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OMG! APPLE IS GUTTING SERVER.APP!!!! Part 2 Web to Apache

In July, I will be presenting at MacAdmins at PSU. My talk will be called “OMG! APPLE IS GUTTING SERVER.APP!!!!” I will be using my blog to document all the processes taken to get all the data. The goal of this is to find easy ways to move away from Server.app while utilizing the existing Apple hardware in your server closet and macOS. Sure you can move to a new system, but you might not have the money or time. You can find the slide deck here. Server.app -> Apache First step is to test the server. After booting this VM, I visited my testserver. Mine was at testserver.leobaeck.ca. It… Read More »OMG! APPLE IS GUTTING SERVER.APP!!!! Part 2 Web to Apache

OMG! APPLE IS GUTTING SERVER.APP!!!! Part 1 Web to MAMP

In July, I will be presenting at MacAdmins at PSU. My talk will be called “OMG! APPLE IS GUTTING SERVER.APP!!!!” I will be using my blog to document all the processes taken to get all the data. The goal of this is to find easy ways to move away from Server.app while utilizing the existing Apple hardware in your server closet and macOS. Sure you can move to a new system, but you might not have the money or time. You can find the slide deck here. Server.app -> MAMP I started with a simple MunkiReport instance running in Server.app. I figured this would be using enough resources to move.… Read More »OMG! APPLE IS GUTTING SERVER.APP!!!! Part 1 Web to MAMP

Find a Mac’s serial number in Recovery Partition or the macOS installer

I couldn’t find this anywhere, so I thought I’d blog about this. Thanks to the #general channel on the MacAdmins Slack for the help. To find a serial number for a Mac when booted into the Recovery Partition or the macOS installer, to go Utilities and choose Terminal, type in ioreg -rd1 -c IOPlatformExpertDevice | awk -F'”‘ ‘/IOPlatformSerialNumber/{print $4}’ That’s it, it will output the serial number for the computer.

Importing Data to FileMaker 16 via APIs

I’m new to APIs. Have quite a bit of FileMaker experience. I’ve decided to see if I can build a system to track parent-teacher contact. This is a system that once existed for the school in an ASP system that I mocked up and outsourced. It was replaced with Edsby, an LMS system that wasn’t truly designed for this purpose. We were smashing a square peg into a round hole. My proof of concept for this system involves seeing if I can build something that does three things I’ve never done in FileMaker before. OAuth login using Google authentication Sending nightly emails of any records that have changed for those… Read More »Importing Data to FileMaker 16 via APIs

Renewing Let’s Encrypt on a macOS machine running 10.12.6 and Server.app

Last time on Never Had To Fight… Adam installed a certificate using Let’s Encrypt for a macOS server running 10.12.6 and Server.app. It wasn’t exciting, but it worked. Now, three months later, we need to renew. It was actually really easy. Renew the certificates sudo certbot renew Transfer the .pem files to desktop Using the cp command enter these to copy your files. Replace <<FQDN>> with your FQDN. Replace <<USER>> with your username. sudo cp /etc/letsencrypt/live/<<FQDN>>/privkey.pem /Users/<<USER>>/Desktop/privkey.pem sudo cp /etc/letsencrypt/live/<<FQDN>>/fullchain.pem /Users/<<USER>>/Desktop/fullchain.pem Hooray, now these files are on your desktop. Install Certs Open Server.app Go to Certificates. Click on the + Choose Import Certificate Identity… Drag and drop the two .pem… Read More »Renewing Let’s Encrypt on a macOS machine running 10.12.6 and Server.app

Let’s Encrypt on a macOS machine running 10.12.6 and Server.app

Are you doing your web hosting with Server.app? You’re probably not the biggest fan of it, but it works, so… let’s keep on keeping on. Do you want to have a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt? Well, I found some really bad guides, so this is much better. *Hat tip to MacAdmins slack for a few key points Open up your Terminal.app (Go to the Go menu, choose Utilities, double-click on Terminal). This isn’t even a step, you should know this. Step One – Install Homebrew /usr/bin/ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)” At this point, you will be prompted to press RETURN to continue. Press the return key. It will… Read More »Let’s Encrypt on a macOS machine running 10.12.6 and Server.app

macOS Sierra Beta

Apple has been seeding developer previews of macOS Sierra (10.12) since the Worldwide Developer Conference in June. I installed developer preview 6 and have been using that and version 7 since their release. Fortunately, everything seems to be running quite well. One of the features of 10.12 is Siri on your Mac. The one thing I use Siri for the most is the clock functions. Timers and alarms. I tried setting a timer on my Mac using Siri, and there’s no functionality for that in 10.12. Perhaps Apple will add this functionality. In the mean time we are seeing SiriKit being made available to iOS developers in iOS 10, so… Read More »macOS Sierra Beta

Standing Desk

At my work, I have a motorized standing desk. I was looking for apps that would remind me to stand and sit at regular intervals. In the long run, I want an app that conditions me, so it starts at standing for an hour a day for a week, then two hours a day for a week, and so on and so forth. I can’t find that app. Instead I made a quick AppleScript that will prompt me to change position every 45 minutes. set answer to “” repeat while answer ≠ “Quit” set answer to the button returned of (display dialog “Please rise.” buttons {“Quit”, “Okay”} default button 2)… Read More »Standing Desk

NetGear ReadyNAS Time Machine Backup

It seems you cannot mount your Time Machine backup on a ReadyNAS device using normal credentials. Time Machine is segmented off with a special user. Which means I needed to restore my computer using Migration Assistant. It took FOREVER over wifi. However, I seem to be missing my Aperture Libraries. What’s the solution? Assuming it was backed up, I need to find the sparsebundle. It took a lot of searching, but I found it, and will share my brilliance with you in case you ever need to find it, too. /data/.timemachine To access: SSH in as root. Then copy the files to a SMB or AFP accessible directory. cd /data/.timemachine… Read More »NetGear ReadyNAS Time Machine Backup

Adam

New Job, New Server

If you weren’t aware, when the month changed from June to July, I also changed jobs. I graduated from elementary school to high school. Today was the first day at my new job where I really had time to myself to do what I please. It was time to play with servers. The school already had a Hyper-V setup, so I installed a copy of Ubuntu and hit the ground running. Once I had the IP setup and SSH enabled, I was ready to go. First thing to install was Docker. $ wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh With that simple command I had Docker running on the server. For those… Read More »New Job, New Server