IT881: Advanced Apple Remote Desktop
February 13, 2010, 2:30-4:00 pm
Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco
This session will not cover basic uses of Apple Remote Desktop. If you're using ARD for screen-sharing and control with the occasional package installation then you're missing out on perhaps the most powerful management tool available to an IT worker managing Macs. This session will focus on using advanced techniques and tricks to use Apple Remote Desktop for all it was designed for, and more!
Snow Leopard offers finer-grained control over managed systems than any previous OS, and Apple Remote Desktop is an indispensable management tool. Using ARD's ability to copy software, run installers remotely, schedule tasks, generate reports of client computers and send Unix commands, the combination of Snow Leopard and ARD is tough to beat. Also discussed will be how Snow Leopard's Automator integration with ARD can be used to create custom workflows for selected computers in ARD and how plists are used to specify preferences and how these files can be customized to generate settings for end-users remotely resulting in more consistent and stable systems. This session is heavy on specific examples drawn from real-life tasks lived by experienced sysadmins. Techniques will be discussed to add add complex printer lists and features to multiple users simultaneously, point users to software update servers and run software updates remotely, add fonts, perform routine maintenance, and even automate the complex task of repairing machines that no longer boot, even recovering a damaged hard drive, all from the comfort of your ergonomic chair!