Posts

Showing posts from March, 2014

Debugging user and device policies for Chrome OS

Image
If you have used Chrome OS in a school or an enterprise network, you would have noticed how helpful the management piece can be. Using this tool you can quickly setup and deploy policies to make things easier for your users. This is the authoritative source of all policies available on Chrome today. Pay special attention to the "Supported on" section. If it mentions "Google Chrome OS", then the policy is supported on devices and most of them can be set using Admin console UI. There are essentially two different types of policies one can set on Chrome OS. User policies The "user policies" are those policies which can be set for an individual, regardless of which machine they are using Chrome from. A good example of a user policy is the "Screen Lock". An enterprise admin could enforce users to have an idle screen lock enabled automatically to protect internal company data. Similarly, there may be organizations which may want to disable "Brows

Debugging user and device policies for Chrome OS

Image
If you have used Chrome OS in a school or an enterprise network, you would have noticed how helpful the management piece can be. Using this tool you can quickly setup and deploy policies to make things easier for your users. This is the authoritative source of all policies available on Chrome today. Pay special attention to the "Supported on" section. If it mentions "Google Chrome OS", then the policy is supported on devices and most of them can be set using Admin console UI. There are essentially two different types of policies one can set on Chrome OS. User policies The "user policies" are those policies which can be set for an individual, regardless of which machine they are using Chrome from. A good example of a user policy is the "Screen Lock". An enterprise admin could enforce users to have an idle screen lock enabled automatically to protect internal company data. Similarly, there may be organizations which may want to disable "Brows

Getting better over time : Troubleshooting Chrome OS updates

Image
One of the salient features of Chrome OS is its ability to do transparent updates with little or no interaction from the user. This not only ensures the user is always protected, it also improves performance and features over time. If you administer a fleet of chrome devices, I recommend you read  this support  on how to correctly configure this. It goes through all the autoupdate (AU) terminologies and suggests best practices which will help you in long run. How to check if AU is properly working in your network I'll strongly recommend to enable reporting using your admin console. This will allow devices to send its OS version to the reporting engine. Then use the  Admin SDK APIs to generate reports for devices in your domain, grouped by major version. I recommend you write your own scripts, but you can try third party tools like these to understand what the APIs are capable of. If you have lots of different networks, try to generate separate reports for devices in different net

Getting better over time : Troubleshooting Chrome OS updates

Image
One of the salient features of Chrome OS is its ability to do transparent updates with little or no interaction from the user. This not only ensures the user is always protected, it also improves performance and features over time. https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/QtavfiBOv_g&source=uds If you administer a fleet of chrome devices, I recommend you read  this support  on how to correctly configure this. It goes through all the autoupdate (AU) terminologies and suggests best practices which will help you in long run. How to check if AU is properly working in your network I'll strongly recommend to enable reporting using your admin console. This will allow devices to send its OS version to the reporting engine. Then use the  Admin SDK APIs to generate reports for devices in your domain, grouped by major version. I recommend you write your own scripts, but you can try third party tools like these to understand what the APIs are capable of. If you have lots of different networks, t

Putting Chrome OS behind SSL based webfilters

Image
Educational institutions, particularly the K12 are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They are always in search of ways to open up newer technologies to students, but don't want to give up their ability to manage and filter what students can see or do. As a father of two I approve that. While Chrome OS does take security very seriously and tries very hard to discourage "man in the middle attack", it does provide an industry tested feature to allow educators to filter web content for students in its recent version of Chrome OS. To understand how it works in Chrome OS, I'll first explain how the Chrome OS works internally. Chrome OS devices, as most of you already know, has two distinct components. The Chrome browser is what provides most of the UI, but deep inside it also has an operating system built on top of linux. Among other things that OS is responsible for, auto-updates and security are two of the most important.  The web filtering feature which Chrome OS pr

Putting Chrome OS behind SSL based webfilters

Image
Educational institutions, particularly the K12 are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They are always in search of ways to open up newer technologies to students, but don't want to give up their ability to manage and filter what students can see or do. As a father of two I approve that. While Chrome OS does take security very seriously and tries very hard to discourage "man in the middle attack", it does provide an industry tested feature to allow educators to filter web content for students in its recent version of Chrome OS. To understand how it works in Chrome OS, I'll first explain how the Chrome OS works internally. Chrome OS devices, as most of you already know, has two distinct components. The Chrome browser is what provides most of the UI, but deep inside it also has an operating system built on top of linux. Among other things that OS is responsible for, auto-updates and security are two of the most important.  The web filtering feature which Chrome OS pr