Usage Tips

Tips for leveraging BlueSky: One of my main objectives in BlueSky was to make it so that we could provide remote support without disturbing users. A lot of times we simply need to make a settings change or install something but the user is too busy to let us close their request. BlueSky lets you in unobtrusively on the command line, but also in Lion and higher with background sessions. Screen-Sharing

If you don’t have a separate local admin account, a good way to make it easier on yourself is to use CreateUserPkg to make an admin account that you can install via a .pkg and thus deploy via Munki … you are using Munki right? 🙂 This way you can use the same name/password combo across your client base. Obviously that has some security implications, so make the password a good one, and change it regularly. It’s really simple to update CreateUserPkg with the new password, increment the version, and let Munki push out the new version. If you’re not used to the command line, invest some time learning it. One ancillary project to BlueSky that I haven’t spent much time on would be an “AppleJack” style menu for common things that you might like to do when attached via BlueSky. Like press 1 to get system profiler info, press 2 to see active processes, etc. If you like that idea, drop me a line.