UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

When you say update, that brings to my mind tools like rsync, rdist but when you say to monitor the students, if that means seeing their screen (desktop) that would be more something like vnc...
Now, if you had a PC with Reflection X, in their latest version they have something you install on Macs but this is commercial product...
I would go using ssh -X but you will have to get your Mac to accept (IPtables ?) then you could try to install if not present rdist or rsync so you have a centralized updating and start to learn shell scripting ( for the choosen tool...)!

we update firefox, adobe, apple software update and Microsoft. We just want to basically launch them all and have them all update after we log into all machines at once under the same username and password

That means update from the net?
You may need also expect utlity then...

well on remote desktop there is a prewritten command to make every computer update software, but there isn't one to make every computer log in as administrator or log in at all.

been a few days i got off work and didn't look at the posts anymore but thread still open, still in need of help!

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forwarding X won't work with native OSX applications, at least not on 10.7. OSX is using Quartz/Aqua window manager and does not like to forward the pretty gui (read: they want you to buy another mac).

I'd try to abandon the gui altogether, and try to accomplish the updates via CL only. Safer, and can be scripted.
Apparently, there is softwareupdate utility that can be run from CL:

Code:

softwareupdate --list

Mac OS X Server: How to remotely install software using the softwareupdate command-line tool

So, once you setup ssh keys, this shouldn't be too hard.

If you need to run some other update rather than built-in update application, it may or may not be possible via CL.

Re using VNC to administer things: just make sure to run VNC through ssh tunnel; VNC (remote desktop) is inherently insecure:

Code:

ssh -N -f -L 8888:server.ip.address:5900 user@server.ip.address
vnc://localhost:8888