Slow profile manager
Hi gurus!
Got a clean install of server 10.7.4 with all updates done. DNS and Opendirectroy are runnung ok and I have no firewall.
For some reason, Profile Manager is terribly slow; it takes him up to 10 minutes to update a workstation; is that normal?
I'm working at night with no traffic on the network, testing 4 machines out of 70.
I've also seen that the devices can be set to be update manually; is that a good option. If yes, can you force that from the workstation or is it pushed by the slow server?
I'm still hesitating to implement this in our school, can anybody give me a strong advice, like "don't use it" or "great stuff" ?
Help and shared experience would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Guy
Hi,
Thanks for your feedback and sorry for the late answer. In facts, doing that operation takes ages…
Somehow it is as if a firewall (there's none) was blocking something. If you look at the attached screenshot you'll notice that this simple "update info" operation is really slow. I don't know what those values should be or what they are on your server.
Is there any error log… I don't think so…
Thanks for your feedback on that, Guy
Similar Messages
-
firefox has been running slower. When this happens I'll reboot my computer and this speeds up firefox. When I restarted the computer firefox would not open. Just the spinning wheel with no access to the tools.
After I force quit - it says ignore or notify/report to apple. I tried sending a report, and it ques up the box with details, system config, etc... but when I click on send - it will not let me send one - I've never been unable to send a report before.
I uninstalled, then reinstalled. Upon opening I get the spinning wheel and nothing happens - I need to force quit. I see on this mozilla help site that I need to update my profile manager. I followed these instructions - Finding your profile without opening Firefox Open Finder and go to your home folder. Note: your home folder is usually the name of your Mac user account From your home folder open /Library/, then /Application Support/, then /Firefox/, then /Profiles/. Your profile folder is within this folder. but when I got to library - application support - there is no firefox listed.You can do a disk check with the chkdsk.exe program.
If you run the chkdsk.exe program from a cmd.exe Command window then you can read the response from the chkdsk.exe program.
Open a cmd.exe window:<br />
Start > Run: cmd.exe <press Enter>
At the command prompt (>) type or Copy&Paste: chkdsk.exe /f /r <press Enter> (put a space before /f and /r)
If you get something like: Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? y/n then answer the question with "Y" and close all programs and reboot the computer.
A possible cause is security software (firewall) that blocks or restricts Firefox without informing you about that, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.
Remove all rules for Firefox from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process.
See:
* [[Server not found]]
* [[Firewalls]]
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up -
Firefox crashes at startup (no safe mode or profile manager; mal-ware free)
Hello, I've been a loyal FF proponent for years. I'm running Windows 7 HP x64 with all the latest updates. The STRANGEST thing happened this week. I uninstalled my installation of firefox. I'm using a profile I've perpetuated for 3-4 years. I wanted to start clean and have a fresh slate.
Well, now, whenever I try to install firefox (8, 9, or 10), after installation firefox will not start up. I click the icon, you can see it starting up, and then it disappears. No crash reporter, no crash reports in %appdata%. It won't start up in Safe Mode (-safe-mode, or -safemode, or -safe). None of this applies that I can tell: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Fi ... t&r=0&as=s http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_crashes I have tried all combinations of clean installing, rebooting, running from windows safe mode, scanning for viruses/malware (Windows MSE, MalwareBytes, SuperAntiSpyware), and deleting every bit of data left over in */appdata/ I can find for FireFox.
I CAN get Firefox to start up with the "-profile manager" tag at the end (not -p OR -profilemanager, note the space...I believe this forces it to run that profile, even though it doesn't exist), however, it does not load up the Profile Manager, and when I try to visit a site, it crashes, and as far as I can tell, no crash reports are created. It does not create a profile or anything on my hard-drive. In fact, it doesn't look like it's getting far enough to recreate any of the directories I deleted before clean installing.
It is interesting to note, FirefoxPortable runs just fine, I am even running my previous profile with a simple copy/paste of my old profile folder. It runs just fine, except I think it's marginally slower. I'm fairly adept at troubleshooting. I've scanned the web for hours looking for a solution that works. Perhaps I've some registry corruption, but I'm not THAT savvy or knowledgeable on where to look for corruption. If this is the case, CCleaner's reg-cleaner did not fix the problem.
ANY ideas are welcome. I love using FF and my gamut of extensions., I would hate to have to set sail for Chrome.
Thanks!
P.S. I have a hunch this might be a Windows permissions issue...the problem with this hypothesis is that I'm running with UAC turned off completely. I've tried disabling firewalls & whatnot as well.The attached crash report doesn't have any data in it, so it doesn't help the find a cause of the crashes.
If you have one that does have data in it if you check the link then please post the crash ID of such a crash.
See:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Mozilla_Crash_Reporter#Location_of_crash_reports
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Mozilla_Crash_Reporter#Viewing_crash_reports
Try a clean reinstall of Firefox and drag the current Firefox application to the trash.
You can also try to do some maintenance.
Try to repair the disk permissions:
* http://thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html
You can do a check for corrupted and duplicate fonts and other font issues:
*http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/multipleappsquit.html - Font Book 2.0 Help: Checking for damaged fonts
*http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/garbled_fonts_troubleshooting_guide.html -
Server 2.2 and AD Profile Manager issues
The Server 2.2 update lets you use AD users inside of AD groups (YAY!) My problm is after the update the web interface in Profile Manager will not list groups or users anymore, it slows down to a crawl and errors out. I also can't add "network users" to local groups in OD anymore. Is this a permissions error or is it just overloading my new mac mini server?
We and a few hundred users and in logs I can see the users importing from AD and it is peaking out the CPU resources on the mini.
any ideas?Dec 10 10:12:46 iosconfig.server.com ProfileManager[236]: hide_user_record?: ignoring invalid record <ODRecord 0x7f93ee61c040 [attributes {'dsAttrTypeStandard:GeneratedUID': '6A7C291C-2149-4D04-9654-041FE990A2DC', 'dsAttrTypeStandard:RecordName': 'user', 'dsAttrTypeStandard:UniqueID': '1786521884', 'dsAttrTypeStandard:RealName': 'LAST, FIRST', 'dsAttrTypeStandard:AppleMetaRecordName': 'CN=USER,OU=OU,OU=Employees,DC=DOMAIN,DC=COM', 'dsAttrTypeStandard:AppleMetaNodeLocation': '/Active Directory/domain/server.com', 'dsAttrTypeStandard:RecordType': 'dsRecTypeStandard:Users'}]> (stack level too deep)
it is importing each user in the System Log like this(edited for privacy) -
Device management - Profile Manager - MDM
Device management with mac os x lion server:
I saw that with profile manager (an apple implantation of its mobiledevice management apis) allow you to enroll and manage iOS devices. I want to know if this OS with profile manager MDM can work for managing 20 ipads with MAC MINI. What hardware do you recommend to buy? MAC MINI or MAC PRO? I think mac pro will be better but I need to reduce costs so I choose MAC MINI but I want to know if it will work fine to manage our 20/22 ipads.
any advice about mac mini for managing 20/22 ipads? docuemntation/info about this?
Thank you very much
Regards,We manage 500 iPads. But mdm is quite slow. When you start, you wait up to 5 minutes until devicemanager is online.
-
I'm designing a locked-down Firefox user profile for use on public computers (common room in an apartment building). I can use existing plugins and add-ons to prevent access to about:config and to lock down the various firefox preferences but this is moot if a user can still access the firefox profile manager or can start firefox in safe mode. Is there any configuration setting that could prevent this?
Hi...
Reinstalled 10.7.3 from the Combo Updater from apples website.
The only way to reinstall the Mac OS X or repair the startup disk running v10.7.3 Lion, is to use Lion Recovery The combo update does not do that.
How much free space on the startup disk? Not enough free space can account for the problems with your apps.
Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon. Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure there's a minimum of 15% free disk space.
and no web-pages will load.
Try using OpenDNS as suggested here > Safari 5.0.1 or later: Slow or partial webpage loading, or webpage cannot be found
Use OpenDNS for better speed, more security, includes anti phishing filters, prevents browser redirects, and it's free.
Open System Preferences / Preferences then select the Network tab. Click the Advanced tab then click the DNS tab.
Click +
Enter these addresses exactly as you see them here.
208.67.222.222
Click +
208.67.220.220
Then click OK.
edited by: cs -
Profile manager (macOSX FF 3.6.8) won't create new profile or rename
Using terminal I used profile manager to successfully create a new profile (it called it Default User) and then I copied essential files like bookmarks into the new folder. FF works fine, but I can not longer create a new profile or rename the old one. In terminal the create new / rename dialogue appears, but when I try to type in a new name into the dialogue box the text does not appear in the dialogue box but appears in the terminal window. The profile folder only contains the one profile and it is correctly referenced in the .ini file.
I also have this problem and it just started in the last week or so. It seems to be dependent on my home network and the problem only exists with firefox. I have used chrome and IE8 with no issues. I can verify tomorrow that it only exists in my network but one thing I was able to test is that the problem exists even on my linux boot. I am totally dumbfounded with this problem and I can't find anything that will allow the gmail page to load. All other pages I have tried load fine, all be it a little slower than normal but they load. If anyone knows of a difference between firefox and all other browsers on how it goes through the router I would appreciate the info cause I don't know of any differences.
-
Just purchased 600 iPads. As we were enrolling the iPads, Profile Manager (via Safari) seemed ok speed for a web app. As we got over 100 iPads enrolled, Profile Manager began slowing down. Now that we have 600 iPads enrolled (and we will be getting another 5,000 over the next 2 years), Profile Manager is now very slow and buggy.
I have a brand new Mac Mini Server (OS X Server 10.7.2) 4GB RAM.
When I launch Safari and log into Profile Manager, I must wait around 5 minutes for Profile Manager to load before I can begin using it.
That is NOT acceptable.
Does my experience match others?Problem solved. Profile Manager in OS X 10.7.4+ is now supporting our 2,000 iPads quite well (this will grow another 1,000 next school year).
Only issue now is there is now way of backing up the data in Profile Manager. I can backup the entire computer (Carbon Copy Cloner), but would rather just backup my Profile Manager data. Similar to what OS X Server has with Open Directory. -
I recently installed a fresh version of Lion Server after attempting to fix a broken upgrade. With some help from others, I've managed to get all the new features working and have kept notes, having found that many or most of the necessary installation steps for both the OS and its services are almost entirely undocumented. When you get them working, they work great, but the entire process is very fragile, with simple setup steps causing breaks or even malicious behaviors. In case this is useful to others, here are my notes.
Start with an erased, virgin, single guid partitioned drive. Not an upgrade. Not simply a repartitioned drive. Erased. Clean. Anything else can and probably will break the Lion Server install, as I discovered myself more than once. Before erasing my drive, I already had Lion and made a Lion install DVD from instructions widely available on the web. I suppose you could also boot into the Lion recovery partition and use disk utility to erase the OS X partition then install a new partition, but I cut a DVD. The bottom line is to erase any old OS partitions. And of course to have multiple, independent backups: I use both Time Machine with a modified StdExclusions.plist and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Also, if you will be running your own personal cloud, you will want to know your domain name ahead of time, as this will be propagated everywhere throughout server, and changing anything related to SSL on Lion Server is a nightmare that I haven't figured out. If you don't yet have a domain name, go drop ten dollars at namecheap.com or wherever and reserve one before you start. Soemday someone will document how to change this stuff without breaking Lion Server, but we're not there yet. I'll assume the top-level domain name "domain.com" here.
Given good backups, a Lion Install DVD (or Recovery Partition), and a domain name, here are the steps, apparently all of which must be more-or-less strictly followed in this order.
DVD>Disk Utility>Erase Disk [or Recovery Partition>Disk Utility>Erase Partition]
DVD>Install Lion
Reboot, hopefully Lion install kicks in
Update, update, update Lion (NOT Lion Server yet) until no more updates
System Preferences>Network>Static IP on the LAN (say 10.0.1.2) and Computer name ("server" is a good standbye)
Terminal>$ sudo scutil --set HostName server.domain.com
App Store>Install Lion Server and run through the Setup
Download install Server Admin Tools, then update, update, update until no more updates
Server Admin>DNS>Zones [IF THIS WASN'T AUTOMAGICALLY CREATED (mine wasn't): Add zone domain.com with Nameserver "server.domain.com." (that's a FQDN terminated with a period) and a Mail Exchanger (MX record) "server.domain.com." with priority 10. Add Record>Add Machine (A record) server.domain.com pointing to the server's static IP. You can add fancier DNS aliases and a simpler MX record below after you get through the crucial steps.]
System Prefs>Network>Advanced>Set your DNS server to 127.0.0.1
A few DNS set-up steps and these most important steps:
A. Check that the Unix command "hostname" returns the correct hostname and you can see this hostname in Server.app>Hardware>Network
B. Check that DNS works: the unix commands "host server.domain.com" and "host 10.0.1.2" (assuming that that's your static IP) should point to each other. Do not proceed until DNS works.
C. Get Apple Push Notification Services CA via Server.app>Hardware>Settings><Click toggle, Edit... get a new cert ...>
D. Server.app>Profile Manager>Configure... [Magic script should create OD Master, signed SSL cert]
E. Server.app>Hardware>Settings>SSL Certificate> [Check to make sure it's set to the one just created]
F. Using Server.app, turn on the web, then Server.app>Profile Manager> [Click on hyperlink to get to web page, e.g. server.domain.com/profilemanager] Upper RHS pull-down, install Trust Profile
G. Keychain Access>System>Certificates [Find the automatically generated cert "Domain", the one that is a "Root certificate authority", Highlight and Export as .cer, email to all iOS devices, and click on the authority on the device. It should be entered as a trusted CA on all iOS devices. While you're at it, highlight and Export... as a .cer the certificate "IntermediateCA_SERVER.DOMAIN.COM_1", which is listed an an "Intermediate CA" -- you will use this to establish secure SSL connections with remote browsers hitting your server.]
H. iOS on LAN: browse to server.domain.com/mydevices> [click on LHS Install trust cert, then RHS Enroll device.
I. Test from web browser server.domain.com/mydevices: Lock Device to test
J. ??? Profit
12. Server Admin>DNS>Zones> Add convenient DNS alias records if necessary, e.g., mail.domain.com, smtp.domain.com, www.domain.com. If you want to refer to your box using the convenient shorthand "domain.com", you must enter the A record (NOT alias) "domain.com." FQDN pointing to the server's fixed IP. You can also enter the convenient short MX record "domain.com." with priority 11. This will all work on the LAN -- all these settings must be mirrored on the outside internet using the service from which you registered domain.com.
You are now ready to begin turning on your services. Here are a few important details and gotchas setting up cloud services.
Firewall
Server Admin>Firewall>Services> Open up all ports needed by whichever services you want to run and set up your router (assuming that your server sits behind a router) to port forward these ports to your router's LAN IP. This is most a straightforward exercise in grepping for the correct ports on this page, but there are several jaw-droppingly undocumented omissions of crucial ports for Push Services and Device Enrollment. If you want to enroll your iOS devices, make sure port 1640 is open. If you want Push Notifications to work (you do), then ports 2195, 2196, 5218, and 5223 must be open. The Unix commands "lsof -i :5218" and "nmap -p 5218 server.domain.com" (nmap available from Macports after installing Xcode from the App Store) help show which ports are open.
SSH
Do this with strong security. Server.app to turn on remote logins (open port 22), but edit /etc/sshd_config to turn off root and password logins.
PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
I'm note sure if toggling the Allow remote logins will load this config file or, run "sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/org.openbsd.ssh-agent.plist ; sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/org.openbsd.ssh-agent.plist" to restart the server's ssh daemon.
Then use ssh-keygen on remote client to generate public/private keys that can be used to remotely login to the server.
client$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C client_name
[Securely copy ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub from client to server.]
server$ cat id_rsa.pub > ~/.ssh/known_hosts
I also like DenyHosts, which emails detected ssh attacks to [email protected]. It's amazing how many ssh attacks there are on any open port 22. Not really an added security feature if you've turned off password logins, but good to monitor. Here's a Lion Server diff for the config file /usr/share/denyhosts:
$ diff denyhosts.cfg-dist denyhosts.cfg
12c12
< SECURE_LOG = /var/log/secure
> #SECURE_LOG = /var/log/secure
22a23
> SECURE_LOG = /var/log/secure.log
34c35
< HOSTS_DENY = /etc/hosts.deny
> #HOSTS_DENY = /etc/hosts.deny
40a42,44
> #
> # Mac OS X Lion Server
> HOSTS_DENY = /private/etc/hosts.deny
195c199
< LOCK_FILE = /var/lock/subsys/denyhosts
> #LOCK_FILE = /var/lock/subsys/denyhosts
202a207,208
> LOCK_FILE = /var/denyhosts/denyhosts.pid
> #
219c225
< ADMIN_EMAIL =
> ADMIN_EMAIL = [email protected]
286c292
< #SYSLOG_REPORT=YES
> SYSLOG_REPORT=YES
Network Accounts
User Server.app to create your network accounts; do not use Workgroup Manager. If you use Workgroup Manager, as I did, then your accounts will not have email addresses specified and iCal Server WILL NOT COMPLETELY WORK. Well, at least collaboration through network accounts will be handled clunkily through email, not automatically as they should. If you create a network account using Workgroup Manager, then edit that account using Server.app to specify the email to which iCal invitations may be sent. Server.app doesn't say anything about this, but that's one thing that email address entry is used for. This still isn't quite solid on Lion Server, as my Open Directory logs on a freshly installed Lion Server are filled with errors that read:
2011-12-12 15:05:52.425 EST - Module: SystemCache - Misconfiguration detected in hash 'Kerberos':
User 'uname' (/LDAPv3/127.0.0.1) - ID 1031 - UUID 98B4DF30-09CF-42F1-6C31-9D55FE4A0812 - SID S-0-8-83-8930552043-0845248631-7065481045-9092
Oh well.
Email
Email aliases are handled with the file /private/etc/postfix/aliases. Do something like this
root: myname
admin: myname
sysadmin: myname
certadmin: myname
webmaster: myname
my_alternate: myname
Then run "sudo newaliases". If your ISP is Comcast or some other large provider, you probably must proxy your outgoing mail through their SMTP servers to avoid being blocked as a spammer (a lot of SMTP servers will block email from Comcast/whatever IP addresses that isn't sent by Comcast). Use Server.app>Mail to enter your account information. Even then, the Lion Server default setup may fail using this proxy. I had to do this with the file /private/etc/postfix/main.cf:
cd /etc/postfix
sudo cp ./main.cf ./main.cf.no_smtp_sasl_security_options
sudo echo 'smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous' >> ./main.cf
sudo serveradmin stop mail
sudo serveradmin start mail
Finally, make sure that you're running a blacklisting srevice yourself! Server Admin>Mail>Filter> Use spamhaus.org as a blacklister. Finally, set up mail to use strong Kerberos/MD5 settings under on Server Admin>Mail>Advanced. Turn off password and clear logins. The settings should be set to "Use" your SSL cert, NOT "Require". "Require" consistently breaks things for me.
If you already installed the server's Trust Certificate as described above (and opened up the correct ports), email to your account should be pushed out to all clients.
iCal Server
Server.app>Calendar>Turn ON and Allow Email Invitations, Edit... . Whatever you do, do NOT enter your own email account information in this GUI. You must enter the account information for local user com.apple.calendarserver, and the password for this account, which is stored in the System keychain: Keychain Access>System> Item com.apple.servermgr_calendar. Double-click and Show Password, copy and paste into Server.app dialog. This is all described in depth here. If you enter your own account information here (DO NOT!), the iCal Server will delete all Emails in your Inbox just as soon as it reads them, exactly like it works for user com.apple.calendarserver. Believe me, you don't want to discover this "feature", which I expect will be more tightly controlled in some future update.
Web
The functionality of Server.app's Web management is pretty limited and awful, but a few changes to the file /etc/apache2/httpd.conf will give you a pretty capable and flexible web server, just one that you must manage by hand. Here's a diff for httpd.conf:
$ diff httpd.conf.default httpd.conf
95c95
< #LoadModule ssl_module libexec/apache2/mod_ssl.so
> LoadModule ssl_module libexec/apache2/mod_ssl.so
111c111
< #LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
> LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
139,140c139,140
< #LoadModule auth_digest_apple_module libexec/apache2/mod_auth_digest_apple.so
< #LoadModule encoding_module libexec/apache2/mod_encoding.so
> LoadModule auth_digest_apple_module libexec/apache2/mod_auth_digest_apple.so
> LoadModule encoding_module libexec/apache2/mod_encoding.so
146c146
< #LoadModule xsendfile_module libexec/apache2/mod_xsendfile.so
> LoadModule xsendfile_module libexec/apache2/mod_xsendfile.so
177c177
< ServerAdmin [email protected]
> ServerAdmin [email protected]
186c186
< #ServerName www.example.com:80
> ServerName domain.com:443
677a678,680
> # Server-specific configuration
> # sudo apachectl -D WEBSERVICE_ON -D MACOSXSERVER -k restart
> Include /etc/apache2/mydomain/*.conf
I did "sudo mkdir /etc/apache2/mydomain" and add specific config files for various web pages to host. For example, here's a config file that will host the entire contents of an EyeTV DVR, all password controlled with htdigest ("htdigest ~uname/.htdigest EyeTV uname"). Browsing to https://server.domain.com/eyetv points to /Users/uname/Sites/EyeTV, in which there's an index.php script that can read and display the EyeTV archive at https://server.domain.com/eyetv_archive. If you want Apache username accounts with twiddles as in https://server.domain.com/~uname, specify "UserDir Sites" in the configuration file.
Alias /eyetv /Users/uname/Sites/EyeTV
<Directory "/Users/uname/Sites/EyeTV">
AuthType Digest
AuthName "EyeTV"
AuthUserFile /Users/uname/.htdigest
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require user uname
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
Alias /eyetv_archive "/Volumes/Macintosh HD2/Documents/EyeTV Archive"
<Directory "/Volumes/Macintosh HD2/Documents/EyeTV Archive">
AuthType Digest
AuthName "EyeTV"
AuthUserFile /Users/uname/.htdigest
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require user uname
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
I think you can turn Web off/on in Server.app to relaunch apached, or simply "sudo apachectl -D WEBSERVICE_ON -D MACOSXSERVER -k restart".
Securely copy to all desired remote clients the file IntermediateCA_SERVER.DOMAIN.COM_1.cer, which you exported from System Keychain above. Add this certificate to your remote keychain and trust it, allowing secure connections between remote clients and your server. Also on remote clients: Firefox>Advanced>Encryption>View Certificates>Authorities>Import...> Import this certificate into your browser. Now there should be a secure connection to https://server.domain.com without any SSL warnings.
One caveat is that there should be a nice way to establish secure SSL to https://domain.com and https://www.domain.com, but the automagically created SSL certificate only knows about server.domain.com. I attempted to follow this advice when I originally created the cert and add these additional domains (under "Subject Alternate Name Extension"), but the cert creation UI failed when I did this, so I just gave up. I hope that by the time these certs expire, someone posts some documentation on how to manage and change Lion Server SSL scripts AFTER the server has been promoted to an Open Directory Master. In the meantime, it would be much appreciated if anyone can post either how to add these additional domain names to the existing cert, or generate and/or sign a cert with a self-created Keychain Access root certificate authority. In my experience, any attempt to mess with the SSL certs automatically generated just breaks Lion Server.
Finally, if you don't want a little Apple logo as your web page icon, create your own 16×16 PNG and copy it to the file /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default/favicon.ico. And request that all web-crawling robots go away with the file /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default/robots.txt:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Misc
VNC easily works with iOS devices -- use a good passphrase. Edit /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postgresql.postgres.plist and set "listen_addresses=127.0.0.1" to allow PostgreSQL connections over localhost. I've also downloaded snort/base/swatch to build an intrusion detection system, and used Macports's squid+privoxy to build a privacy-enhanced ad-blocking proxy server.Privacy Enhancing Filtering Proxy and SSH Tunnel
Lion Server comes with its own web proxy, but chaining Squid and Privoxy together provides a capable and effective web proxy that can block ads and malicious scripts, and conceal information used to track you around the web. I've posted a simple way to build and use a privacy enhancing web proxy here. While you're at it, configure your OS and browsers to block Adobe Flash cookies and block Flash access to your camera, microphone, and peer networks. Read this WSJ article series to understand how this impacts your privacy. If you configure it to allow use for anyone on your LAN, be sure to open up ports 3128, 8118, and 8123 on your firewall.
If you've set up ssh and/or VPN as above, you can securely tunnel in to your proxy from anywhere. The syntax for ssh tunnels is a little obscure, so I wrote a little ssh tunnel script with a simpler flexible syntax. This script also allows secure tunnels to other services like VNC (port 5900). If you save this to a file ./ssht (and chmod a+x ./ssht), example syntax to establish an ssh tunnel through localhost:8080 (or, e.g., localhost:5901 for secure VNC Screen Sharing connects) looks like:
$ ./ssht 8080:[email protected]:3128
$ ./ssht 8080:alice@:
$ ./ssht 8080:
$ ./ssht 8018::8123
$ ./ssht 5901::5900 [Use the address localhost:5901 for secure VNC connects using OS X's Screen Sharing or Chicken of the VNC (sudo port install cotvnc)]
$ vi ./ssht
#!/bin/sh
# SSH tunnel to squid/whatever proxy: ssht [-p ssh_port] [localhost_port:][user_name@][ip_address][:remotehost][:remote_port]
USERNAME_DEFAULT=username
HOSTNAME_DEFAULT=domain.com
SSHPORT_DEFAULT=22
# SSH port forwarding specs, e.g. 8080:localhost:3128
LOCALHOSTPORT_DEFAULT=8080 # Default is http proxy 8080
REMOTEHOST_DEFAULT=localhost # Default is localhost
REMOTEPORT_DEFAULT=3128 # Default is Squid port
# Parse ssh port and tunnel details if specified
SSHPORT=$SSHPORT_DEFAULT
TUNNEL_DETAILS=$LOCALHOSTPORT_DEFAULT:$USERNAME_DEFAULT@$HOSTNAME_DEFAULT:$REMOT EHOST_DEFAULT:$REMOTEPORT_DEFAULT
while [ "$1" != "" ]
do
case $1
in
-p) shift; # -p option
SSHPORT=$1;
shift;;
*) TUNNEL_DETAILS=$1; # 1st argument option
shift;;
esac
done
# Get local and remote ports, username, and hostname from the command line argument: localhost_port:user_name@ip_address:remote_host:remote_port
shopt -s extglob # needed for +(pattern) syntax; man sh
LOCALHOSTPORT=$LOCALHOSTPORT_DEFAULT
USERNAME=$USERNAME_DEFAULT
HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME_DEFAULT
REMOTEHOST=$REMOTEHOST_DEFAULT
REMOTEPORT=$REMOTEPORT_DEFAULT
# LOCALHOSTPORT
CDR=${TUNNEL_DETAILS#+([0-9]):} # delete shortest leading +([0-9]):
CAR=${TUNNEL_DETAILS%%$CDR} # cut this string from TUNNEL_DETAILS
CAR=${CAR%:} # delete :
if [ "$CAR" != "" ] # leading or trailing port specified
then
LOCALHOSTPORT=$CAR
fi
TUNNEL_DETAILS=$CDR
# REMOTEPORT
CDR=${TUNNEL_DETAILS%:+([0-9])} # delete shortest trailing :+([0-9])
CAR=${TUNNEL_DETAILS##$CDR} # cut this string from TUNNEL_DETAILS
CAR=${CAR#:} # delete :
if [ "$CAR" != "" ] # leading or trailing port specified
then
REMOTEPORT=$CAR
fi
TUNNEL_DETAILS=$CDR
# REMOTEHOST
CDR=${TUNNEL_DETAILS%:*} # delete shortest trailing :*
CAR=${TUNNEL_DETAILS##$CDR} # cut this string from TUNNEL_DETAILS
CAR=${CAR#:} # delete :
if [ "$CAR" != "" ] # leading or trailing port specified
then
REMOTEHOST=$CAR
fi
TUNNEL_DETAILS=$CDR
# USERNAME
CDR=${TUNNEL_DETAILS#*@} # delete shortest leading +([0-9]):
CAR=${TUNNEL_DETAILS%%$CDR} # cut this string from TUNNEL_DETAILS
CAR=${CAR%@} # delete @
if [ "$CAR" != "" ] # leading or trailing port specified
then
USERNAME=$CAR
fi
TUNNEL_DETAILS=$CDR
# HOSTNAME
HOSTNAME=$TUNNEL_DETAILS
if [ "$HOSTNAME" == "" ] # no hostname given
then
HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME_DEFAULT
fi
ssh -p $SSHPORT -L $LOCALHOSTPORT:$REMOTEHOST:$REMOTEPORT -l $USERNAME $HOSTNAME -f -C -q -N \
&& echo "SSH tunnel established via $LOCALHOSTPORT:$REMOTEHOST:$REMOTEPORT\n\tto $USERNAME@$HOSTNAME:$SSHPORT." \
|| echo "SSH tunnel FAIL." -
Unable to push user profiles to AD groups with Profile Manager since upgrade to Server v3
Since upgrading our OS X Mac server from 10.8.5 to 10.9.1, and OS X Server app to v3 (now 3.0.2) I have been unable to push or modify user profiles to AD groups (or AD users) using Profile Manager. This was working fine on OS X 10.8.5. Pushing device profiles is still working OK after the upgrade.
From what I can see from the logs on the client side and server side, it seems related to a problem with the mdm authtoken.
In the client console I can see this entry:
27/01/14 14:30:15.844 mdmclient[38557]: *** ERROR *** [Agent:636102071] Unable to proceed with connection to: https://ourserver.ourdomain/devicemanagement/api/device/mdm_connect (com.apple.mdmconfig.mdm) because don't have valid MDM AuthToken
On the server, in the php.log I can see the corresponding attempt to authenticate:
1::Jan 27 14:29:50.930 [158] <192.168.28.171> {require_once (mdm_checkin.php:11)} vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv - PUT mdm_checkin
0::Jan 27 14:29:50.931 [158] <192.168.28.171> checkin: 'UserAuthenticate'
1::Jan 27 14:29:50.936 [158] <192.168.28.171> {Target_for_incoming_request (target.php:209)} Found target NETWORK LS: <User[156]@ourclientmachine>
0::Jan 27 14:29:50.937 [158] <192.168.28.171> {LabSession_validate_auth_token (mdm_checkin.php:22)} Failed auth for target NETWORK LS: <User[156]@Device[1697]>, incoming_request={
0::Jan 27 14:29:50.937 [158] <192.168.28.171> 'MessageType'=>'UserAuthenticate',
0::Jan 27 14:29:50.937 [158] <192.168.28.171> 'UDID'=>'17aff5c5a40f51acbbd78023d0028c80',
0::Jan 27 14:29:50.937 [158] <192.168.28.171> 'UserID'=>'A5EA25B7-7CCD-4EF4-B240-F23DED275EEC'
0::Jan 27 14:29:50.937 [158] <192.168.28.171> }
1::Jan 27 14:29:50.965 [158] <192.168.28.171> {SendFinalOutput (mdm_checkin.php:145)} Sent Final Output (407 bytes)
1::Jan 27 14:29:50.965 [158] <192.168.28.171> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - /devicemanagement/mdm/mdm_checkin
0::Jan 27 14:29:50.965 [158] <192.168.28.171> {SendFinalOutput (mdm_checkin.php:145)} Completed in 34ms | 200 OK [https://ourserver.ourdomain/devicemanagement/api/device/mdm_checkin]
So I can see there is a failure to authenticate, but don't really know how to troubleshoot this further. Or maybe this is just a bug in the new server app?
I have tried to remove and re-enroll clients in Profile Manager but no joy there.
In the client's Keychain I can see an MDM user AuthToken linked to the correct user account.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestionsI just wanted to update my post, as this issue for me is resolved.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the Server.app on our Mac server, since then I've been able to push profiles to AD Users and Groups. I guess that in my case the Server app got into a bit of a mess when it was upgraded to v3.
Now the next headache I have is that my AD Groups which are displayed in Profile Manager are not syncing any recent changes. I think I'm probably seeing the same issue as described in this post
https://discussions.apple.com/message/25420919#25420919 -
VPP Distribution issues with OSX Server Profile Manager
Hi, I have a new issue with my OSX 10.9.5 Server. I use VPP to distribute apps to users devices, when I would add a new user I would send them an invitation message through /profilemanager . All was working well until recenetly , the message still arrives in the users mailbox however when you click the "sign in" link on the "receive apps and books from xxxxx" email instead of opening through the Mac App store app it now opens Safari and connects to the profile manager server , any ideas ? it never has done this before and although I thought it was a new feature or method I can not seem to resolve the issue.
Hi if when you are redirected back to your Mac Server you enter the user name and password of the user you are trying to receive VPP apps for i.e the Open Directory credentials it will then open the App Store providing the credentials are correctly entered so it looks like an additional layer of security. The process is click on the link in the VPP invite email, this takes you to your Mac Server profile manager, log on with your OD account, App store then opens on your Mac like it used to.
-
Profile manager won't clear previous settings
While messing around with profile manager it do a couple basic things. Start FaceTime at login and map some network drives. This worked fine but when i went back in later to turn those off they continue to go through. When I log on to a different computer the settings are correct, however. Is there someone I can do a clean refresh of the machine to wipe it of all previous profile manager settings. I've even tried deleting and re adding the machine to Profile manager but this still doesn't work.
You'll need to cleanup DNS on the domain controller not client systems.
Give me some information on how this server is integrated into your environment.
Is it bound to Active Directory? If so, what happens when you launch terminal? Does the hostname match the name under Sharing in sys prefs on your server? If not, you've probably got some stale DNS screwing things up.
To see if this is the case, log in to your primary DC (or whichever server hosts DNS records in your environment) and check your forward and reverse lookup zones. In my case, I saw more records than we have machines! Problem with Macs is those records stick around even after you remove a machine. Macs aren't always automagical unfortunately.
Another way to see if you have DNS problems is simply take a freshly imaged server (BEFORE it's bound to AD) and fire up profile manager. If it launches easy breezy (aka not getting DNS from the potentially messy server) then it's safe to assume you'll need to scavenge out those records. But that another story for a Win 2008 R2 board. -
How do I use multiple VPP accounts in a school system with 1 Profile manager server?
I have 40 schools with their own money they want to spend on apps. I need these accounts to be seperate. We are registered in the Device enrollment program and are using Apple's profile manager to distribute VPP apps. In the DEP website you can add existing vpp admins. I had hoped when these accounts purchased apps, the apps would show up in Profile Manager which uses the master Apple ID, but this didn't happen. Anyone know what the correct process is for doing this?
If you haven't found the answer: You have to install the correct token for each account. Apple Servers, as far as I know, do not support using multiple tokens at once. As a result, you will have to swap out each of the 40 tokens anytime anyone wants to buy something then assign it to a user then push the app.
Or just buy it with a redemption code and give that code to your users. -
How do I use the Profile Manager to run multiple PHP sessions?
I have a website that tracks the session and state of users as they traverse through the site. Several users can "work together" simultaneously. To test this cooperative functionality, I ran multiple Firefox profiles simultaneously on my computer, using Firefox's Profile Manager. After logging in as two users (one on each separate running Firefox instance), one of my Firefox instances still works, while the other one does not seem to track the session.
How do I create and run multiple Firefox instances to allow me to test the functionality of such sites? I believe this worked a few months ago. Perhaps this is a new bug?
I even tried running normal Firefox and Firefox Extended Support Release simultaneously, but I ran into the same error.Disregard the question. The solution has nothing to do with any "Firefox bug". Turns out that my session wasn't being managed properly. Or rather, I was accidentally deleting other users' information when new users logged in. So if I had user 1 and user 2, and user 2 logged in after user 1, some of user 1's information would be deleted, resulting in the errors.
Oops; sorry about the false alarm. :)
(Was hoping to retract the question, but it looks like others have a similar problem.) -
had firefox 4.0 & have been a user of firefox for a few years now. never had any problems. had to do a system restore after my computer detected a virus of some sort & i couldn't do anything. the virus kept popping up a bogus add for me to buy an antivirus program. had to restart laptop in safemode to initiate the restore. ever since then firefox has not opened. can't even uninstall it or open the profile manager. anything that has to do with firefox will simply not run/open at all. i'm stumped.
System restore can cause problems as well as solve them, it has probably completely mucked up your Firefox installation.
Try deleting your Firefox installation directory, the default location on 32 bit Windows is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\
Now re-install Firefox, it should pick up your current profile folder so you should not lose your bookmarks, passwords etc.
Maybe you are looking for
-
Incoming Calls and Texts not recognized by Phonebook
Hello, I just bought an iphone today. It is unlocked with 1.1.4 version. It is also jail broken. I bought the phone in lightly used condition. Today i started entering in all my contacts which was easy, however, whenever i recieve a call or text, it
-
Hi, how will create the scheduling in DAC?I did as per document but its not working? thnx
-
itunes store trouble. my backups are encrypted and i forgot password soooooo.......ya
-
5800 ExpressMusic wifi not working
I just took over a 5800 ExpressMusic from a friend. I want to be able to use the internet with a wifi connection. I am currently in offline mode. I connected to the router in my house. It prompted me with "Create WLAN connection in offline mode?" and
-
After Form Personalization getting problem
Dear All, I did one form personalization, it's working fine. But the problem is .. At the time of closing that form it's asking Do you want to save? with out changing any filelds. Just i opened that form and queried records, then i tried to close tha