I was chatting with Per Olofsson on a recent episode of the MacDevOps podcast about some recent fixes with relocatable Python he did for MunkiReport version 5.7.0 and I happened to mention how much I love my MR dashboards with custom hot keys. He is a long time user of MunkiReport but hadn’t heard that you could make custom dashboards and I couldn’t remember where I had heard of it or even how I made them. Pretty typical of tech these days I think. You learn something, you make something and then you move to the next thing and forget what you were doing or how you did it. Well, thanks to documentation we can share the knowledge and spread the love.
Custom Dashboards
The MunkiReport wiki actually has a short entry which explains how to make a custom Dashboards. Basically, add some YAML files in the dashboards folders and you’re done. Follow the Read Me file for instructions. Pro Tip: Use the Widget Gallery in MR to find useful pieces to build into your dashboards. Note: I’ve added these custom dashboards to my local folder which is set in my “.env” to be outside of the main munkireport folder so it easier to update across version upgrades.
In the old days we used to forward ports. On your router the traffic for a server or service went to a port (where a number represents a service, some which are defined, but can be arbitrary) and to a destination IP address. Well, wouldn’t you know it, if ssh is port 22 or web traffic is on port 80 then everyone and their port scanner comes knocking. So then your firewall is tested, and then auto-ban and geo-block and emails go out. What if we could avoid that and not open (or forward) any port to make services work across the internet?
Tailscale is a mesh-VPN which uses WireGuard to securely establish a mesh (point to point) VPN of your devices. Suddenly your iPhone can securely send files to your Mac or raspberry Pi across the world. How cool is that? In today’s advanced lesson: you can backup and sync your Synology NAS using Archiware P5.
Step 1: Setting up Tailscale on Synology
It honestly used to be harder than this, these days you can simply add the Tailscale package via the Synology package center app and you’re done. Almost. There’s one more step.
Step 2: Set up Outgoing VPN access via Tailscale which requires editing some files (which necessitate Terminal and remote login access). This only has to be done once but future updates may require fixes. This was tested in DSM 7. Pro tip: only allow remote access to a restricted and time limited account so you don’t leave it on accidentally.
Step 3. Install Archiware P5 on Synology NAS
Using Archiware P5 to Backup and Sync your NAS is a good thing if you’re already using Archiware P5 to backup and sync all the other things, then at least you have only one dashboard to look at. I use P5 with my clients to backup their shared storage to LTO and it makes sense to backup all the things no matter where they are with P5 also. With Synology NAS package center it’s a simple one-click install for P5. Add your P5 clients to your P5 server via Tailscale and you’ve got a secure setup.
This post is just a quick overview of using Tailscale to set up your P5 clients (which is your Synology NAS in this case).
How to deploy applications using munki and simplemdm
You want to deploy apps to Macs but you also want to keep them up to date, fear not, we have a way. If you are using SimpleMDM for Mac management but hate the way MDMs deploy applications then listen up it’s easy(*) to set up Munki and use the power Autopkg to deploy and update all your apps. Note: SimpleMDM also offers a short list of curated apps to deploy without any extra setup but these instructions are for those who want to choose the apps they want to deploy. If that’s you then read on.
Managed Software Centre is the AppStore for all your apps you want your Macs to have
SimpleMDM: The basics
Macs are enrolled into SimpleMDM, then assigned to Groups. Groups have profiles assigned to them to enforce and escrow FileVault or set other policies. Simple enough, right?
Ok, what about apps?
SimpleMDM Category setting for a Munki’s Managed Software Centre
When you have apps in your Catalog you can assign a Munki category to the applications to make it show up in a nice group using Managed Software Centre (the client facing app).
With Apps in your Catalog you can manage them with Assignment Groups which are created as Munki (or not-Munki aka Standard). Next select Managed or Self-Serve, two concepts which make sense to Munki admins. One set of apps is required and will be installed without asking, and the other group is presented to the end user to choose as needed (they’re optional).
API key options. Allow Munki plugin access
API key
How do we get applications we want into SimpleMDM? Two ways exist. Import them manually and deploy via MDM or setup up Autopkg. For this we need the API key. Note: Only the munki plugin permissions are needed. Put the key into the Autopkgr.app SimpleMDM integration or set them as an environment variable and use autopkg in Terminal.
Autopkgr app choose autopkg recipes to use
Select recipes using Autopkgr (Linde Group) from the curated list of recipes created by IT Admins around the world or create your own recipes. What used to be a painstakingly difficult process by hand is now much easier with Recipe Robot by Elliot Jordan to help fish out the AppCast / Sparkle / Download URLs and transform into a nice autopkg recipe to be used by Munki (and ingested into SimpleMDM).
autopkg run -v Postlab.munki.recipe -k MUNKI_REPO_PLUGIN="SimpleMDMRepo" -k MUNKI_REPO="" -k extract_icon=True
MunkiImporter
Using API key provided by environment variable.
MunkiImporter: Using repo lib: MunkiLib
MunkiImporter: plugin: SimpleMDMRepo
Managed Software Centre notification
Managed Software Centre
Once Macs are enrolled and added to a SimpleMDM Group with the Munki assignment then the Managed Software Centre app will allow users to use the Self-Serve portal to install optional apps. Managed apps will install invisibly in the background.
The beauty of this integration is that Munki is awesome and works well. It is battle tested by many companies and organizations around the world. Using autopkg and its recipes to check for updates allows for a seamless automation of new apps into your catalog and then onto your fleet. Updated Macs are happy Macs.
I am so happy to install macOS Big Sur 11.5.1, now that it is a ready for production. Have fun with macOS Monterey those of you on the bleeding edge. For media professionals using Xsan in production storage environments August is a great month to update to the soon to be yesterday’s bad boy Mr. Big Sur.
Server.app v.5.10 in macOS Catalina 10.15.7
Upgrading to a new major version of macOS can be fraught with peril for a fleet of mac devices but it is potentially fatal for a production SAN environment. That is why we wait. We want a nice stable storage system for our Final Cut Pro editors and other media creatives so it is safe to be one version behind. Less drama that way. We prefer our dramas to be on AppleTV+
Watch TV Upgrade Xsan
It is not boring to watch AppleTV+ while upgrading Xsan
The Xsan upgrade to Big Sur was pretty much not exciting except for one funny roadblock that I had set up myself last as a kind of booby trap for “future me”. More about that later. First the boring stuff. The last few weeks have been very busy updating and re-writing documentation in Pages.app and running multiple redundant full and incremental LTO backups with Archiware P5, syncing to nearline archives, and archiving finalized projects to the LTO shelf in paradise (sounds more exciting when you put it that way don’t you think?). Updating and re-writing documentation can sound like a waste of time but “future you” will appreciate what “past you” was doing today. And today I had fun updating Xsan to macOS Big Sur. Now I must write down all my thoughts before I each too much vegan vanilla ice cream and slip into a food coma.
“Planning for disasters, while hoping for none” is the IT mantra. We planned hard and we were ready to restore Xsan from Time Machine, if we had to. Not a joke. The server is backed up by Time Machine. The data is backed up to LTO, nearline archives racked and stacked in a server room and on redundant thunderbolt RAIDs which are parked on electric trucks ready to blast off at the earliest sign of danger. Well, everything except for the last part. Would be nice. And cloud backups for those clients that want them. Plan for the worst, pay for what you can to keep your business operational and lessen the impact of mechanical failures, human oopsies, or ransomware. Sysadmins are indistinguishable from malware sometimes, but we mean well. More seriously, humans makes mistakes and break things (that, me!) but ransomware is real and my elaborate backup and archive planning has saved a few customers this year.
Xsan volumes are typically made of up fibre channel RAID arrays. Nice icon!
Preparation is key. Be prepared. Get ready. Psych yourself up. I used Greg Neagle’s installinstallmacos.py to download macOS Big Sur as a disk image and had that and the App Store’s Server.app downloaded beforehand and not be dependent on internet access (production SANs are not always internet accessible). It is both true and not true that you can setup Xsan in Big Sur with the Server.app. It is true you need the Server.app for an upgrade from macOS Catalina 10.15.7 but if you’re starting from scratch in macOS 11 you will be building your Xsan in Terminal. Have fun! (We will cover this in a future post).
Download macOS Big Sur and the Server.app. Keep old copies zipped up. Cvlabel is nice too
Server.app manages only three (3) services for an Xsan upgrade: Profile Manager, Open Directory and Xsan. In macOS Big Sur new setups of Server.app Xsan is gone. Why they haven’t taken out Profile Manager and not kept Xsan instead made me scratch my head. No one in their right mind is using Profile Manager to install or manage profiles, they’re using commercial MDM vendors. But Xsan in macOS Big Sur (11) is not only production ready storage SAN awesome it has been upgraded to be compatible with Quantum’s Stornext 7 (previously it was only v.5)
Profile Manager does not belong here. Long Live Xsan!!
Installing macOS 11 Big Sur and upgrading Xsan to v7 is compatible (in my testing) with macOS 10.14 Mojave, 10.15 Catalina and of course macOS 11 Big Sur. If you don’t believe me check out this not updated in forever Apple’s compatibility chart.
Ok, by this time you get the idea I’m an expert, right? I’m ready to upgrade. But I run into my first real road block. And I have only myself to blame. I can’t launch the macOS Big Sur install app. It is blocked. “Contact your administrator”?! I am the sysadmin. Oh, ok. That’s me. What have I done now? I installed Hannes Juutilainen’s Big Sur Blocker last year, that’s what.
Of course I installed that. With Munki. On all my Mac clients that were upgraded to macOS Catalina. (And of course my Xsan controller has Munki!). But no worries, let me read up on my last year’s blogpost about it to figure out how I installed it, there must be a launch daemon or something.
this is not how I expected it to go
Hmm, no didn’t mention there. And where is that pesky launch daemon that I can unload and get to this Big Sur install. Oh? It’s a launch agent. Unloaded. Hmm, still no. Ok, delete the app from /usr/local/bin, hmm, nope. ok kill the app process. Ok, now we can install macOS Big Sur. Sorry for the delay. I had told Munki to uninstall the bigsurblocker app and it did for every other Mac, I swear, really. It did.
Please proceed with the macOS Big Sur install
So ready for macOS Big Sur. Oh wait, we noticed that you’re running Server.app and well, we don’t do a lot of the same things anymore in the new Server.app so maybe this is a warning.
Warning. We noticed that you’re running Server.app and we don’t do those fun things anymore.
So a lot of progress bars and stuff. See my last upgrade blog post and it’s the same as installing macOS Big Sur on any Mac, except this Mac Mini is running an Xsan production SAN environment with a lot of RAID arrays in a server rack or two. Ok, yeah, just run the installer.
We noticed that Server app is no longer server app.
After macOS Big Sur is installed zip up your older server.app and drag in your new one (or use that fancy App Store app to do it for you if you’re lazy). Click a bunch of buttons (see all my old blog posts) and launch the new Server.app.
Profile Manager is updating. No one cares.
So we have to wait while the bag of scripts that is Profile Manager gets updated but no one uses it but it’s the most important app in Server.app now, no I am not bitter why do you ask. Xsan is awesome.
Time to restore from your old Xsan configuration. Wheee…..
Xsan restore configuration.
Activate your Xsan and carry on upgrading all your Mac clients. Note: I did test macOS Mojave 10.14, macOS 10.15 Catalina and of course macOS 11.5.1 Big Sur Xsan clients. All worked.
Xsan on. Power up.
Upgrading Xsan with macOS Big Sur is easy if you’re going from macOS Catalina. Starting from scratch is another story to be covered in another blog post. Also not covered is certificate issues from self-signed certs breaking when I upgraded my Munki and MunkiReport server. That’s definitely another blog post. It’s just a webserver. Just. A. Web. Server. What is so hard? haha
Technical Errata:
With more than one Xsan controller it used to be recommended to upgrade the secondary before the primary but it is now best practise to upgrade the primary first to maintain the sanity of the OD data.
Xsan Upgrade Step by Step:
Clone the controllers. (+ Time Machine backups) Turn off the clients. Stop the Xsan Volume. Run cvfsck on the volume. **Upgrade the primary. Confirm the secondary can see the primary. *Upgrade the secondary. Confirm the secondary can see the primary. Check SAN access on both controllers.
Final Cut Pro (renamed recently from Final Cut Pro X) has “workflow extension” which allow third party apps to offer access to their interface from within Final Cut Pro.
In the top left corner of the Final Cut Pro windows is the “extension” icon. Click it for access to available extension.
Today you’ll see “Postlab Merge” which was a successful merger of MergeX software and Postlab. Install the latest version of Postlab (v20.4 as of this post) which includes the extension.
Use the Postlab Merge workflow extension to transfer metadata between FCP libraries.
Apple’s Final Cut Pro has a new proxy workflow. It’s even easier than before. Make proxies on import, or transcode afterwards. Create a new proxy library or copy events with only proxies, so many options to fit the workflow you need. It’s quick to upload smaller proxies to the cloud and work remotely with your team. Re-connect to the original footage for outputs, colour grading and archiving your project when you’re done.
Final Cut Pro and the Proxy Workflow
“Take your creativity anywhere. Maximize portability and performance by creating proxy copies of your media — as low as 1/8 size — in ProRes Proxy or H.264. The latest proxy engine allows you to create a proxy-only copy of your library to share locally or via the cloud and displays original media if proxies aren’t available. Third party tools such as review and approval app frame.io can also generate and deliver proxies to a Final Cut Pro library.” (Apple.com)
I’ve written about another kind of proxy workflow before, but we will refer to that as the replace-originals-with-smaller-versions workflow and now we have the built-in easy proxy workflow. This new way is much easier. And it’s built-in.
I’ll go over the basic workflow for making proxies and getting your library ready for use with Postlab or other similar cloud collaboration tools…. Seriously, there are no other similar tools! But we’ll go over how to keep your library small and light.
Part One – Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro 10.5 is the newest version of Final Cut Pro (which drops the “X”). Ready for Apple Silicon Macs and backwards compatible with macOS 10.15.6 (Catalina).
This new proxy workflow is compatible with Final Cut Pro X v10.4.9 and 10.4.10 as well the newest version 10.5. There were extra bug fixes (LUT for proxies) and new methods (copy new library with proxies) in 10.5 but the addition of the automatic proxy creation on import started with 10.4.9.
Final Cut Pro version 10.5
Import Preferences
First step. Check your import preferences. Final Cut will refer to these when importing. The most important thing to check is that “leave files in place” is selected. This helps us keep the library light and portable. Especially important for editing with Final Cut Pro and Postlab. Keep all media and cache files outside of the library. The second this to check is to choose your proxy format (Pro Res Proxy or H264) at the size you want.
Final Cut Pro Import preferences window.
Choose how small or how large you want your proxies to be. Smaller proxies are faster to transfer and take up less storage but may not be ideal for editing your specific camera footage. Try to find a format that works best for your edit workflow.
Final Cut Pro – Proxy Frame sizes
You also have the option of creating proxies form footage that exists already in the library. Choose “Transcode Media” and select your options.
Final Cut Pro – Transcode Media (menu option)
Part Deux – Editing in the Cloud with Postlab
Once you launch Postlab and login you’ll want to create a production and a library to edit. You have the option of importing an existing library or create a new one. Remember, only import your library if it is super light weight and the media is stored outside (not inside) the library.
Importing a lightweight Final Cut Pro library involves creating a name, writing a description and choosing the media location. If editing off centrally shared storage (on premise) or in the cloud (i.e. Postlab drive) then use “Shared” option. If everyone is using their own storage (external hard drives, NAS, SAN, etc) then choose “Individual”.
If you are creating a new empty library in Postlab then be sure to check the Postlab preferences – Templates tab to select what version of Final Cut Pro for the default empty library and if you want to use a Final Cut Pro template you’ve created already. This is a powerful option for keeping a team working with standard set of tools.
Postlab Template Preferences
Now we start editing. Click “Start Editing” in Postlab. Final Cut Pro will open with your new library.
When you’ve made changes and want to check your Final Cut Pro project back into Postlab switch applications back to Postlab from Final Cut Pro and add a comment.
Postlab check-in (write a comment and upload your work)
Once you’ve checked your project in a few times you’ll notice the list of comments you or your team have made with each check in. These will help you decide what project to revert to, if you need to. The icons (on the right) will allow you to revert, open a copy or export out the version you select.
Postlab – List of comments
Lastly, there is the status menu which you can use to mark the progress of the project.
I hope this helps you get started with the Final Cut Proxy workflow and ready to use Postlab too.
Setting up your very own Xsan at home… What could be more exciting? Nothing like SAN storage to cure those stacks of hard drive blues. Don’t have a spare fibre channel switch or fibre channel storage at home? No problem Grab some thunderbolt storage from Accusys and join the fun.
I am testing the A12T3-Share 12-drive desktop Thunderbolt RAID solution to build my Xsan. Accusys also have a 16 drive rack mounted raid storage box if you want to install a nice pro set up in the server room you have tucked neatly in your home office. Ha ha. Seriously, the 12 drive unit is whisper quiet and would be a great addition to any home lab or production storage setup. I mean, aren’t we all doing video production at home these days? And even if we are doing a proxy workflow in the clouds, we still need to store the original footage somewhere before it goes to LTO tape, or backed up in the clouds (hopefully another cloud). A few years ago I tested the Accusys 16 drive Thunderbolt 2 unit and it worked perfectly with my fibre channel storage but this time I am testing the newest Thunderbolt 3 unit. Home office test lab is GO!
It is a pretty straight forward setup but I ran into some minor issues that anyone could run into and so I want to mention them and save you all the frustration by learning from my mistakes. Always be learning. That’s my motto. Or “break things at home not in production”, but if your home is production now, then break things fast and learn very quickly.
First step is to download the software for the RAID and you’ll find it on the Accusys website.
(I found the support downloads well organized but still a bit confusing as to what i needed)
The installer is not signed which in our security conscious age is a little concerning, but examining the package with Suspicious package should allay any concerns.
The installer installs the RAIDGuard X app which you will need to configure the RAID.
Of course, RAIDGuard X needs a Java Runtime Environment to run. Why is this still a thing? Hmm…
RAIDGuardX will allow you to configure your connected Thunderbolt hardware.
Configure the array as you like. I only had four drives to test with. Just enough for RAID5.
Choose your favourite RAID level. I picked RAID5 for my 4 drives.
The first gotcha that got me was this surprisingly simple and easy to overlook section. “Assign LUN automatically” asks you to choose which port that LUN (the configured RAID) will be assigned to. If you don’t check anything like I didn’t in my first run through then you configure a RAID5 array that you’ll never see on your connected Mac. Fun, right? Ha ha.
Xsan requires a sacrifice…. I mean, a LUN (available RAID array). Check your Fibre Channel in System Information. Yes, this is from the thunderbolt storage. Hard to believe, but it’s true!
Setting up enterprise grade SAN storage requires a trip to the Mac App Store. Server.app
Open Server.app, enable Xsan, create a new volume and add your LUN from the Accusys Thunderbolt array. Set the usage to “any” (metadata and data) since this is a one LUN test setup.
Pro tip: connect your Xsan controller to your Open Directory server. Ok, just kidding. You don’t have an OD server in your home office? Hmm… Create an entry in /etc/hosts instead.
If you’ve set up your SAN volume then you will see it listed in the Finder.
Easy shareable SAN storage is possible with thunderbolt RAID arrays from Accusys. No more Fibre channel switches needed. Small SAN setups are possible for creative teams without a server room. This setup was a quiet 12 drive RAID and a Mac mini. Add some Thunderbolt cables. There are four thunderbolt 3 connections and you can add more with an additional RAID. Up to 8 connections with one of them for the Mac Mini running the SAN. Not bad at all. And Xsan is free. Add a Server app from the App Store, but the Xsan client is free and built-in (Xsan has been included with macOS since 10.7 so many years ago). Fibre channel protocol (even through Thunderbolt) is faster than network protocols and great for video production. Fast and shareable storage at home. Or in your office. Thunderbolt Xsan. T-SAN.
Note: I want to explain how our current workflow for editing remotely. I am always testing new tools and methods, so workflows change all the time. This is a snapshot in time of what we are trying now. So far it works.
Hedge
We use Hedge to copy camera cards to multiple drives on set (or after a shoot if on location) and then we use Hedge once more to copy one of these drives to the office shared storage (Apple’s Xsan).
Why use Hedge? A nice simple app which hides its complexity well. Hedge has an easy interface to copy multiple sources (camera cards, usually) to multiple destinations (two external drives, or two SAN locations etc), and it does it well. It verifies, and double checks its work and leaves receipts. What was copied when. This is very nice and very useful for troubleshooting. It also has an API which made it easy to build an app that configures Hedge for its current task, and AppleScript support for extending automations after specified actions.
Kyno and Postlab
We are using two other tools in our remote ingest workflow currently: Kyno from Lesspain software for rewrapping and converting camera footage and Postlab, the remote collaboration tool for Final Cut Pro (and Premiere Pro). Testing with other tools is always ongoing and during a recent test of the workflow we also tried EditReady from Divergent Media.
The Workflow (so far)
While we are exploring various workflow automations we are currently doing the following steps manually.
Hedge to copy camera cards two external drives on set, and then Hedge copy the drive to Xsan
Making re-wrapped in MOV files from the original camera MXF files using Kyno and then
Making H264 MOV 4K proxies in Kyno
Uploading finished proxies to Postlab drive using Hedge
Set up FCPX production and new FCPX library from template connected to proxies in Postlab drive
Hedge and Postlab
Hedge is super useful. Two times good. Hedge and Postlab are best friends. And the UI on both shows the simple aesthetic shared by the developers. Three panes. Source / Start to Destination / Projects. Whether you are copying Proxies to Postlab Drive or accessing your editing projects in Postlab the apps will guide you through.
Copying the Proxies with Hedge to Postlab Drive.
Details. Rewrap and Proxies
Workflows will depend on your goals, and your available tools. In this case we are using a Canon camera and ingesting MXF files. In order to edit with small Proxies in FCPX but also be able relink to original (and larger) files easily we need to in our case re-wrap the original MXF to QuickTime MOV container.
Right click on a clip in Kyno to rewrap to Mov.
Originals. Not Proxies.
And to be clear we are treating these in FCPX as “new” originals not as actual FCPX proxies. With the rewrapped MOV files we make transcoded H264 files which are swapped 1 for 1 with the original. When we need to export a final 4K version we can relink to the original 4K source and export easily.
Proxies. Not originals
The transocded H264 4K proxies we made in Kyno were 15x smaller than the original re-wrapped Mov files. We had almost 600GB in originals and 37GB for the 4K H264 proxies!!
Postlab Pro Tips
Working with Postlab pro tip#1 –> keep those FCPX libraries light. Keep all media and cache files out of the library. We knew that and we had Storage Locations set to outside of the library but one new issue came up when the libraries grew really big and we realized the editors were making multiple sequences, not backups, but versions. Now we are trying to work around this habit with Postlab itself. You can check in a version of the library and duplicate library for an alternate version. Modifications of old habits are always tough but technical reasons may force a change in habits here. We will see. Postlab pro tip #2 –> Keep your cache large and fast. By default the Postlab cache is your local drive and only 20GB. If you have a fast SSD or an external drive then move that cache and increase the size. It will help. Trust me.
Kyno vs EditReady
Another small issue we encountered in testing was that we could make the rewrapped Mov files in Kyno or in EditReady and both were fine. The only objection the editors had was that in Kyno we could keep the folder structure of the original camera cards and they felt that this lent some confidence to being able to track the files to the camera card folders if any media was missing or misplaced. The EditReady files kept the original names but they were all in one folder. As the tech I see no issue with FCPX handling these files since we’d be ingesting all the finished proxy files and all the files were named by the camera. Editors should be able to tell which reel the clips were from by the clip name and that’s all you need technically, but you can’t win every argument with an editor. As the tech you need to test alternative tools and methods and see what works technically but also see what can be accepted to work in the way the editors want to work. Changes to workflow are some of the hardest to make, making a system that is used, actually used, by the editors is the goal.
Errata
Errors. If you get them, how do you know? This was one area where I could comment on both Kyno and EditReady. I am spoiled by Hedge and it’s nice reports when it is done copying. And Postlab which has a Help menu :collect logs for support button, very nice. If your software tool is going to process a lot of files (rewrapping then transcoding) I want to know if there were errors. EditReady popped up a window to what had succeeded or failed and Divergent Media support told me to look in the logs for any issues encountered. Not great. While Kyno has a separate jobs window which shows jobs done or failed. But still no report. I would like a receipt or report or log at the end with files converted or failed to convert. It would help troubleshooting any issues when they arise. Tech support for both companies is great and responsive. Thanks again. And I’ll keep sending in feature requests.
Testing. More Testing. And Teamwork.
We are testing this workflow in production with a real project and getting feedback from the team. So far the proxies have proven to be easy to make, quick to upload to Postlab drive, simple to use in FCPX in Postlab. Assembling the cut and editing are going well. We will find out about the colour process when we get to that stage and relink to the originals. Stay tuned.
Summer time or anytime is a good time to run a minecraft server. And when I am not troubleshooting IT networks, planning SAN storage upgrades, running a DevOps for Dummies bookclub and the MDOYVR podcast then I like to upgrade my minecraft server.
Every time there is an update to the java client there is demand from my users (uh, I mean, my kids) to immediately stop all other work (hey kids, I’m working here! let Dad work) and upgrade the minecraft server.
Like all other IT domains where there are variety of solutions and software fixes to problems, it would seem that Minecraft has official server downloads as well as the unofficial artisanal craft versions. I’ve tried a few, and some out of desperation… there was an incident with netherite blocks and the server wouldn’t start anymore but the Ppaer minecraft server fixed the issues!
The normal routine is that when an official release comes out the other versions may not be up to date as quick, so it’s back to the official versions.
If only one person needs an application then I think about using Munki to deploy that app. If more than one person should have it then Munki is definitely the way to automate app deployment. And really, if you’re going to take the time to download an app from a website, mount a disk image or un-pack a ZIP archive, run an installer, type an admin password, close that installer … then for the love of all that is good just put the app into your Munki repo and be done with it. Automate it.
Using Munki to solve problems makes sense. Automation helps everyone in this case. But if you’re putting in one off applications into your Munki repo more often than you need to, you need to get those apps into Autopkg. Using Autopkg recipes to download the latest apps and put them into your Munki repo automatically is an automation love fest, but if your apps don’t have recipes what are you going to do? Manually add your apps to Munki? No way. We need a robot 🤖❤️. Recipe robot, that is.
Using Recipe Robot we can build Autopkg recipes for most apps then add the recipes to the Autopkg community to enjoy. Everyone wins.
I recently created recipes for two important apps in my media workflow: Kyno and Hedge. I’ll show an example of this workflow using Recipe Robot and Munki Admin to demonstrate the workflow.
Step 1. Feed the robot.
Drag and and drop the app you want to create your Autopkg recipes.
Step 2. Watch the robot do it’s work
Step 3. Robot is done. Recipes made.
Various type of recipes can be made. I chose download and munki because those are what I am using to automate adding apps to my Munki repo. But there are other options: jss, Filewave, or “install” for example.
Step 4. Run those Recipes
You can use your recipes locally with Autopkg. Run them in Terminal or use Autopkgr , a very nice GUI app for automating the collection and scheduling of recipes. Note: Autopkg and Munki can all be run via cli (command line interface) but for this demo we are showing the GUI apps that are there provided by outstanding members of the community. Many Thanks to them and the contributors to their projects.
Autopkgr app can send notifications in macOS, emails, or post to your Slack group.
Step 5. See the recipes, Use them wisely
Here is an example of newly imported Kyno and Hedge apps in our Munki repo (via Munki Admin GUI).
Add a display name, choose which catalogs the apps will reside in, and check that the description will help explain what the app is.
DAM SAN 