Casper Imaging & CoreStorage Volumes

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NOTE: Casper Imaging 9.65 addresses this & as such the workaround is no longer needed.

As blogged before, a part of our Casper Imaging workflow involves partitioning the “Macintosh HD” for use with FSTAB.

Unfortunately, we have discovered an issue with Casper Imaging & Yosemite shipped Macs as these Macs come with CoreStorage enabled “Macintosh HD”.  This has been logged with JAMF as D-008217 & this post will be updated once resolved.

To get around this defect, I’ve written a little AppleScript app called “CoreStorage Revert” that you can get via a PKG from here. (NOTE: This is for CoreStorage volumes & not Fusion drives).

The PKG is meant to be added to an AutoCasperNBI created NBI, as it removes the com.AutoCasperNBI.CasperImaging.plist as “CoreStorage Revert” launches Casper Imaging itself.

For more details on the app, the why & some rambling findings, see below.

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My Casper Imaging Workflow

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For a number of years I have used the same Imaging workflow, during which time I thought the process was fairly common (with FSTAB being an exception).

However, after speaking to a few fellow Casper Admins it has become clear that my workflow isn’t as common as I thought. So the post below outlines what we do.

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How To: Change the “Automatic Proxy Configuration” url in System Preferences via a Script

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The “Automatic Proxy Configuration” url in System Preferences is used to point the clients to a PAC file to set the proxy server when on the Office LAN. Below are some scripts to manage this setting.

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How To: Get the currently logged in user, in a more Apple approved way

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NOTE: Due to macOS Monterey's prompts when Python 2 in invoked, please review the blog post here to get the logged in user instead.

When running scripts via Jamf Pro, Munki or a launch daemon, you sometimes have a challenge to get the username of the currently logged in user.

Below has a method to achieve this, with a link to an Apple approved method.

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Citrix Receiver Error: “You have not chosen to trust “Some CA”, the issuer of the server’s security certificate”

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We recently replaced a the certificate on one of out Citrix Access Gateways, everything went well connecting to the CAG via a PC worked fine, but from a Mac we got the below error message.
Luckily for us, Citrix not only have a solution posted on this issue but also give detail as to why it can occur. The solution can be found here.

JNUC 2014 AutoCasperNBI and the Casper NetInstall Creator – Session Slides & Links

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Photo courtesy of Richard Purves

On the last day of JNUC2014, I gave my first public talk. The session was dedicated to AutoCasperNBI and the Casper NetInstall Creator.

You can find a video of the talk here, with the other sessions videos from JNUC2014 being available here.

Many thanks to those whom attended, I think the session went well. Lots of humour (some unintended), & some great collaboration. Especially in the Q&A.

Also, a special mention to those whom beta-tested AutoCasperNBI & my JAMF buddies Dan & Nick (mostly for putting up with me).

Below are some links to the content that was covered, as well as some links from the Q&A.

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Thinking Big: Scaling JSS Infrastructures for the Mobile Workforce

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Mikey (3rd from left in the above), reached out to me pre-JNUC2014 about “Thinking Big: Scaling JSS Infrastructures for the Mobile Workforce”

It was a fun panel to be a part of, many of the members on the panel had taught me so so much over the years &/or are great friends of mine.

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AutoCasperNBI – Release

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If you hang around on JAMFNation, you may have seen the “AutoCasperNBI – open beta” thread.

Well today, (whilst presenting at JNUC2014) I’m happy to announce the full release of AutoCasperNBI.

To all those whom helped throughout the beta, be it via JAMFNation, Twitter, ##osx-server IRC or your own blogs & posts: THANK YOU!

I hope you find the app of some use, & that we can develop it further.

For more information, go to: AutoCasperNBI

Deploying & Installing Safari Extensions on Safari 6.1+ & 7.2+

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As mentioned previously, we deploy a custom Safari Toolbar with links to various sites to our Macs.

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With the release of Safari 6.2 & 7.1 Apple has changed the method to install extensions, once a Mac has been updated to Safari 6.2 or 7.1 the user is prompted to “migrate” their extensions.This change breaks the previously posted method to install extensions, as the installed extensions list is now in the users Keychain (!?).

Below is how to install extensions via Self Service, which in testing works for all Safari versions & allows the user to reinstall if they recreate their login.keychain.

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AirWatch Self Service Portal Not Showing All Enrolled Devices For A User

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We use AirWatch as our Mobile Device Management platform, & recently we launched the “Self Service Portal” to our user base.

However, we hit an issue where only a few devices were available within the “Self Service Portal”.

Below is what we found, and how we resolved this issue.

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