8.62 Distribution Point Replica to External Problem

[michael_ferguso]

I have created a partition on an external drive with a distribution point replica as well as a partition with a bootable OS in case the mac in need of imaging doesn't have a restore partition. I boot into the bootable OS partition that is on the USB drive and launch casper imaging but when I select /Volumes/"Distr Pt Replica" and try to launch an image, I get "You must choose a Distribution Point to install from." message.

I am connecting to my network JSS server so I can see both the network distribution point and can look up the local one on the USB. Is it not working because I'd have to register the USB distribution point under the JSS management settings? Is this even possible?

TLDR: We have a slow network on site, so I want to image the computers with a usb3 or thunderbolt external drive connection rather than over the network or Target mode imaging for Portability's sake. If this isn't possible, it looks like you can boot into the external hd's OSX then use target mode imaging and unmount/remount the internal HD and use Target Mode Imaging from there. This worked for me.

Thanks!

[nkalister]

replicate the DP on the USB stick using casper admin. There are some extra files that need to be in place on an offline DP before Casper Imaging will allow it to be used.
You don't have to erase everything that's on there now, though- Casper admin will just add the needed files to what's there when you replicate the drive.

[clifhirtle]

I have an external USB drive w/two partitions: one for Casper DP replica, the other with boot volume OS files. Saw this issue as well when trying to run Casper Imaging off the boot drive pointing to replica on 2nd partition. The realization was that Casper Imaging had to be run from the same drive/partition as the replica sits on.

[winningham_2]

I am trying to use the same setup as by clifhirtle but have not been as lucky with his trick of moving imaging to the replica volume and running it there. My steps to fail:
1) Boot off external drive volume that has OS X.
2) Once booted up, load Casper Imaging 8.62 from a volume on the external drive that houses the replica.
3) Select the local drive in the Use Distribution Point menu (/Volumes/CASPER)
4) Hit install and get "You mush choose a Distribution Point to install from."
5) DEAD IN THE WATER

Any ideas?

[clifhirtle]

Tim: can you confirm you are running Casper v8.6.2 on both JSS and local applications? Just went through an extended diagnosis on imaging oddness with JAMF support and we think the issue came down to discrepancies between JSS (8.6) and local Casper apps (8.6.2).

Clif

[JPDyson]

Clif's suggestion helped me; I had two partitions on an external drive: one was the replica repo, the other was a bootable OS (which had the Imaging app). I was trying to run Imaging from the bootable partition while choosing the other as the repo, and it failed as described above. Copying the Imaging app to the root of the partition that held the repo resolved the problem.

[clifhirtle]

Great to hear Josh! We struggled with this during our JumpStart as well. Took a couple days before we knew what was happening. Not obvious since you would suspect that Imaging could just point to the specific repository.

[damienbarrett]

Excellent. Thanks for the "fix" on this one, Cliff. Moving Casper Imaging to the root of the local repo fixed this problem. Now...finally time to see how much faster Thunderbolt is than imaging over the network. Vroom!

[TreeMan]

Can you please explain step-by-step how you were able to image with thunderbolt drive?

thank you!

[clifhirtle]

FWIW we actually do not have any TB drives, but I would think the setup would be the same with TB drives. We use traditional Firewire/USB drives with 2 partitions:

1. setup as a replica of the master distribution point w/copy of Casper Imaging on root level of the partition
2. bootable basic image of latest OS with auto-logged in user that launches Casper Imaging off the replica partition on login.

Initial replica drive setup is easy. See p42 of the Casper 8.6 manual, then make sure the copy of Casper Imaging you drop on the root level of the replica partition is pulling from the local HD versus remote DP.

Cliff

[JPDyson]

TreeMan, can you tell us where you're getting stuck? The process doesn't have a lot of steps...

1. Prepare an external drive with two partitions; a bootable OS, and an empty one to be used as a Repository
2. Launch Casper Admin
3. If the empty partition doesn't show up in Casper Admin on the lower left side, drag the icon there from your desktop.
4. Select the external drive in Admin and click Reconcile - It's now a Repository drive (pending the sync)
5. Copy Casper Imaging.app to the root of the Repository drive
6. Boot to the bootable OS on your external
7. Launch Casper Imaging.app from the root of the Repository drive

You can now image the machine directly from the external drive

[TreeMan]

Thank you! I will run through these and If I run into any problems I will let you know shortly.

[TreeMan]

Thank you! I had all but the last step. imaging now from a solid state thunderbolt drive to solid state mac airs and pros! takes anywhere around 1-2 minutes... BLAZING!

Thanks again JPDyson!