Guinfan72
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: ARD Initial Setup Help

I have Mac Mini server running 10.6.8 with 131 Mac Book Pros running the same OS.  We recently purchased Apple Remote Desktop 3.5.1 and I have it installed on the server.  I cannot see any of the client Macs in ARD because Remote Management is turned off on all of them.  Other than manually touching all 131 of them, is there a way from the server to turn them on?

 

I tried turning it on on one of the client Macs, copying the plist file to the server, then adding it to the Details tab of my test group in Workgroup Manager (which is setup and running fine), but my test Mac still has Remote Management turned off and I cannot connect to it from ARD.

 

Any help would be wonderful.  Please be aware, I've been supporing Macs for 3 months now so I still have a lot to learn.  Thanks

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jan 10, 2012 10:57 AM

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Guinfan72

Q: ARD Initial Setup Help

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  • by Antonio Rocco,

    Antonio Rocco Antonio Rocco Jan 11, 2012 3:02 PM in response to Guinfan72
    Level 6 (10,606 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 11, 2012 3:02 PM in response to Guinfan72

    Hi

     

    "Other than manually touching all 131 of them, is there a way from the server to turn them on?"

     

    If you've enabled SSH (Remote Login in the Sharing Preferences Pane) you can use the kickstart utility to do enable Remote Management with whatever options you want:

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2370

     

    If you've not done this you've got some walking ahead of you.

     

    What might be a possible 'better' option is to take one mac that has all the applications you want installed and is configured the way you want and enable Remote Management, 'Sys Prep' it prior to using SIU to create a NetRestore image. 'Push' this out to the rest using the NetBoot Service. Once you've renamed all the clients - you could use a login script that does this for you on the mac you create the NetRestore image from.

     

    You can add all the clients to an ARD List by clicking the 'Observe' Icon. Simply supply the local admin name and password the once and that's it.

     

    HTH?

     

    Tony

  • by TeenTitan,

    TeenTitan TeenTitan Jan 11, 2012 11:38 PM in response to Guinfan72
    Level 4 (2,524 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 11, 2012 11:38 PM in response to Guinfan72

    Rocco is right, you could use Remote Apple Events, to enable Remote Management. But i'm guessing if you have Remote Management Off, you probable also have Remote Apple Events off.

     

    Is the Mac Mini Server running an Open Directory? If so, have the 131 client computers bound to the Open Directory? If so, is your test group your testing with a computer group? if so, the client your testing with in your testing group ? What plist did you add to the computer group? Where was the plist located when you added it to the computer group? Have you tried pushing out an MCX that you know can work? if so, is that getitng updated? if not, have you tried having a user log into the computer, and then checked to see if that MCX is being updated?

  • by Guinfan72,

    Guinfan72 Guinfan72 Jan 12, 2012 6:50 AM in response to TeenTitan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2012 6:50 AM in response to TeenTitan

    Remote Apple Events and SSH are both turned off on my image.  This was by default and with me being new to Macs, I did not know enough to turn them on.

     

    Is the Mac Mini Server running an Open Directory?  Yes

    If so, have the 131 client computers bound to the Open Directory?  Yes

    If so, is your test group your testing with a computer group?  Yes

    If so, the client your testing with in your testing group?  Yes

    What plist did you add to the computer group? com.apple.RemoteManagement.plist

    Where was the plist located when you added it to the computer group? \Library\Preferences

    Have you tried pushing out an MCX that you know can work?  I don't know what that is

    If so, is that getitng updated?

    If not, have you tried having a user log into the computer, and then checked to see if that MCX is being updated?

     

    I'm thinking I'm going to have to touch them all.  Pushing a new image won't work as this is a school environment and the students have all their data saved locally, so I can't wipe them out.  Thank you both for the ideas.  I guess I was thinking that there was something similar to Active Directory Group Policy and I could just turn it on from the server if I had them configured with Open Directory and use Workgroup Manager.

  • by TeenTitan,

    TeenTitan TeenTitan Jan 12, 2012 7:36 AM in response to Guinfan72
    Level 4 (2,524 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 12, 2012 7:36 AM in response to Guinfan72

    Guinfan72 wrote:

     

    Have you tried pushing out an MCX that you know can work?  I don't know what that is

    If so, is that getitng updated?

    If not, have you tried having a user log into the computer, and then checked to see if that MCX is being updated?

    When you add a plist to a computer, user, computer group, or user group.It create a set of MCX settings in the Open Directory. ie when you added \Library\Prefrences\com.apple.RemoteManagement.plist to the test computer group you create MCX settings to push out to the computers in the test group.

    What I was asking; is have you tried using the test group to push out other settings? For instance, removing the shutdown button from the login window.

     

    If you do have to go around to all the computers. You could use Apple Remote Desktop to create a settings installer. If the users are administrators. you could have them run the installer for you. If they're not administrators; you can at least user the installer to save yourself time. It also makes enabling these settings so easy to do, that you could distribute the tasks to the teachers to do.

    The one catch is the current installer is a little bugging with 10.7; but they're wrok around for that.