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Yet another introduction

Todd Ritter IntroGreetings, TUAW faithful! I'm Todd, and after writing for Download Squad for a year, I'm fortunate enough to be able to write for TUAW. A MacBook Pro is my primary machine and I'm rarely without my iPhone 3G (who isn't?).

By day I'm a systems admin for a school district in central Pennsylvania where I manage a network of about 1400 PC's, 600 Macs, and 35 servers (a handful of which run Mac OS X). I handle all of the Mac client management, system imaging, and podcast-related functions.

In addition to my day job, a few nights a month I teach at a local career institute covering topics like Apache administration, Active Directory management, and Cisco configuration. I get to work with small classes in hands-on environments which allow the students to get a taste of the real "IT" world.

Drawing from these experiences, I hope to offer insightful articles ranging from the use of Apple products in the classroom to creating Mac system images for mass deployment. I look forward to interacting, sharing, and learning from you and the other great TUAW writers!

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Greetings, TUAW faithful! I'm Todd, and after writing for Download Squad for a year, I'm fortunate enough to be able to write for TUAW. A...
 

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Luigi193

The last few of you new TUAW writers have seemed VERY qualified!!!

Hurray! Hope to hear from you all soon!

December 09 2008 at 9:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

Congrats on your new status at TUAW! I look forward to any stories relating to mac administration, integration into larger networks, etc.

We are currently using a deployment system whose heart is centered around Radmind (www.radmind.org). What setup do you use to image and maintain your macs?

@Christopher Fugle: The already suggested mailing lists and websites are probably the primary ones I'd suggest too, but you might also find some info at http://www.enterprisedesktopalliance.com/

December 09 2008 at 2:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Mark's comment
Todd Ritter

I use an Xserve running Netboot to host images that I create with NetRestore Helper (which sadly is being discontinued). I just plug a MacBook or iMac into our network, hold the "N" key on boot, select an image, and wait a few minutes for the process to finish! The hardest part of the whole thing is deciding what settings to make on the seed machines before creating the image.

http://www.bombich.com/software/netrestore.html

December 09 2008 at 3:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevin

Glad to hear some Mac love out there!
Also glad to hear something about Central PA! I grew up there and i'm at PSU for IST, and have been thinking/interested in some kind of system admin job at local school district, so if you had any insight or would email me back, i'd greatly appreciate it!

Kevin

December 09 2008 at 9:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jesse W.

Welcome Todd! I look forward to reading the articles you write. I also live in Central Pennsylvania so maybe I will see you around one day at Sheetz and not even know it! lol

December 09 2008 at 9:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jesse W.'s comment
Todd Ritter

Sheetz! I probably saw you there yesterday when I was getting my MTO for lunch.

December 09 2008 at 9:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jim

Central PA represent!

December 09 2008 at 8:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ds

Good to see a fellow OS X Server admin on the team!

December 09 2008 at 8:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
daenney

Ohw man, Active Directory, I feel your pain... That piece of software has given me as much if not more headaches than the WIndows-platform all together.

December 09 2008 at 7:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric Lewis

Does anyone care?

i think not!

December 09 2008 at 7:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Eric Lewis's comment
Lars

You can claim your douchebag award in the lobby!

December 09 2008 at 7:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Christopher Fugle

Good Morning Todd,
Welcome aboard to TUAW! This site always blows me away with insightful comments and leading stories. I am wondering if you may have a few links that would lead me to any discussion forum on implementing our first Mac OS X Leopard server. I work for a municipal government in Canada, and as the sole Mac support staff for a small be elite design group in an organization of 20,000 windows units, I am looking for a site that will allow me to pose technical questions outside of Apple's forums. If you have anything, I would love follow through with research. I hope to learn how to implement this server in a closed environment on a larger scale network.
Looking forward to your articles...
Season's best.
C.Fugle

December 09 2008 at 7:34 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Christopher Fugle's comment
Todd Ritter

Hi Christopher,

It is indeed very difficult to find OS X server forums (outside of support.apple.com), but I find it's easier to target your forum search at specific products for which you're trying to use. For instance, there is a decent Podcast Producer forum here: http://podcastproducer.org/forums

Aside from that, check out these general OS X server sites:

http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/resources/ - excellent pdf documents pertaining to most aspects of OS X server

http://www.afp548.com/ - general OS X server tips/tricks

December 09 2008 at 7:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Rose

Don't forget macenterprise.org!

December 09 2008 at 11:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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