Import Settings

Path

User Configuration > Policies > Centrify Settings > Mac OS X Settings > Import Settings

Description

Mac OS X uses plist files to store application and other preferences. Use the User Configuration > Policies > Centrify Settings > Mac OS X Settings > Import Settings group policies to import plist files to customize your preferences:

  • Import plist files. This group policy allows you to import preferences from another computer to computers in your Centrify-managed domain. To do so you:

    1. Copy the plist files you want to use to the system volume on the domain controller.

    2. Use the Import plist files group policy to import the plist files to computers in the domain.

    This group policy automatically processes plist files to extract MCX settings when the files are imported.

  • Import MCX setting plist files. This group policy is similar to the Import plist file group policy, except that it does not process any data from the inputted plist files. This group policy copies the exact content (that is, the “raw” content) from the plist file and imports it to the Active Directory user record.

When you import the plist files, Centrify copies them to the appropriate directories on the local computers to implement the preferences that they control.

You can gather and copy plist files from multiple computers and paste them to the sysvol directory on the domain controller, but a more structured approach is to set up a preferences ‘template’ computer, that is, a computer that is set up with your desired preferences. Then you can copy the appropriate plist files to sysvol on the domain controller. Finally, you can use either of the group policies described here to import the plist files to Centrify-managed computers in the domain.

Mac OS X stores plist files in the /Library/Preferences directory and in the /Users/userName/Library/Preferences directory.

The following section shows specifics of using these group policies.