Setting a macOS VM to automatically boot to Recovery HD using VMware Fusion

When testing various security functions, like System Integrity Protection or High Sierra’s new kernel extension functionality, it’s often useful to be able to boot a macOS virtual machine (VM) into the Recovery environment. However, it can be challenging to select the VM and hold down Command+R in time to boot to the Recovery environment. This can result in having to try several or more times before you can successfully boot the VM to Recovery HD.

Fortunately, VMware has a setting that enables a forced boot to Recovery HD. For more details, please see below the jump.

Identifying the Jamf Pro server set in CasperCheck using an Extension Attribute

As part of my Jamf Pro testing process, I will often set up a VM using a production setup workflow then enroll that newly-setup VM into my test Jamf Pro server. However, as part of my production workflow setup, I will usually install my CasperCheck self-repair solution in order to make sure the machine stays enrolled with my Jamf Pro server.

Unfortunately, this can lead to the following chain of events:

1. Test VM is enrolled in the test Jamf Pro server
2. CasperCheck runs on its pre-set schedule and detects that it is not enrolled with the Jamf Pro server specified in the script.
3. CasperCheck runs its repair functions and enrolls the test VM in the production server.
4. I wonder why my test VM isn’t talking to the test Jamf Pro server.
5. I check the CasperCheck log, grumble when I notice that CasperCheck has done its job, and then install the test server’s CasperCheck script on the test VM.
6. Reboot the test VM to trigger the test server’s CasperCheck script to enroll the test VM into the test server again.

This situation happened infrequently enough in the past that I usually just dealt with it on an individual basis, but I finally decided to fix it by writing a Jamf Pro Extension Attribute to help me identify which Jamf Pro server was specified in the installed copy of CasperCheck . For more details, see below the jump.

Session videos now available from Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2017

The good folks at Penn State have begun posting the session videos from the Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2017. The sessions slides and currently-available videos are all accessible from the Penn State MacAdmins’ Resources page at the link below:

http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/resources/

As all the session videos have been posted to YouTube, I’ve linked my Storing our Digital Lives: Mac filesystems from MFS to APFS session here:

Deploying a pre-configured F5 Big-IP VPN client

As part of a discussion with a colleague, he said that he needed to build an installer for his shop’s F5 Network’s VPN service but wasn’t sure how. I hadn’t built one of these previously either, so I decided to look into it.

Fortunately, F5 Networks has made the process of creating one a fairly straightforward process, assuming that your VPN administrator can provide the needed config_tmp.f5c configuration file. Assuming that you can get that file, all that’s needed is making sure that the config_tmp.f5c file is located in the same directory as the VPN client installer.

The reason for this is that the postinstall scripts of the F5 VPN client installer are set to look for that file in that location, and will automatically import the configuration file’s contents if the file is found.

Once I had both the config_tmp.f5c config file and a copy of the F5 VPN client installer, I was able to create an installer using this method that handled both the installation and the automated configuration of the F5 VPN client. For more details, see below the jump.

Generating printer configurations using payload-free_package_printer_generator.sh

As part of a recent discussion, a colleague posted in the MacAdmins Slack that they needed to deploy printers as part of a DeployStudio workflow. DeployStudio doesn’t natively include this functionality, so that meant developing a way to deploy the desired printers to the appropriate Macs via one of the following methods:

• Using a script
• Using a management profile

As part of the conversation, I pointed to Nick McSpadden‘s PrinterGenerator tool:

https://github.com/nmcspadden/PrinterGenerator

Nick’s tool is designed to create printer configurations for deployment via Munki. However, my colleague wasn’t using Munki in this case and didn’t plan to deploy it. So even though there was a tool that could have solved the problem, adapting it to work for my DeployStudio-using colleague’s needs was going to take some time and effort.

The discussion got me started thinking about the problem of printer deployments and ways to solve it that could work for the vast majority of deployment solutions. After some research and testing, I’ve developed a solution that may work for most deployment needs. For more details, see below the jump.

Slides from the “Storing our digital lives: Mac filesystems from MFS to APFS” session at Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2017

For those who wanted a copy of my filesystem talk at the Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2017 conference, here are links to the slides in PDF and Keynote format.

PDF – http://tinyurl.com/psumac2017pdf

Keynote – http://tinyurl.com/psumac2017key

Using Brisk to file bug reports with Apple

As part of preparing for macOS High Sierra, I need to file bug reports to report problems that I’m finding with the beta releases. As part of this, I’ve started using a tool named Brisk. It helps streamline the process by filing bug reports via a native app on my Mac, rather than having to go through this process:

1. Open a web browser.
2. Go through the process of signing into bugreport.apple.com
3. File a bug report Apple’s bug reporting web interface

Brisk also makes it easy to cross-post the submission of a bug report to OpenRadar. Since bugreport.apple.com is not publicly searchable and only allows developers to see their own bugs, OpenRadar is a way for developers to share their own bug reports and keep both themselves and their colleagues up-to-date on the status of various bugs filed with Apple. For more details, see below the jump.