I’ve been asked about Mac IT sysadmin training ideas, and I thought perhaps sharing some initial ideas might help other aspiring Mac IT sysadmins.
It’s hard to recommend a training site or specific place for Mac IT training these days. It used to be that you could sign up for a Unix SysAdmin or bash scripting class and that would be most helpful. And those both are helpful but Mac IT specific technologies are discussed at Mac IT conferences such as MacTech in LA (and periodically in other cities), PSU Mac Admins (Penn State), MacIT (San Jose), MacSysAdmin in Sweden, MacDeploy in Calgary and MacDevOps:YVR in Vancouver. As well as Apple sponsored camps for ACNs (Apple Consultants). Some of these conferences post their video online for free (PSU, MacSysAdmin and MacDevOps) so these are great resources to learn from.
The most important is local meetups, and right now we’re not hosting anything in Vancouver. But I do want to start some local meetups here to encourage fellow Mac Admins to help each other out learning MacDevOps skills and getting into the greater Mac IT sysadmin community. There are great meetups in many cities across North America and the world. Finding out where they are means looking at afp548.com for info, or check out Watchman Monitoring’s new Mac Meetup site: http://www.macmeetups.com/find/, or check on Jamf Nation (https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/index.html). Lots of options.
Here in Vancouver we are also contemplating some more in depth workshops for the next MacDevOps:YVR conference and perhaps sooner than that. How to get started with Mac IT technologies and how to build a beautiful Mac Admins community by being a part of it, and sharing what you know with others.
Anything you all want to learn specifically? What do you want to know about? Let me know.
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.
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
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
If you get this error you haven’t changed the permissions it requires.
MunkiReport errors
Step 5. Rename default_config to config.php
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
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
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’
Step 10. Add MunkiReport.plist to pkgsinfo
Add MunkiReport.plist to 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
Step 13. Add apps to monitor in config.php
Use the apps_to_track model. See also Rsaeks blog post.
A new kind of conference for Mac IT professionals looking to get into DevOps. You’ll hear some about new automation tools, and get a chance to try new things in the computer lab. Join us! Registration limited to 75.
The cost is $99. Food is included on the day of the conference including a light breakfast and lunch. Register here.
Call for Submissions!
MacDevOpsYVR is seeking presenters from across the Pacific Northwest and beyond to participate in this one-day conference for all things Mac!
If you have an idea for a specific talk, workshop or panel related to deploying Macs in enterprise, corporate or educational environments, we want to hear from you.
