Configuration Mass-deploy

[raymondu999]

Hey all!!

I need to be able to quickly configure a number of settings on many Macs for my organisation. However, I need to be able to do this in the form of a program, script or some sort of config file as I will not be able to directly access all of the Macs physically. We've already got a config file for our VPN setup (SL only, Leopard unsupported), and it works beautifully to just get everybody's Macs set up on our IPsec VPN network, complete with all the shared secrets etc.

Now we are undertaking a project to do a similar one-click solution thing for:

WLAN configuration. (We're using WPA2 and the network SSID is hidden)
Printing
Accessing a network drive that's not immediately visible in Finder (I have to go into Finder, then Go>Connect to Server to view it)

Is this possible?

And finally when it's all done, we intend to write 1 "master" script that unifies all of these functions into 1 single script, so it facilitates 1-click configuration

Any help is truly appreciated. Don't worry if the method doesn't work on Leopard. We're only working with SL systems here

Thanks!!!

 

[MacsRgr8]

Well...

Many roads lead to Rome here... and it all depends on your System Admin skills, and what you want exactly.

First of all I would like to recommend Apple Remote Desktop
This "admin"-app makes it possible to to ANYTHING to the Macs on an accessible network, as long as the client has been setup to allow an admin to do so.

It seems you want to distribute a couple of plists (preference files) for your wishes.
It will cost you some "figure-it-out" hours, but that is the fun part of being a System Admin

Another way is to mass deploy images. That is, via NetBooting deploy a complete image (Mac OS X, Linux, Windows) using a free tool running on Mac OS X Server: DeployStudio
This software is brilliant!

A combination of Apple Remote Desktop and DeployStudio is really a must for any Mac-Sys-Admin.

Have fun!

 

[larkost]

I think this is what you are looking for:

1) WiFi setup: On 10.6 the command-line "networksetup" works beautifully to setup wireless connections. You are going to have to be a little scripting savvy as the setup can be complicated by having different profiles, but you should be able to figure your way through a bash command to get going.

2) Printing: this can be nasty depending on how complicated you want to get. There are some ways of scripting this using lpadmin (again on the command line), but they can get a bit hairy at times. Some people have been using PrinterSetup from Lucid:

http://www.lucidsystems.org/printingworks/printersetup/index.php

...but as I have not used it I can't really speak about it.

3) Setting up a network drive: this all depends on what you are looking to do here. If you are trying to emulate a "mapped network drive" in Windows then there are a few ways of doing it:

a) Setting this up using MCX or Workgroup Management (google for these). This can include kerberos authentication chained from the user logging in if you have a directory service already established (OpenDirectory, ActiveDirectory, etc).

b) Put an entry in /etc/fstab to do this (man fstab for more information). Note that this is not a good idea if this requires authentication.

c) Use NFS mounts and set them up.

d) Use /etc/autofs.conf (man autofs for more details)

e) Use the /Networks location with a bound MacOS X Server

Or you can opt for the simplest: put an alias on their desktop or an afp:// url in their dock that points to the drive. They double click and it opens.

4) Automating all of this. Yes, it is possible, and there are lots of means to do this: wrap settings files and scripts in a .pkg and hand them out. Use ARD to push settings or the .pkg from before out. Use MacOS X Server and loginhooks. Run around with a USB thumb drive and a script... etc...

 

[raymondu999]

actually for the network drive option, my network drive is running on a samba server. I think creating a shortcut could work though.

Also for the printing it's on a network printer... I believe the networked printer also connects through to 10.6 on samba...