leopard migration

I have a similar project planned for the summer. I have already
determined that Casper's unicast imaging is not going to work very well
for us. I am planning on using multicast ASR to deploy the image.

Basically, I have taken my casper image and run "asr -imagescan" on it. Then I am dropping Casper's FirstRun script into it to take care of the
JAMF client service. I haven't tested this in mass, but it seems like its
going to work fine. I'm open other ideas, but we've had problems doing 10
computers at a time with unicast imaging. I want to be able to do 50 to
100.

Chad

Yeah I am looking to do about 50 at a time if I can.

What are your server specs that is unicasting?

Thomas Larkin
TIS Department
KCKPS USD500
tlarki at kckps.org
cell: 913-449-7589
office: 913-627-0351

2 XServe Xeons. 1 to run netboot and serve as the AFP file share. The
other just runs the Jamf database and tomcat. I would guess that unicast
works fairly well for up to around 10 sessions (more if you don't mind
waiting a while). The problem with this is that when your doing all of
these at once, every session is trying to use 1Gb of bandwidth. 10
computers takes you down to 100M per computer.

Chad

I'm on the path of considering this as well. We've been testing Leopard roll-outs and the imaging time is just insane. Configurations just keep getting larger, so a multicast solution really would be what we'd need to look to. Even with spreading the load out around to several XServes to push the files, the imaging times just are too long. It'll be fine for the initial roll-out when we can just let the machines work on them, but down the road, I'm not sure it'll work for on the spot re-imaging without having spares.

I'd be interested to hear from the jamf folks as well on some ideas to this. I also am interested in the Casper netboot image creator. The one that ships with leopard is picky as heck, so I'd love to see the Jamf solution... I remember someone telling me about it but haven't seen software.

Thanks,
John

--
John Wetter
Technology Support Administrator
Technology & Information Services
Hopkins Public Schools
952-988-5373
john_wetter at hopkins.k12.mn.us

use the right size bolts to press the n key.
start netrestore, netinstall whatever at the exact same time on 50 machines at a time.
no problem.
also do it on a seperate segmented network.
if all machines are making the exact same request to afp and all afp reads are from memory not disk things go faster.
did this at hopkins many moons ago.
i wonder if they still do that? respond. you know who you are.

see these photos.
look closely for the bolts!
http://weblogs.hopkins.k12.mn.us/onetoone/wp-content/uploads/laptopimaging.jpg

Siddhartha Chadda
Chief Technology Officer
OLSON
T:612.215.3533
C:612.986.9310
E:schadda at oco.com

I've been working on how I'm going to handle upgrading our small deployment (about 80 machines), and I've come up with utilizing InstaDMG to create the initial base image, and then layering on everything else. The beauty of using the InstaDMG process is that I can then use the base image on PPC and Intel hardware without having to utilize two different images. And, the beauty is that I can use that same exact image to be my NetBoot image.

For those that don't know about InstaDMG, head on over to AFP548.com and start with Josh's discussion on imaging:

http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=ImageCreationRevolution&query=revolution

Then move on to the the webcast held on MacEnterprise.org for InstaDMG:

http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story080414170557450&query=revolution

Or the MacWorld show presentation by Joel Rennich and Josh Wisenbaker:

https://www.macworldencore.com/online/presentation.asp?sessionTypeId=1&trackId=4

If you've already been thru this, I'm sorry for re-posting these links.

I took an InstaDMG created image, mounted it on the desktop of my Leopard server, added the Casper suite to the Applications folder (and took out apps I didn't need), re-saved the image, then re-mounted it and ran it thru the System Image utility in Leopard. I can now NetBoot any machine I want, PPC and Intel, with the one image and use it to re-image using Casper. Now, of course, this is not an automated NetInstall, so it does require the "right size bolts", as Siddhartha mentioned, but it will work. And the image has worked flawlessly on each computer I've installed it on.

A word of advice when it comes to the InstaDMG build train: make sure you utilize the clearReg.pkg script to clear the intro video:

http://www.afp548.com/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic312

I would agree, however, that multi-cast is the preferred method when dealing with that large a number of machines. I would also suggest, as Siddhartha mentioned, if possible get them all on a segmented network. If you can setup a "build room" with a machine running 10.5 Server, a Gigabit switch, and all of your machines, that's the way to go. I have found in the past that doing it this way, even setting up a MacPro or G5 with Leopard Server running on it, I could image 20 machines in about an hour or so.

I'd be interested to see how everyone manages this, and how it goes. I know for me the issue is preserving user content on the machines. The person that was in here before me did not move users to network home folders, so I have to do upgrades one at a time so that I can preserve the user data. That is, until I write the scripts necessary to move the data before using Casper to doing auto-magically. Anyone have any scripts they want to share? :-)

Steve Wood
Director, Information Technology
swood at integerdallas.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6907 | C 940.312.2475