10.8 NetBoot Diskless issues

[GabeShack]

We were having a problem with our SUS on 10.7 not pulling all the updates so we upgraded it to 10.8 and it fixed the SUS issues but now we are having issues with diskless net booting.
Anyone else found this to be an issue as well?

Gabe Shackney
Instructional Technology Specialist
Princeton Public Schools

[MikeF]

What I found after upgrading to 10.8 is none of my 10.7 netboot images would work.I put up a new 10.8 image and it is the only one working. Still looking into this issue but I have seen that. Using it just to start the imaging process. No problems at all with Casper imaging deploying 10.6 and 10.7 images but need the 10.8 to boot from.

[gknacks]

When making a 10.8 nbi today (no previous working diskless .nibs) I came across this page from the University of Utah: http://tinyurl.com/bovg5j7

We used the modified rc.netboot file to force clients to use a RAM disk for the shadow file in our NetBoot.dmg files, then we set the netboot images as diskless in Server Admin. After that we tested a MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro. Each booted diskless to 10.8 from a 10.6.8 NB server without issue.

I suspect the same trick should work for all OS versions based on the info at the link. Not sure why Apple doesn't use a RAM disk by default...

[ImAMacGuy]

i thought you needed the system admin tools for 10.8, which apparently aren't available yet. how are you creating a new nbi?

[rockpapergoat]

if you're running 10.8, system image utility is located under /system/library/coreservices now. it doesn't require a separate admin tools download.

[ImAMacGuy]

Oh. Great! Thank you! I didn't know they were there.

[rockpapergoat]

i don't know if "they," as in "all the server admin tools," are there, but system image utility is.

[gknacks]

You can get to it through one of the menus in Server.app too. The admin tools have been replaced in 10.8 by Server.app or command line tools. Only System Image Utility and Workgroup Manager remain. I miss the admin tools, Server.app in 10.8 isn't horrible but doesn't offer all the same powers the tools did. Maybe in 10.9....

[matt4836]

I setup a brand new Mountain Lion Server created a brand new Mountain Lion NBI with Casper 8.6. Made sure Diskless was selected in Server.app It works perfectly. Perhaps something with your NBI or something during the upgrade? But I can verify it all works with no extra hacks, from a clean install anyways.

[gknacks]

Interesting. You could eject all local storage? The first time I attempted 10.8 was on a clean install on a dev server so there was no upgrade. The shadow file would appear on the server but the client wouldn't use it regardless of how permissions were set.

[matt4836]

Yes, I was able to repartition, erase, and block copy. 10.8 Server (App Store), 10.8 NBI, 8.6 Casper.

There is an option in Server.app to make it diskless. Also make sure your storage settings are correct in the main pane of Netinstall in Server.app

[andyboutte]

I am having this same issue. I have netboots from 10.5 to 10.8 and none of them work diskless running on my 10.8 server.

Has anybody found a solution to this yet?

[rtrouton]

It should be possible to enable them as diskless using the command line:

http://krypted.com/mac-os-x-server/allow-diskless-netboot-from-the-command-line/

[andyboutte]

Just quadruple checked myself....all the NetBoots have diskless enabled.

[justinrummel]

I've had two JumpStarts now where Diskless is not working. The last one we were luck to get resolved because I did the following:

1) uncheck diskless; save
2) stop NetBoot Service
3) check diskless; save
4) start NetBoot Service

It seems like the action of writing some of these config files may not go all the way through on initial configuration.

- Justin

[andyboutte]

I am going to give the RAM disk option a try. Hopefully that will improve performance also.

[Reinstedler]

Running 10.8.2 servers with Suite 8.62 - The RAM Disk netboot mod resolved the issues I had here. Diskless was enabled, however machines would only intermittently allow reimaging of the local disk... any other time, the system mounted netboot as the mount point instead.

[ndudley]

I have applied the RAM Disk mod and it is not resolving my problems. Every time I try to netboot after using the moded rc.netboot file, netboot will not load and will power off the machine. Is anyone else having similar problems?

[ndudley]

I have applied the RAM Disk mod and it is not resolving my problems. Every time I try to netboot after using the moded rc.netboot file, netboot will not load and will power off the machine. Is anyone else having similar problems?

[austed]

NDudley, every time I've seen the computer just power itself off after editing the rc.netboot file was because I made a mistake in the rc.netboot file. I would try running through the rc.netboot file edits again.

[ClassicII]

I would not bother with the mod as diskless boot does work. It does need a little fine tuning but it does work. Normaly its some sort of permission issue or file share issue. Doing what Justin did above or deleting the netbootusers folder and letting server.app recreate it usually does the trick.

[brj]

When you download the rc.netboot file, make sure that the file extension is rc.netboot and not rc.netboot.sh otherwise it will reboot the computer during Netboot. That should fix it.

[kalik4]

Try this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4316?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Manually enable File Sharing for all "netboot" hidden system accounts. Better than having to create a RAM disk...thankfully we managed to avoid that. Previously, 10.7 client and server diskless worked, but 10.8 server and clients (we upgraded both) did not...same server and clients. After that change all was well again. Crazy.

-j

[Joseph_Morris]

I am currently running a 10.8.5 netboot server with a 10.8.5 netboot image. I didn't follow the instructions provided by JAMF to create it. Install OS X on a clean partition, run software update, mount drive on server running 10.8.5, launch System Image Utility from /System/Library/CoreServices/ and create a NetBoot Image. When you drop your NetBoot image into your 10.8.5 Server, simply double-click the image in the NetBoot pane, check the box for Diskless booting, and make sure your Image Index isn't being used by another .nbi file on your network. Works like a charm.

[kalik4]

That's usually the first thing we do, and it didn't work in this instance, so we did the AFP method, which did.