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Apple Remote Desktop Agent command-line setup Apps
I was asked to find a way to help automate an install process, including setting privileges for the special admin user that will be used by the help desk for Apple Remote Desktop administration functions. It turns out that the global (non-user specific) settings for ARD agent are kept in a simple text file that was easy to find at /Library -> Preferences -> com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist.

To configure the Apple Remote Desktop Agent parameters that are user-specific was harder to find, since they are stored in the NetInfo database using a very non-guessable tag naprivs (and the value is a bitmap). Luckily, after much searching, I found that there is a perl script that comes as part of the Agent package called kickstart. I found it on the "Upgrade" partition that was built on the disk image we made for the install (from Firewire) in the directory /System -> Library -> CoreServices -> ARD Agent.app -> Contents -> Resources. This script is specifically designed for this purpose and I'm quite surprised I couldn't find any mention of it during a fairly exhaustive search (macosxhints, google, macosxlabs, etc.). One example of how to use this is:
kickstart -verbose -configure -users itadmin -access -on -privs -all
There is complete usage information is given if the script is run without any arguments. If this is all in the user manual ... then this will probably only help the few other techies that like me are too stubborn to look it up, but I don't have the manual here to verify this!
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Apple Remote Desktop Agent command-line setup | 4 comments | Create New Account
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For the manual readers among us
Authored by: robschon on Aug 13, '04 10:55:23AM

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107837



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For the manual readers among us
Authored by: dfbills on Aug 13, '04 01:20:13PM

The apple article needs to be updated for 2.0.

The path has changed to:

/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart



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For the manual readers among us
Authored by: msiple on Aug 15, '04 01:27:44PM

That article expressly states that it's for ARD 1.2.1 thru 1.2.4 and is probably still around for those that haven't upgraded.

The one for ARD 2.x that lists that path is http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108030



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Apple Remote Desktop Agent command-line setup
Authored by: demmons65 on Aug 17, '04 11:25:14AM

Thanks to whomever submitted this hint. I knew ARD could be configured like this but had never taken the time to find out how.

Bravo. And yet one more reason why I donate to this site annually. (unsolicited plea for cash for MAcOSXHints!) And no, I am not affiliated with the site other than being a satisfied user. But I'm sure Rob would gladly accept your donation.

---
d a v e

http://www.hostwerks.com/~dave/



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