Use The Terminal to Setup Apple Remote Desktop Computer Info #1

Computer Info #1 from the Command Line

Part of my client management process involves using the “Computer Info #1″ field in Apple Remote Desktop 3 (ARD) to store the physical location of each machine on my network.  This helps me quickly identify a machine when I’m looking at a list of several hundred Macs.  Currently, I enter this information manually on each computer when they’re re-imaged over the summer.  I’m always looking for ways to reduce the number of steps in my imaging process, so I’ve been trying to find a terminal command that I can use to push out this setting to multiple machines at once through ARD.

After much searching, I found my answer:

/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -configure -computerinfo -set1 -1 your info goes here

Use ARD’s ‘Send UNIX Command’ feature and send this to the machine(s) you wish to update.  Enter the information you’d like in place of your info goes here. If you’d like to enter a space between words, use a backslash and a space like this: First\ Word

ARD allows you up to 4 fields of computer info, so just follow the convention for those as well (-set2 -2, -set3 -3, etc).  I’ve tested this with OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 with success.  It was unsuccessful on a machine running OS X Server 10.3 (an old eMac running as a CD-ROM server, serving up disk images).  To find out more command line options for setting up and configuring Apple Remote Desktop, enter the following command in a terminal window (you’ll be asked to authenticate as an administrator):

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -help

Even though doing this manually only takes a few seconds, it certainly adds up when you have to do it a few hundred times.  I can also now do this at the time of imaging, or any time without having to control the remote screen through the GUI.  I may eventually automate this and incorporate it into a post-flight script as part of my imaging workflow.  If I do, I’ll be sure to post the script.

A Workaround for removing Western Digital’s SmartWare Virtual CD Partition

UPDATE 2:  A Mac OS X version of the firmware update and VCD Manager are now available here.  In my own test updating my MyBook Essential 1TB, both utilities worked perfectly.  See the comments below for more information.

UPDATED: It appears that Western Digital has released a firmware update and a utility called VCD manager, which will prevent the Virtual CD from mounting.  Both pieces of software are Windows only, and are available here.  Thanks to robert and Section8 for posting this in the comments below.

I recently purchased a 1TB Western Digital MyBook Essential from Amazon.  It comes pre-loaded with WD’s StupidWare SmartWare software, which is their cross platform answer to Apple’s Time Machine.  A decent effort, but of no concern to me.  I wanted to use the drive my way, so I partitioned and formatted it, but could not get rid of the SmartWare partition.  I did some research and found it’s a part of the drive’s firmware and mounts as a virtual CD every. time. the drive. is. mounted…After trying gparted in Ubuntu Linux, Disk Manager in Windows XP and a host of boot/partition live discs (Easeus Disk Copy, Ultimate Boot CD, Hitachi Feature Tool), I gave up on being able to access that ROM portion of the disk and thought of alternate solutions.

I remembered that I have the simple, but very handy DoSomethingWhen system preference pane installed.  DSW allows you to perform a few basic actions when a volume is either mounted or unmounted.  I use this to automatically run an automator workflow I wrote to back up my primary flash drives when they are inserted.  I created a new rule that will automatically eject the WD SmartWare virtual disc (VCD) when it is mounted.

It’s not the optimal solution I was looking for, but at least it takes the burden of always ejecting the VCD, off of me.  I’ve contacted Western Digital and asked if they have plans to publish a firmware update with the ability to remove this software.  If I ever get an answer, I’ll be sure to post it.

[Download DoSomethingWhen]

Apple Remote Desktop Icon for OS X Snow Leopard

About two weeks ago, Apple released a point release update to both the client and admin versions of their Remote Desktop software (ARD) to version 3.3.1.   This was only a minor update, so no new major features or new application icon.

However, OS X 10.6 ‘Snow Leopard’ was released a few days ago and with it, a new graphic for me to update my ARD Leopard icon!  Good timing Apple, thanks.  Enjoy!

[Download]

Tags: Apple Remote Desktop, ARD