Category: MacAdmins

Registering DetectX Swift with a Munki NoPkg

Kevin M. Cox January 11, 2019 No Comments

During a discussion in the #detectx channel of the MacAdmins Slack yesterday AP Orlebeke pointed out that when registering a DetectX Swift (DTXS) Pro or Management license via the command line it is only applied for users that already exist on the system. DetectX Swift will be in an unregistered state for any users created later.

In the ensuing discussion I opined that: “It would be trivial to whip up a Munki on-demand NoPkg that triggers the command line registration as root if the user ever got in a situation where they were using the DetectX GUI and were unregistered.”

DetectX developer Phil Stokes asked if I’d be willing to create an example so I did just that. Read on for the details.

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Coordinating Adobe Creative Cloud updates with Munki

Kevin M. Cox December 11, 2018 No Comments

We need to tightly control the version of InDesign (ID) and InCopy (IC) in use here at the newspaper. As such we disable the Apps Panel within the Creative Cloud Desktop Application (CCDA) and exclusively use Munki to install Adobe Creative Cloud applications.

Yesterday we transitioned from InDesign CC 2014 to CC 2019 in a single day and I wanted to share the details in case it might be useful to others. Read on if you are interested in how we did it.

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Dear Adobe: version numbers should go up!

Kevin M. Cox December 3, 2018 No Comments

When Adobe released their November 19 update to InDesign CC 2019 last week, they broke the most important rule of version numbering: the version should go up!

This wasn’t immediately obvious until today however due to an almost two week delay in the update becoming available to package in the Adobe Admin Console. This alone is a topic for another post…

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Upgrade from Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac 8 to 10 using Munki

Kevin M. Cox October 10, 2018 No Comments

Microsoft Remote Desktop 10

The upgrade of Microsoft Remote Desktop (MRD) from version 8 to version 10 also involves a change in delivery for many MacAdmins from the Mac App Store (MAS) to a standard package installer.

Since a few extra considerations are involved I decided to share how I accomplished it using Munki. Read on if you are interested in the details.

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On Demand DetectX Swift scanning with a Munki NoPkg

Kevin M. Cox August 16, 2018 No Comments

Another component to my DetectX Swift (DTXS) Management License rollout this week is the ability for users to run a scan and have the results be sent to MunkiReport immediately. This could be useful anytime I don’t have easy access to a user’s computer and am having to walk them through things over the phone or via Slack and I want to verify the results of the scan remotely.

I accomplished this with an on demand Munki NoPkg that any standard user can easily run via Managed Software Center. Read on for the details.

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Hourly DetectX Swift scans and MunkiReport

Kevin M. Cox August 16, 2018 No Comments

This week I began rolling out DetectX Swift (DTXS) with a Management License across our fleet. I first learned of DTXS earlier this year thanks to Zack McCauley and his DetectX Module for MunkiReport.

McCauley covers one option for automatic scans in his excellent Deploying DetectX Swift with Munki article using Outset and a boot-every script. He also helpfully included a sample LaunchDaemon in the module repo, however neither scans as frequently as I’d like. Read on for how I decided to handle automatic hourly scans and reporting.

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A hybrid approach to managing Microsoft Office updates

Kevin M. Cox February 6, 2018 No Comments

Most MacAdmins take an either/or approach to managing updates for Microsoft Office on macOS, utilizing either Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) or Munki. However I’ve found that a hybrid approach using both works best for us.

I’ve shared my setup severals times on the MacAdmins Slack, most recently in a direct message, so I wanted to provide more details here. Read on if you are interested in how I’m keeping Office up-to-date and providing for new installs.

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Houston Apple Admins, join us!

Kevin M. Cox January 31, 2018 No Comments

After six months of talking about it, we’re making it official. Kyle Bradbury, Jonathan Haenchen and I have founded the Houston Apple Admins! The goal is to create a professional networking group for macOS and iOS admins in the Houston region who can share knowledge, learn new things and have a little fun.

We held our first meetup last week at The Conservatory downtown where we swapped stories, discussed projects and lamented upcoming changes to Apple’s Server.app. We’re planning our next get together in late March and we’d love to have you join us. Keep an eye on our website for details and join us in the #houston channel of the MacAdmins Slack where it all began.

Automating installation and configuration of SSD Fan Control

Kevin M. Cox June 26, 2017 No Comments

This year we started seeing a problem with the hard drives failing inside our 2009, 2010 and 2011 iMacs here at the newspaper. The computers still work fine otherwise and since it is pretty easy to replace them (it can easily be accomplished in under ten minutes without removing the display) that is what we’ve been doing.

The only downside is that the OEM hard drives ship with specific Apple firmware that ties into the thermal management system. Installing a new hard drive or SSD results in the fans running at full blast. Thankfully software exists to work around this and I automated the installation and configuration with Munki, read on to see how.

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Microsoft AutoUpdate Caching Server Options & Behavior

Kevin M. Cox April 26, 2017 No Comments

I’ve been using an internal Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) Caching Server here at the newspaper since shortly after it was announced by Paul Bowden last year. I helped explain the various configuration options available last night in the #microsoft-office channel of the MacAdmins Slack and wanted to expand on them with a more detailed article.

There are three different ways the MAU Caching Server can be configured. If you are interested in learning the differences of those options please read on.

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