Author Archives: acletras

Change Directory Service Search Paths Using ARD

Part of my post imaging process requires me to manually adjust the custom authentication search policy in Directory Utility. Since all of my users and groups live in Active Directory, we want the machine to look first in AD for a user when they enter their log in credentials by having a custom search policy for authentication where AD is above LDAP. I’ve always wanted a way to either script this out, or use ARD to send a command to do this, instead of manually logging in to each machine after it’s been restored and adjusting this via drag and drop.

When I started using DeployStudio a few years ago, I was hopeful this would find its way in to their AD Bind task. Since I’m still waiting for this to happen, I decided I would beat them to it. (more…)

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Apple, Management, , , , , , ,

Transfer local Active Directory User Folders to New Machine

sudo ditto –rsrc –acl path/to/old/machine/Users/ path/to/new/machine/Users/ That will do it. The Long Story: All my Macs are joined to Active Directory.  Most are common area machines (labs, kiosks, etc) but a few have one or a handful of regular users of those machines. I needed to upgrade them to new machines, and transfer their accounts […]

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1 CommentApple, , ,

Why the Mac App Store is Long Overdue

Mac App Store

The Mac App Store

On this, the eve of the release of Apple’s desktop version of its wildly popular iOS App Store, I find myself very excited.  Not for me, but for the many new Mac users who don’t quite understand how things work.

You see, in my line of work, I encounter many people who have Macs.  I don’t call them Mac users, but people who own an Apple computer.  Just as I wouldn’t call them Windows users if they didn’t understand how that operating system works, I don’t feel they know enough about how to properly use, manage and maintain a Mac to be given the title.  Perhaps the biggest issue I encounter is that they have no clue how to install software. (more…)

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

UPDATED: Since this writing, I’ve switched from Mike Bombich’s NetRestore, to DeployStudio.  DeployStudio offers the ability to populate all 4 computer info fields after restoring an image, as part of an imaging workflow.  I highly recommend DeployStudio for system imaging.  Occasionally, I still use the method outlined below to tweak these fields. Part of my […]

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14 CommentsApple, Leopard, Management, Snow Leopard, Tiger, Tips, Tutorials

Now Taking Suggestions

Since I’ve been getting a little bit of traffic here lately, I decided it was a good time to sign up for Skribit.  Skribit is a service that was born out of an Atlanta Startup Weekend a few years ago, and helps bloggers cure writer’s block by letting their readers suggest ideas for new posts and […]

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Apple