Mac OSX: Support Essentials (Snow 101)

Prerequisites:

Students should have Basic Mac OS X knowledge, Basic troubleshooting experience before attending the course or have attended the Snow101: introduction to Snow Leopard Course.

Course Description:

Mac OSX Support Essentials is a three day, practical hands-on course that provides an in-depth exploration of troubleshooting on Mac OS X. This Apple authorised course is designed to give you a tour of the breadth of functionality of OS X and provide the best methods of troubleshooting any issues that arise.

This Apple authorised course is designed to give you a tour of the breadth of functionality of OS X and provide the best methods for effectively supporting users of Mac OS X systems.

This course outline is designed for users of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). This course is for helpdesk specialists, technical co-ordinators, service technicians and others who support Mac OS X customers and users. This includes IT and helpdesk personnel in creative and publishing environments and technical personnel or power users who manage networks of OS X systems for their organisation.

This course includes the following modules:

Introduction

• Overview of topics covered during the course
• The Certification process

Installation

• Mac OS X installation process
• Common user issues
• Troubleshooting techniques regarding installation

User accounts

• Creating user accounts
• Multiple users on OS X
• Troubleshooting common account problems

Command line and automation

• Command line essentials including navigation and file manipulation
• Basic scripting and automation using the shell
• Automator and Applescript

File Systems

• File systems supported by OS X
• File and Directory ownership and permissions
• Disk utility and file repair
• Using the Command Line for file navigation

File Management

• The Root volume
• File system layout
• Preferences
• Frameworks
• File types unique to Mac OS X (ie: resource forks and packages)
• Using Spotlight
• File archives
• Disk images
• Archiving and restoring data with Time Machine
• Managing backup data
• How to access the data outside of Time Machine

Applications

• Applications created with different developer APIs
• The UNIX concept of a process
• The relationship between processes and applications
• Tools for monitoring and managing processes
• Application preferences
• Troubleshooting and Boot Camp

Network configuration and troubleshooting

• Basic network configuration
• TCP/IP networking
• Ethernet
• AirPort
• Multiple network connections
• Appropriate use of network locations
• Troubleshooting network elements

Accessing network services

• Connecting to common network resources
• Network user accounts with Directory Services
• AFP, SMB, SSH, FTP and WebDAV connections
• Isolating software issues from network issues
• Enabling Network Services on a Mac OS X client
• Peer to peer collaboration
• Sharing files between Macs and Windows
• Sharing web documents
• Firewalls
• Techniques to isolate Server issues from client and network issues

Providing network services

• Using OS X to provide network services
• Sharing files using AFP, SMB, FTP and HTTP
• Securing services using the Mac OS X firewall

Peripherals

• Connecting peripherals to a Mac
• Cabling
• Device drivers for common peripherals
• Managing printers
• Print-job management
• Printer PPDs and PDF workflow
• Troubleshooting

The Startup Process

• Troubleshooting boot issues with a Mac at startup
• Phases of the startup process
• Using Launchd
• Login window startup items