- They're a mix of MacBooks and Mac Pro's running 10.11. Other commercial options that are cross. I have just inherited the MAC management role at my office.
- Configure Power Management in Mac On the menu bar, click the Apple menu icon. And then click System Preferences. In the System Preferences window, click Energy Saver.
Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC) for Certain Interventional Pain Management Services (L33595) Contractor Information. Contractor Name Contract Type Contract Number Jurisdiction State(s) First Coast Service Options, Inc. A and B MAC 09101 - MAC A J - N Florida First Coast Service Options, Inc. A and B MAC 09102 - MAC B J - N Florida.
Deploying and supporting Macs presents distinct challenges, particularly in organizations where Macs are in the minority or are being introduced for the first time. As with many aspects of IT, having the right tool for the job is the key to managing a. The good news is that there are many tried and true solutions for handling common Mac deployment and management tasks. The better news is that many of the best are available for free, whether from Apple, as open source projects, or as free/donationware creations of other Mac administrators and IT professionals.
See InfoWorld's. Learn why. Keep up with key Apple technologies with the. Stay up to date with. Get. Here you will find the top 22 tools - most of them free - for managing the. As you'd expect, the list focuses on the core areas of systems administration: deployment, client management, and directory integration.
If I missed a favorite free Mac tool, please highlight it in the comments below. Essential Mac tools Nos. 1 and 2: Disk Utility and Apple Software Restore If you have more than a couple of Macs to deal with, you'll need an easy way to configure them. For monolithic imaging, the process by which you create a snapshot of one workstation and copy it to others, nothing beats and Apple Software Restore, both of which are included free with every Mac OS X install. Disk Utility comes as both a GUI tool and the diskutil command-line option. It is equipped with plenty of local disk management functions, including partitioning, formatting, integrity checking, and repair. It also offers the ability to clone volumes and create disk images using the.dmg format, which makes it perfect for capturing a configured volume for monolithic imaging.
Apple Software Restore, which is, allows you to locally or remotely deploy disk images to one or more clients. It can be used to image a Mac from a disk image on a local drive, a network share, or a multicast stream (the best option for mass deployments).
When used for, one Mac hosts the stream via asr commands for others to join. As you might expect, any client imaged using asr must be booted from a source other than the destination volume, such as an external hard drive, a flash drive, or a bootable network volume.
While Disk Utility and ASR provide the backbone for Mac deployment, either individually using an external drive/unicast network connection or a multicast stream, there are several tools to speed up, automate, and improve your workflow for capturing a source image, preparing it for use with ASR, and initiating deployment. Be sure to check out and for image capture and basic single-Mac deployment, and for setting up ASR sessions. Essential Mac tools Nos. 3 and 4: NetInstall and NetRestore Building off of Apple's free image-based offerings are two features of the company's Mac OS X Server: NetInstall and NetRestore. Network booting has been a staple since OS X Server debuted, and Apple has built off the NetBoot concept with NetInstall and NetRestore, both of which allow servers to host boot volumes, thereby enabling clients to boot directly from the network based on your deployment options. NetInstall is designed for booting into the OS X installer utility and allows admins to configure options for a traditional OS X install.
(It is not monolithic imaging per se, though that is possible.) It also performs pre- and post-install tasks such as disk partitioning, directory binding, and application installation. NetRestore is designed around ASR and provides a broader range of options for monolithic imaging. It can be configured to automatically deploy specific images or to allow clients to select from available images. As with NetInstall, many deployment-related tasks can be included in the NetRestore process.
Both NetInstall and NetRestore come with the current release of Lion Server and require no client or usage license beyond the cost of Lion Server (a $49 add-on to the $29 Lion). Essential Mac tool No.
5: DeployStudio Heterogeneous organizations looking to standardize on a single deployment tool should check out, a freeware monolithic imaging solution for Mac and Windows clients. DeployStudio offers local disk deployment, network deployment, and multicasting. It comes equipped with solid image management and client selection tools, integrates with Apple's NetBoot, and provides excellent deployment monitoring, all of which make it a great deployment workflow management solution.
The biggest drawback - if you can consider it a drawback - is that it relies on OS X Server to create a complete network-based solution, including both boot and deployment. Essential Mac tools Nos. 6 and 7: StarDeploy and Munki Apple's package (.pkg) and metapackage (.mpkg) files are the primary software installation mechanisms in OS X.
While these are typically installed by a user, OS X supports package deployment without user intervention - for example, by adding packages to a NetInstall workflow. Organizations looking to deploy packages over a network should check out donationware and open source. These network-based solutions, along with the commercial Apple Remote Desktop, allow admins to deploy packages in the background; they're excellent updating tools as well. Because packages are simply a series of files along with instructions for their ultimate location in a Mac's file system, you can easily configure non-application packages for deploying configuration files and documents. Coupled with StarDeploy or Munki, this method makes it easy to add, remove, or update almost any item over the network, including browser bookmarks, security certificates, and default system or application settings. (Note: Adobe doesn't use Apple's package format, but Munki does support remote install of Adobe applications.) Essential Mac tools Nos. 8, 9, and 10: PackageMaker, InstallEase, and Iceberg If you're going to deploy non-application packages, you'll need a tool to create them.
Apple's PackageMaker is a great tool for this, and it is included with the company's Xcode developer suite, which is free and available via the Mac App Store. Intended for use by developers to create install packages, PackageMaker provides admins with an easy way to build packages to push out to clients on their network. As noted above, these packages can be almost anything you want to deploy to a range of client devices, including documents.
Two free alternatives are openly available, but not quite as developer-friendly: the open source and the free, which was developed as a companion to the Absolute Manage client management suite. Essential Mac tool No. 11: Property List Editor Admins looking to edit system and applications preferences will want to turn to Property List Editor, a GUI tool for editing the XML.plist preference files. A similar free tool, is available for modifying these files from Windows machines. You may, however, find modifying preferences from within an app and copying the resulting.plist files an easier process than using these tools. Essential Mac tool No. 12: File Distributor is a slightly different form of deployment tool.
It allows admins to replace files at various locations within a file system. You can even make use of wild cards to specify multiple locations. This is particularly helpful if you are using network home directories and need to deploy documents or configuration files across multiple user accounts. Essential Mac tool No. 13: FileWave Another deployment tool worth investigating is the commercial.
This Mac/Windows tool can be used to dynamically manage application installations across your network. FileWave's approach has advantages for license compliance and reclamation, as well as flexibly deploying and redeploying applications as needed. Essential Mac tools Nos. 14 and 15: Apple's Active Directory Client and Directory Utility Creating a functional, secure environment requires more than just rolling out computers and software. Global accounts stored in a secure directory service, single sign-on, the ability to secure network and local resources, and the ability to preconfigure and manage the user experience on any workstation is critical. The undisputed leader in directory services, even in Mac environments, is Microsoft's Active Directory. Thankfully, many worthwhile tools for integrating with Active Directory are available, beginning with Apple's Active Directory client and Directory Utility.
OS X's built-in Active Directory client allows you to join an Active Directory domain, and it supports secure access to resources and single sign-on via Kerberos. Moreover, it doesn't require downgrading security levels, and it allows account synchronization for off-network access.
The client can be accessed using the Users and Groups pane of OS X Lion's System Preferences app (called the Accounts pane in older OS X releases). Detailed configuration, including account and home directory sync, preferred domain controllers, and so forth, can be performed using the included Directory Utility. It's worth noting, however, that Apple's AD client has limitations. For example, it doesn't support client management of any kind beyond basic password policies. It also doesn't support DFS browsing. There are some issues specific to various releases, including Lion.
Essential Mac tools Nos. 16, 17, and 18: OS X Server, Apple's Open Directory, and Profile Manager OS X may support Active Directory, but Apple's native directory is an LDAP-based solution called Open Directory. Open Directory domains, hosted by OS X Server, afford centralized accounts all the advantages that Active Directory delivers for Windows, including secure Kerberos single sign-on and client management. This system, referred to as Managed Preferences (or abbreviated MCX), is entirely LDAP-based and allows for user/group/computer-based client management that rivals the capabilities of Group Policies in Active Directory for Mac clients.
In a, Mac clients can be joined to both Open Directory and Active Directory, allowing for secure access to AD accounts and resources but with complete Open Directory client management applied. In Lion Server, Apple introduced a new that supports iOS device management and Mac client management without the need for a directory service. This alternative offers the core security client management features with a simplified setup, though it is device/client-specific rather than more granular at the user or group level. Essential Mac tools Nos.
19 and 20: Microsoft Active Directory Schema Analyzer and Apple Workgroup Manager If adding a second directory isn't an option (it can often be a challenge), the fact that Apple's MCX architecture is completely LDAP-based offers an alternative: to support the Apple-specific attributes. Microsoft's Active Directory Schema Analyzer is a great tool for generating the needed LDIF files.
Once the schema is extended, Apple's free Workgroup Manager tool (part of ) can be installed on a Mac and pointed to an Active Directory domain, where it can manage some basic user account details and configure the full range of Apple's Managed Preferences. Essential Mac tools No. 21: Third-party Active Directory Suites (free and commercial) Apple's solutions are good for Active Directory integration, but they aren't perfect. In some cases, Apple's AD client may have issues with a specific Active Directory environment, while in others, some features just don't have full parity or may not even be available (DFS is a great example). For these situations, there are worthwhile third-party options, some of which are available for free. For more basic needs, you may want to consider and for broader authentication and basic access capabilities at no or limited cost. If you want to integrate client management capabilities without the complexity of using either a dual-directory setup or schema extensions, and are worth considering, along with Thursby's.
ADMit may be particularly appealing for small Mac populations because it is a solely client-side solution that includes DFS support. Essential Mac tool No. 22: Apple Remote Desktop.
How do I organize my files? This single folder full of 742 unsorted Macworld articles gives you a clue. Computers are the ultimate file cabinets. My own Mac stores oodles files of all types—my photos, my music, and thousands of text and Word documents. That said, a stack of papers in my home office’s To Be Filed box could make a grown man cry; I’m afraid the files on my Mac are organized no better. Macworld Senior Editor Dan Frakes literally shuddered as I described how I store all my articles for Macworld in a single folder, with no other taxonomy in place.
The point of organizing your files is to make it easy to find them again. There are numerous approaches to both organizing and then locating files. I set out to discover how experts tackle both tasks. The point of organizing your files is to make it easy to find them again.
John Siracusa Macworld senior contributor, John Siracusa Macworld Senior Contributor, podcaster, and verbose OS X reviewer organizes his files “by category, from general to specific.” Mostly. “I tend to use more nesting for things I create myself than for things I get from elsewhere,” he says. When it comes time for John to find his files again, he uses “the Finder, Open dialog boxes, and the Terminalabout equally.” One feature he doesn’t use is OS X’s All My Files feature.
“I have way too many files for All My Files to be useful to me,” he says. Nor has he yet availed himself of Apple’s new attempts to simplify file organization: “I haven’t started using yet, but I plan to.” While some Mac users I spoke to aren’t overly concerned with where their files are specifically, John definitely cares.
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He turns to Spotlight only when he “can’t find something the old-fashioned way, or when I want to answer an open-ended question like ‘How many images did I create last month?’” John turns to Spotlight only when he can’t find something the ‘old-fashioned way.’ Speaking of the “old-fashioned way,” here’s how John approaches the Finder: “I mostly use List-view windows sorted by the various dates (Added, Modified, Created), rooted at the top level of some major subsection of my files (for example, my or Pictures folder). Selectively disclosing the contents of a few folders within List view helps me work with a handful of deeply nested files without being overwhelmed by all the other files I’m not working with in the same hierarchy, and without requiring constant navigation or multiple windows.” John uses St. Clair Software’s $35 Default Folder X to quickly navigate to frequently accessed locations for saving files. He relies on a couple of third-party utilities to help manage all his files, too.
“I’ve been using since the days of the classic Mac OS. I try to avoid system modifications like this if I can help it, but Default Folder is indispensable,” he says.
John also added the few files that he opens the most often to his catalog. That way, he can trigger those files quickly—and he keeps that list of files very short. “I find this much faster than doing the same kind of search using Spotlight,” he says. Katie Floyd Katie Floyd of of the Mac Power Users Podcast Katie Floyd is a litigator and the cohost of She lives by nested folders.
Katie says that she tries “to stick to Apple’s preferred organization method by keeping all my documents in the Documents folder, Photos inside iPhoto, media in iTunes,” and so on. “However, I’ve created a. This way I have access to all my files wherever I go.” While she’ll occasionally launch a file by name using launchers such as or she says it’s usually faster to dive into her nested folder structure, ‘because I’m very particular about filing all my documents in their proper places.’” While Katie occasionally uses a launch utility, she says it’s usually faster to dive into her nested folder structure. Like John, Katie doesn’t use Mavericks’s tagging feature, “but now that tags are built directly into the OS, I’m more interested in them. So I may in the future.” She doesn’t use All My Files, either.
Also like John, Katie uses third-party utilities to keep her files organized. “I use to automatically name and file many of my files. I have dozens of Hazel rules set up, but I have several specialized rules set up for my Desktop, Downloads, and Scanned folders so that Hazel will look at these documents to determine what they are, based on their type, content, or other criteria, and will then automatically name and file them for me.” And Hazel isn’t the only app Katie relies on for keeping her files organized. “I also store many things in rather than directly in the Finder. I consider the Finder to be storage for documents and files that I’m working on or may need to edit one day, while Evernote I use more for reference documents.” This approach, explains Katie, “keeps all these items out of my Finder and cuts down on the clutter.” Katie relies on Evernote to store files that she doesn’t need to access via the traditional Finder hierarchy. Federico Viticci Federico Viticci of MacStories Federico Viticci runs. He likes Hazel, too.
“Hazel is the key element of my workflow. Moving files and sorting them is boring, so I let Hazel do that for me with rules for renaming files using variables (such as dates, which Hazel can automatically extract from a PDF) or AppleScript.” Federico relies on Noodlesoft’s $28 Hazel to apply discipline to his file management: “Like many others, I’m guilty of saving temporary files to my desktop thinking that, sometime during the day, I will clean it up and trash them.
It never happens, and for that reason I have created a Hazel rule that automatically removes files that are more than three days old.” Those files are safe to remove, Federico says: “If they’re on the desktop for three days, they’re not that important—it means I’m just lazy.” With Hazel, Federico can automatically organize files (and delete unneeded ones), so that his Mac cleans up his files before anything gets too unwieldy. Like Katie, Federico relies on nested folders synced via Dropbox. One example: “After moving away from iPhoto, I set up a Hazel rule that runs on my Mac mini server and automatically sorts photos in Year/Month subfolders in my Dropbox so that photos are available on all my devices.” Federico also uses a smart strategy to ensure that date-named folders sort effectively: He uses a mixed filename style (like “11 - November”). “In this way, folders are sorted alphabetically, but they retain the readable name of the month.” ‘Moving files and sorting them is boring, so I let Hazel do that for me,’ says Frederico. Federico puts the folders he uses daily in the for quick access. And like Katie, he stores a lot of documents in Evernote, and uses a keyboard launcher (Alfred) for quickly finding specific files by name. Like the other experts I spoke to, Federico doesn’t use All My Files.
But he’s already started experimenting with Tags in Mavericks. “They’re growing on me,” he says. When he had several files for a project scattered all around his drive, he found it “really convenient to be able to keep them in their original locationsand still view them in a single tag screen.” Casey Liss Casey Liss of the Accidental Tech Podcast Casey Liss is arguably the most famous of the three hosts of.
But, in his own words, his file storage setup is “pretty unremarkable.” “I tend to treat the desktop as a temporary dumping ground; files don’t live there for more than an hour or so,” Casey says. Rather than leave his desktop cluttered with icons, though, Casey has a single folder that files get shuttled into quickly. “Instead of dumping files onto the desktop like most do, I dump them in my Incoming folder. I try to hold myself to keeping files there no longer than a week”—although Casey admits that “currently I have 11 files in there, the oldest of which is about a year old. Room to improve, I’d say.” ‘Instead of dumping files onto the desktop like most do, I dump them in my Incoming folder,’ Casey says.
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Casey makes light use of folder-level grouping in the Documents folder, and stores some documents in Dropbox—”a near-wasteland that would be upgraded to wasteland status if more stuff was there.” He prefers not needing to rely on Spotlight to find files. “I want to be able to find a file without searching for it. Thus, I care enough to have at least a vague notion of where something is.” His solution? “I just get files into the broadest container that effectively files it and call it a day.” Running with Crayons' free Alfred utility helps Casey quickly locate his saved files with nary a double-click required. He uses neither All My Files nor Tags, though he echoes that now-common refrain: “I intend to explore Mavericks Tags, but I haven’t really found a compelling reason to use them yet.” What have we learned? Obviously, there are plenty of strategies you can consider when you’re determining how best to organize your files. But the operative descriptor there is “your”: You need to find an approach that’s all your own—one that you can stick to.
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You need to find an approach that’s all your own—one that you can stick to. Casey is content to clean up his desktop on his own with his Incoming folder, and he uses the broadest organization scheme possible (like me!). But Federico and Katie prefer to let Hazel handle routine clean-up, and to rely on Evernote for storing certain kinds of less-frequently needed files. John uses many-levels-deep nesting for his files so that he always knows where to look. As you follow a file organization system that you can stick with, you should always be able to find your files. But if we’ve learned just one thing, it’s this: Nobody except for Federico Viticci uses Tagsyet.