New to Mac Server

[dayzd]

I've used LANrev InstallEase to make custom packages in the past, largely because I found it before I'd heard XCode should be able to do something similar.

 

It works kinda like building packages on RMCC3: Take a 'Before' snapshot, install and configure your app, take an 'After' snapshot and out comes a .pkg you can deploy from ARD.

 

If XCode can do it though, I'd prefer to do it that way. Might do some Googling this afternoon!

[mellowip1983]

There is an app in xCode called PackageMaker that was supposed to be able to do it according to the macrumors.com forum, but i couldn't suss it out easily.

[Sean-OC04]

Installing Packages using ARD is different from copying drag and drop installers to each client in turn if, for example you were installing an Adobe site licence

 

Adobe have their own enterprise package maker in which to install this software across the network from here..Creative Suite Enterprise Deployment | Adobe Developer Connection

 

Apple have few video guides which should also help you out here..

 

Apple - Remote Desktop 3 - Tutorials - Software Distribution

[HodgeHi]

I've tried to make a meta package using apples package maker but I struggled with the permissions. I tried to use a package to install simple apps that. Need copying over such as the comic life but not for ARD though. I wanted to create a mpkg file to allow for easier setup after the imaging process since deploy studio can also install applications as part of a post imaging process included in the workflow.

 

If that makes sense

 

But yeah ARD is great for managing os x clients. Don't forget you can do almost anything in this software. You can also copy plist files into right locations, images into the desktop pictures location (great for forcing the desktop background image), even whole folders. You can edit applications and then re-copy the apps updating all of them in one go!

 

And don't forget the terminal command. Run software update for all clients at once.

 

@stevenwba,

 

ARD works with the account you have setup for remote management. As long as you have the copy process enabled for the local admin user on the clients then being standalone should not matter at all.

 

Hope this helps.

[stevenwba]

Installing Packages using ARD is different from copying drag and drop installers to each client in turn if, for example you were installing an Adobe site licence

 

Adobe have their own enterprise package maker in which to install this software across the network from here..Creative Suite Enterprise Deployment | Adobe Developer Connection

 

Apple have few video guides which should also help you out here..

 

Apple - Remote Desktop 3 - Tutorials - Software Distribution

 

Thanks Sean, that video explained a lot! at the end of that video it mentioned a unix command to complete the install of disk images, dont suppose you have a link, or know what that might be?

 

Regards

[mellowip1983]

hdiutil mount /Your.dmg

installer /Volumes/Your Disk Image/Application.pkg

hdiutil unmount /Volumes/Your Disk Image

rm -rf /Your.dmg

 

The assumption here is that Your.dmg mounts as /Volumes/Your Disk Image

 

Got that from - Re: Installing .dmg files

 

I haven't checked if it works as yet.

[stevenwba]

Thanks for that, will give it a go when i finally get round to actually installing some software, at the moment in still setting up the server, im currently stuck on setting up software updates.

 

I have started the software updates service.

 

Setup all new updates to install into a folder on the hard drive, which it has done, i have left the port set to default which is 8088.

 

When clicking on the client to set the update url, i have entered http://hostname:8080/index.sucatalog

 

Now i am totally stuck, i have tried typing that url in but i get page cannot be found error.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[mellowip1983]

will see if i can get on to our server and look at the config there for you later on today.

[3s-gtech]

http://hostname:8080/index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog for 10.7

 

http://hostname:8080/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog for 10.6

 

http://hostname:8080/index-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog for 10.5

 

Have these management settings applied to the correct groups of machines - though if you just have 10.7, I'm not 100% sure that it's necessary. As I have all three versions, I have to do this.

[stevenwba]

I read on a mac forum about setting up the webservice, and then setting up an alias, is this required?, as the webservice was already on, but i havent created an alias yet?

 

Edit: when i type that url you provided it now goes to a page listing updates in text only, so im guessing thats workign now, i added the url to the client for software updates, and decided to run the update on the client machine, although judging by the speeds im pretty sure it just carried on downloading them from apple and now the server?? i cant think what else im missing?

Edited September 27, 2011 by stevenwba

[stevenwba]

right so here is where i got to yesterday, now when i go to the url http://hostname:8080/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog it lists all updates, so i now know that url is working, also i have updated in the software updates preference on the client macs this url for them to access the updates on the server, but when i run software update on the client machine they still appear to download from apple, is there any way to force the client machine to go to the url on the server, and how to test to make sure the updates are coming from the internal macserver and not apple? the only way i can tell is because of the speed of the updates downloading

 

Regards

[stevenwba]

right so here is where i got to yesterday, now when i go to the url http://hostname:8080/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog it lists all updates, so i now know that url is working, also i have updated in the software updates preference on the client macs this url for them to access the updates on the server, but when i run software update on the client machine they still appear to download from apple, is there any way to force the client machine to go to the url on the server, and how to test to make sure the updates are coming from the internal macserver and not apple? the only way i can tell is because of the speed of the updates downloading

 

Regards

 

Resolved this, needed a few restarts to pick up the settings, Doh!!

[HodgeHi]

To run the software updates from ARD you need to specify the proxy settings for the admin user. I send mine out by managed preferences for the computer list. If you don't specify the proxy settings with your update server in the bypass list the update will fail when trying to connect.

 

Once this is done you can then click on the Unix option and from the templates list choose Miscellaneous > Install all Software Updates in ARD.

 

This should run the command silently (even at the login prompt) and then install the updates. You may need to manually restart the machines to complete the process.

 

Also make sure that you lock the machines while this is going on as there is no sign that the process is going on from the client side. In ARD however, you will get a live report from each client.

 

Again this should be possible for stand-alone clients.

[HodgeHi]

http://hostname:8080/index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog for 10.7

 

http://hostname:8080/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog for 10.6

 

http://hostname:8080/index-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog for 10.5

 

Have these management settings applied to the correct groups of machines - though if you just have 10.7, I'm not 100% sure that it's necessary. As I have all three versions, I have to do this.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the leopard clients get their updates from the snow-leopard-merged catalog as well. Also there is a post on AFP548 site about tweaking the 10.6 server to provide Lion Updates if needed. so you should only need the one URL.

[HodgeHi]

hdiutil mount /Your.dmg

installer /Volumes/Your Disk Image/Application.pkg

hdiutil unmount /Volumes/Your Disk Image

rm -rf /Your.dmg

 

The assumption here is that Your.dmg mounts as /Volumes/Your Disk Image

 

Got that from - Re: Installing .dmg files

 

I haven't checked if it works as yet.

 

You can mount DMGs on the machine with ARD on and drag the pkg file intot he install window and do it straight from there. Unless there is a valid reason to copy the .dmg across and start the process, it may be a bit of a waste of time.

[mellowip1983]

How are you getting on stevenwba? do you have any goals to achieve this week?

[stevenwba]

How are you getting on stevenwba? do you have any goals to achieve this week?

Thanks for asking mate, i have just yesterday bound everything mac to the mac server now, and managing as many preferences as needed, got the update server working at the end of last week, so just making sure everything is upto date and connecting to the server to do so.

 

I am just waiting for buy some itunes vouchers so i can actually buy some apps from the app store, one of them being apple remote desktop, so until i get that i have completed everything so far.

 

Biggest thing ive got left to do is bind OD to AD, but ive got someone coming in to help me with that. then ill look at creating network shares and last thing will be mapping users home folders, so plenty left to do.

 

Just one question, if they OD is just replicating data found in AD, im guessing there wont be any problems using the mac server to mount these home folders? even though the work is ultimately saved to a windows server?

[mellowip1983]

When binding the mac to AD you can set the rule for mapping home drives there.

 

 

The Use UNC path from Active Directory to derive network home location. Network protocol to be used :SMB.

 

That maps our home areas for our network. Then use work group manager to map shared resource folders.

[stevenwba]

When binding the mac to AD you can set the rule for mapping home drives there.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]11520[/ATTACH]

 

The Use UNC path from Active Directory to derive network home location. Network protocol to be used :SMB.

 

That maps our home areas for our network. Then use work group manager to map shared resource folders.

 

Your a star mate, thanks for the screen as well, will post when i get round to doing it

[stevenwba]

When binding the mac to AD you can set the rule for mapping home drives there.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]11520[/ATTACH]

 

The Use UNC path from Active Directory to derive network home location. Network protocol to be used :SMB.

 

That maps our home areas for our network. Then use work group manager to map shared resource folders.

 

Ive now got home folders being mounted on the macs, now what i want to do, is map the same network drives we have on our windows network on the macs.

 

Which i believe is different from using group shared folder, as that would be mapping shared drives for folders stored on the mac server, here i want to mac drives that are located on a windows server, how do i go about this?

[SC92]

Hi steven,

 

As for mapping student network drives if you go into WGM, onto your student group (presuming you've created it), then onto preference at the top, and then login. Click on the items tab and then tick the 'Add Network home share point' box. This should just read it from AD and automatically set the users' shared drive. You could also map shared nework drives from here too. Go to Safari and type: 'smb://*SERVER NAME*/*DRIVE NAME*'. You can then drag the link onto the mac desktop and then drag it from the desktop into the WGM box.

[mellowip1983]

Just to add to SC92's post here is a grab of the screen.

 

[stevenwba]

Right, i am now at the point of setting up deploystudio!

 

Although i cant even get started because, when i click setup deploystudio server, the next screen i can setup the url and username and password to use to set it up, i leave the url with what deploystudio gives me, which is http://macserver.local:60080

 

but the username box is grayed out with the username deploystudioadmin, so i created that user account, and the password is not grayed out, so i can enter that, so entered the password for the deploystudioadmin account,

 

And the continue button is still grayed out!!! this is probably something basic, i need to start a service or something, but i cant even get pasted the start screen lol!

[SC92]

Are you logged in as the root user? Ours is Ladmin (Local Administrator) for our OSX Server. Another thing to check is if the Netboot srvice is running in Server Admin. If not you can enable it by going into server admin and then onto the settings icon at the top. Click on services tab furthest to the right and you should just be able to tick the box and it'll start the service.

[HodgeHi]

You don't need to be logged in as root user to configure Deploy Studio. In fact I don't think yo need to be logged in as Root user for anything?

 

I configured mine and most other things using the standard local admin account.

 

When you install Deploy Studio and start the wizard to configure deploy studio if the service isn't running it will ask you to either start the service or ignore it. If you chose to ignore the start service then can go into the system prefs and deploy studio will be at the bottom in the "Other" section click the icon and then click start. If you haven't configured the service and/ or not specified a share point for the images to be stored in it will say something like no repository available or something like that.

 

Download and read the deploy studio admin guide. It really is quite simple to follow. No other guide IMO is worth typing up since the original is fine as easy to follow.