10.8.5 compile vs installESD's this is an installer

[jwojda]

For a while we were doing the installesd compile and then using that as the base OS install. But it seems that we can choose the installESD and select this is an installer option as well. Which is better?

[nkalister]

advantages of using the raw ESD:

• create the recovery partition automatically.
• run the actual OS installation, which guarantees the OS you're laying down is properly customized for the hardware it's being installed onto
• you don't have to take the time to compile the installation- just upload the ESD with casper admin, mark it as an OS installer, and add it to your configurations

the downside of using the raw ESD:

• this is not officially supported by apple, so this method could stop working with any new release
• actually imaging your machines will take longer since the OS installation has to be run rather than doing a block copy of the compiled DMG

[jhbush]

I'm still getting great results with the FileWave Lightning method I use. I get the recovery partition and add any small updates in as well.

[nkalister]

JH- are you using the raw ESD with file wave? I checked that utility out at one point, and it seemed like I could pretty much port my imaging process over to that from casper imaging without many tweaks . . . . been too busy with rolling out mac support in EMEA and APAC to get into details with it . . . .

[jhbush]

I just create a new config and drag the app store installer and a few other packages. I get a nice ASR restore DMG when it's finished. I drag that into the JSS and that becomes by base like what a new machine from Apple would be like, but the basic updates are there as well. The only trick I found is that when I use the DMG for a re-image I must erase the entire drive not just the Macintosh HD.

[tkimpton]

InstaDMG :)

[krichterjr]

@Tim
I just started playing around with InstaDMG and used it to make a 10.8.4 base. I believe I used a older 10.8.x InstallESD with the 10.8.4 combo update in my catalog. Now I'm getting ready to make a base 10.8.5.

My question to you is do you typically keep adding combo updates or do you prefer to # out the older updates and replace the InstallESD with the newest one? Does it matter?

TIA

[tkimpton]

I comment out the updates and just deal with the base OS. I have a Apple Software Update server and a script in Casper to update the machines. Anything else I put in the Imaging workflow. This makes thing a lot easier to make a base build :).

I even make a InstaDMG pkg with the InstallESD.dmg (10.8.5) with a postinstall script to make the OS. This way if I ever get the latest model, then I can just install the pkg and leave it to make it :)

[krichterjr]

Thanks for the info. Always good to know how others are handling things.

[alexjdale]

I can't even get InstaDMG to make an image from my 10.8.5 InstallESD, it keeps failing with various DMG errors at the end. I have no idea why it is failing and the InstaDMG forums have been inactive for around 6 months, where are people going to troubleshoot these days?

Nevermind, found the old bug with the hard-coded mount point that was still hanging around in the code for almost a year, got it working again.