2-partition Casper solution....?

[themacdweeb]

Hello Happy Casper People!

Out of a dire need to quickly and efficiently upgrade users from one OS to
another (say, leopard to snow leopard), I've decided to research how having
a two-partition scheme can help us all save time and money.

Here's the breakdown I've been testing:

Partition One - System Files and Folders
Partition Two - User folders and Applications

I do a regular OS installation from DVD, then create a second partition. I
copy the "Users" and "Applications" folder over to this new second partition
and then - using symbolic links - I link them back to the main System
partition. This set-up runs smoothly and efficiently... when I create it on
my own. But scripting this solution in Casper has not been easy to figure
out, so I'm calling on all ya'll for some help.

While the Casper Imaging.app allow one to create new partitions on the fly,
it DOESN'T allow you to wipe a drive, create two partitions from scratch and
then apply the images you've uploaded to Casper Admin to each of those new
partitions.

Which begs the question: how can I pull this off?! Best I can tell, I'd have
to:

1) snapshot a base OS image
2) snapshot an Data image comprised of the "applications" and "users"
folders
3) launch casper imaging, apply my base OS image to the existing partition
4) create a second partition using casper imaging
5) apply the Data image to the second partition
6) run a script to create the symlinks necessary to allow the two partitions
to talk to one another

Happy to hear your thoughts. I can't really find any "best practices" notes
of this topic on the KB over at JAMF so if any of you have experience in
this arena, please share your thoughts!

--

David Koff | SysAdmin | ITS | The J. Paul Getty Trust
dkoff at getty.edu | p. 310.440.6266 | f. 310.440.7705 Getty Cell Phone 310.869.8791

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[tlarkin]

David,

There are several ways to accomplish this. First I would have a preflight script that lays down your partitions. Then lay down your image on the primary partition and make two folders on the secondary called /Users and /Applications with a post image script. Then create symbolic links to each folder. You can then move all your applications to the next partition. Actually you want to move them first then create a symbolic link.

I guess you could also make a compiled configuration of your Applications into one image, then set that image to a manual trigger policy and in the post flight have it block copy to your secondary partition.

---

Thomas Larkin
TIS Department
KCKPS USD500
tlarki at kckps.org
blackberry: 913-449-7589
office: 913-627-0351
chown -R us /.base

[robb1068]

Hi David. Is the partition that contains your /User folder tied into Active
Directory at all or are they local?

Robb Gibson
System Engineer - eMMS, Publishing Systems
OfficeMax : 263 Shuman Blvd. : Naperville, IL 60563
(630) 864-5242