Mac Administration: The Fundamentals

Surprise! You’ve just been named the new Mac admin! Overwhelmed and confused with all of this administration stuff? If you’re trying to figure out how to JAMF your Munki, or if you think MCX is a rapper, and DeployStudio is his record label, you’ll want to join us. We’re going to ease your transition to being a great Mac admin. If you know absolutely nothing about Mac administration, this session is for you! We’ll cover the concepts and vocabulary that you’re likely to hear at PSU MacAdmins, and how to organize the ideas, strategies, tools and tactics you’ll need to be a success. We’ll also cover The Things Nobody Told Us about being an admin, so you can start with a good foundation. Hey, everybody starts somewhere.

 Key Concepts:

 The vocabulary of the Mac Admin that you’ll need, and how those terms relate to each other. An overview of the fundamental life-cycle of hardware from procurement to disposal, and what common tools-of-the trade (both commercial and free) fit with each stage. Common practices for inventory, naming conventions, software licensing, and help-desk management. Identifying strategies to minimize tedious or error-prone work.

Foundational Lecture – 75 Minutes

 Dennis Wurster, Eastman School of Music

Dennis WursterDennis Wurster prides himself as a user-advocate, and constantly works to untangle complexity and establish efficiency. By day, he is a Computer Systems Engineer at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. While he has enjoyed working with Macs for over 15 years, he had primarily been a consultant to the SOHO and small-business markets. At Eastman, he found himself suddenly the administrator of hundreds of Macs, learning first-hand how to manage that new level of complexity.

 Brian Meehan, Allendale Columbia School

Brian MeehanDespite years of schooling in networking, systems administration and security, Brian Meehan still finds himself in Middle School on most days. As the Director of Information Technology for the Allendale Columbia School in Rochester, NY, he supports a user base of 600 students, staff and faculty to get the most out of technology in their classrooms. He has been educating users for the past 20 years across all manner of computing devices, from Amiga to ZEOS. Feel free to strike up a conversation with him about technology in education, gadgets, wearables, playing guitar or your favorite acapella covers of 801s new wave music.

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