[itdiscuss] Mac Automations

Wed Oct 29 15:45:31 EDT 2008

As Rob mentions we are running the magic triangle... and it is working
fairly well for us... 

The best way we have found to deploy the items you mention below
(printer drivers etc) is do keep an updated image and push that image
out to our users.... But then yes any user specific apps are lost.. so
not a really good option for those running FCP etc.

We have been able to have good success with pushing out printers and
such (assuming the driver was included in the image) from Workstation
management on the OSX server... but I haven't found a good way other
than apple scripts (which are not a lot of fun for a novice Apple Admin
to mess with) to change or update drivers globally.

- jason

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Rob Shaw
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2008 9:31 AM
To: IT Discussion Forum
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Mac Automations

Paul,

Up until just recently we were all PCs.  I agree that Macs can take more
time and can be more difficult to manage... when you have to touch each
one to manage it.  However, I think it is an unfair to compare
non-managed Macs to Windows-based PCs that are managed through
Windows-based systems.  If you do the same with a Mac and Open
Directory, management becomes much easier and, in some ways, even easier
that touching MS group policies.

We have just implemented (with great thanks to Jason Lee and team from
Northview) what Mac calls their "magic triangle".  This joins Macs to
your Windows Active Directory based network by including an Apple Xserve
(or other Apple running OSX server).  The OS X server is joined (bound)
to Active Directory then the individual Macs are joined both to Active
Directory and Open Directory (OS X).  Through Apple's workgroup
management console you can manage group-policy-like settings in graphic
and quite flexible manner by creating managed groups where individuals
are taken straight from the Active Directory without any necessary
duplication of users.  Adding printers is also  VERY easy as you can add
it once to the Workgroup Manager and they are then pushed out the next
time a user logs in.  Drivers are included for most HP printers and many
others are available for other brands too.  (We're making sure for any
new printers we use that they are either supported by OS X or are
natively postscript.)

There are definitely quite a few basics that are different between Macs
and PCs... and this more recent ease of management (and embracing of a
full SMB file structure) has caused this MS admin to have to rethink
some of my outdated opinions on Macs.  There are still some
problems/quirks that make the Macs not so viable across a very
large-scale or an entire enterprise, but when used as part of an Active
Directory setup for only a couple of departments or limited users, Apple
is finally starting to get it right, in my opinion.

There's quite a bit of information out there, but not all of it is good.
I'd be glad to point you to some of the other resources that helped us
during this transition, if you like.

________________________________

From: "Phillips, Paul" <pphillips at walkthru.org>
Reply-To: IT Discussion Forum <discuss at itdiscuss.org>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:15:09 -0400
To: IT Discussion Forum <discuss at itdiscuss.org>
Subject: [itdiscuss] Mac Automations

We all operate on ever-changing networks.  Printers may change or
drivers updated; new file shares may become available; new resources and
services are added or updated.  Microsoft makes the management of these
changes across a network fairly easy.  Through tools like Active
Directory, VBS, WMI, etc., a network administrator can control available
resources for a given Windows workstation.  Macs are seemingly not as
easy to manage on a large scale.

As an example, I recently upgraded all of our copiers. Of course, the
drivers for these copiers had to be installed for each workstation.  On
my Windows workstations, this was easy.  I simply updated the drivers on
my print server, and the workstations all updated themselves.  On my
Macs, the story was not so painless.  I had to go to each workstation
individually and install the drivers manually.  Not that I have hundreds
of Mac workstations to update, but it was still a pain to coordinate
when I could access each workstation.

This is just one example of many changes that occur on any of our
networks over the course of a business year.  As more networks become
saturated with Macs, one of two things has to occur - either we find and
use tools that automate these kinds of changes on a Mac as easily as it
already is on a Windows workstation, or we increase our administrative
overhead by hiring more staff.  What tools do you use to push network
configuration changes out to your Mac users?  

Paul Phillips
IT Manager

(770) 458-9300 x305
pphillips at walkthru.org

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