A blog about archives, storage and everything

Month: April 2015

  • Accusys Thunderbolt shared storage

    I saw something wonderful and new at NAB today. The Accusys ExaSAN Thunderbolt shared storage shouldn’t exist but there it is. With 16 x 4TB drives and 4 Thunderbolt ports out the back to connect 4 clients (one of which could be a Mac mini acting as a Xsan 4 controller). That leaves 3 spots for Mac clients for a small editing SAN or post-production workflow. Prices to be revealed soon, I hope. Very interesting for small setups.

    AccusysExaSAN_TB - 1 AccusysExaSAN_TB - 2 AccusysExaSAN_TB - 3 AccusysExaSAN_TB - 4

  • Munki tricks: Import Adobe CC apps

    In our ongoing quest to use Munki to manage all software, one eventually gets to the realization that Adobe software must be distributed as well. How we do this?

    With Adobe CC Team you can use the excellent CCP (creative cloud packaging) tool to make packages with the settings you want (users can or can’t update, importantly).

    Once you have all these packages what do you do? Grab Tim Sutton’s “munkiimport_cc_installers.py” script and scan your folder with all your newly created package and you’re on your way.

    https://github.com/timsutton/aamporter/blob/master/scripts/munkiimport_cc_installers.py

    Example:

    $ sudo ./munkiimport_cc_installers.py /tmp/CC/ –subdirectory “apps/Adobe/CC/2014” –developer “Adobe” –category “Media”
    Password:
    Making disk image containing AE-CC2014_Install.pkg…
    created: /tmp/munki-3aetVZ/AE-CC2014_Install.dmg
    Disk image created at: /tmp/munki-3aetVZ/AE-CC2014_Install.dmg
    Making disk image containing AE-CC2014_Uninstall.pkg…
    created: /tmp/munki-3aetVZ/AE-CC2014_Uninstall.dmg
    Disk image created at: /tmp/munki-3aetVZ/AE-CC2014_Uninstall.dmg
    Copying AE-CC2014_Install.dmg to /Users/Shared/munki_repo/pkgs/apps/Adobe/CC/2014/AE-CC2014_Install-13.0.0.dmg…
    Copying AE-CC2014_Uninstall.dmg to /Users/Shared/munki_repo/pkgs/apps/Adobe/CC/2014/AE-CC2014_Uninstall-13.0.0.dmg…
    Saving pkginfo to /Users/Shared/munki_repo/pkgsinfo/apps/Adobe/CC/2014/AE-CC2014-13.0.0…
    Making disk image containing Pho-CC2014_Install.pkg…
    created: /tmp/munki-a005sR/Pho-CC2014_Install.dmg
    Disk image created at: /tmp/munki-a005sR/Pho-CC2014_Install.dmg
    Making disk image containing Pho-CC2014_Uninstall.pkg…
    created: /tmp/munki-a005sR/Pho-CC2014_Uninstall.dmg
    Disk image created at: /tmp/munki-a005sR/Pho-CC2014_Uninstall.dmg
    Copying Pho-CC2014_Install.dmg to /Users/Shared/munki_repo/pkgs/apps/Adobe/CC/2014/Pho-CC2014_Install-15.0.dmg…
    Copying Pho-CC2014_Uninstall.dmg to /Users/Shared/munki_repo/pkgs/apps/Adobe/CC/2014/Pho-CC2014_Uninstall-15.0.dmg…
    Saving pkginfo to /Users/Shared/munki_repo/pkgsinfo/apps/Adobe/CC/2014/Pho-CC2014-15.0…

  • Umask fixes in Yosemite aka OS X 10.10.3 and shared storage

    Finally!

    Yes, Apple has restored the ability to set a user and system umask in OS X 10.10.3. This is a huge fix for users of shared storage. Xsan and all SANs where users want to be able to share files, projects and all things without using ACLs or any LDAP directory. This is great. I am jumping up and down. So happy. So many people wanted this. Anyone using shared storage have been demanding this since the upgrade to Yosemite. 10.10.3 is out today and we will be happy.

    Reference: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201684

    tl;dr

    sudo launchctl config user umask nnn

    and

    sudo launchctl config system umask nnn

  • Munki: Part 3 aka Setting up MunkiReport-PHP to monitor your Munki Setup

    This is Part 3 in our series on getting started with Munki. Part 1 covered the basic installation of Munki and the elusive Part 2 covers using Munki Admin and Munki’s Managed Software Centre. Part 3 covers the after you’ve setup Munki, now what part of the deployment. Munki is installed. Software is downloaded via AutoPkg and manifest contain catalog and clients have manifests. But is it working? Do all the Macs have the latest Flash plugin? Do they really? We will cover basic setup of MunkiReport-PHP to show  easy it can be to get going.

     Step 1. Download munkireport-php, download ZIP
    Note: It’s a good idea to read through the setup notes on the site
    Step 2. Rename folder to “report”
    Rename the the expanded folder to whatever you like, I shorten it to “report”
    Step 3. Drop in Munki_repo folder
    To get started quickly drop this folder into your munki repo site folder (which is presumably accessible via the web for client access to Munki).
    rename the munkireport folder
    rename the munkireport folder
    Step 4. Change perms of app/db folder
    Your set up will fail is the app/db folder is not accessible. Make it writable.
    Note: Do not make your site accessible to the outside Internet if you’re not confident in your security model. This is for inside your LAN testing. Be careful and mindful of security concerns. ‘Nough said
    MunkiReport app-db-sqlite
    MunkiReport app-db-sqlite

    If you get this error you haven’t changed the permissions it requires.

    Error
    MunkiReport errors
    Step 5. Rename default_config to config.php
    rename the default config php file
    rename the default config php file
    Step 6. Enable php for apache
    Enable PHP in Apache or other web server service you’re using. Example below is using Server.app
    Enable PHP server.app
    Enable PHP server.app
    Step 7. Create user (and hash)
    Load up your MunkiReport-PHP site and create a user and hash.
    Step 8. Add hash to config.php
    hash-crop
    Step 9. Download MunkiReport.plist using curl
    Download MunkiReport.plist using curl. Note: use an IP address accessible to your Munki clients, i.e. not ‘localhost’
    curl
    Step 10. Add MunkiReport.plist to pkgsinfo
    Add MunkiReport.plist to pkgsinfo
    MunkiReport pkgsinfo
    MunkiReport pkgsinfo
    Step 11. Import in munki repo
    Use munkiimport or MunkiAdmin to import your MunkiReport.plist to Munki
    Step 12. Add to client manifest
    Add MunkiReport.plist to client manifest using Munki Admin or Munki cli tools
    MunkiReport plist installs in MunkiAdmin
    MunkiReport plist installs in MunkiAdmin
    Step 13. Add apps to monitor in config.php
    Use the apps_to_track model. See also Rsaeks blog post.
    MunkiReport apps to track
    MunkiReport apps to track
    Step 14. Login and check your App Versions report
    MunkiReport app versions
    MunkiReport app versions

    Step 15. Explore Munki Report

    MunkiReport-Dashboard
    MunkiReport-Dashboard