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Restart a remote Mac that is running Filevault 2 | Macminicolo Blog - Tips, tutorials and reviews on running a Mac mini server

Restart a remote Mac that is running Filevault 2

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When Mountain Lion was released, it introduced Filevault 2. Filevault 2 "uses full disk, XTS-AES 128 encryption to help keep your data secure. With FileVault 2 you can encrypt the contents of your entire drive." It's a great way to keep your Mac data safe even if someone has access to the actual hardware of the Mac. 


When a Mac is using Filevault and restarts, it requires a password or recovery key before it will even start the bootup process into OS X. This is great because it's secure, but you run into an issue when restarting a remote Mac. The OS won't come back for you to control the remote Mac unless someone can physically put in the unlock password. But with OS X 10.8.2, you now have an option. 


Mountain Lion 10.8.2 introduced authrestart. If you open terminal and run "fdesetup help" then you will see all the options with filevault. 


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Now, when you need to restart a remote Mac that is running Filevault 2, you will open terminal and type "sudo fdesetup authrestart". After doing this, you'll be prompted for your password. Once entered, the machine will restart and bring you back to the OS login. It's a one time restart. It's a great tool. 


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