let them run and do what you let them do.

 

If you are looking to invest in more though, you may be better off with the OS X Server.