Automating Server Installs

[milesleacy]

This message is in two parts...

For anyone using InstaDMG with the Casper suite, I'd like to hear your
experiences. I like the idea of never having booted my base system before
dropping it. I'm curious as to how deeply we can mesh the InstaDMG concept
& methodology with the Casper tool. It seems that they should be largely
compatible.

Secondly, I'm trying to automate my Mac OS X Server installs. Right now,
I'm just thinking through workflow conceptually.
If I create a Netinstall image from the OS X Server install disc, I'll still
need to get a configuration file to the machine. There's the simple Apple
answer of putting the configuration file on a USB key attached to the
server, but I'm looking for a more automated way that won't require me to
ever see the server, just to know its serial number . I've got Casper, and
I want to rebuild Xserves via my iPhone at a café while on my way to more
interesting things.

One thought I had was to create a traditional image at a point before going
through the server setup, and include the configuration file as
a separate package on top of the image. Theoretically, at first boot, the
system should see a config file present and use it.

If anyone has any ideas, or better yet, proven workflows, I'd love to hear
about them.

Thanks,
Miles

[kalikkalik]

InstaDMG +1 - love it...mostly

Instead of local config files how about creating directory records (for servers)?

-j

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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:16:55 -0400

[#3]

I love InstaDMG, even though I haven’t been over following the development
closely. I do not add a lot to the build train, just the major updates
(10.5.5 for example), the Create User package to create the 501 user, Quick
Add to get the machine into Casper, the Clear Reg to clear the registration
screens, and a home grown package to drop a user picture file. The only
problem I’ve noticed with the image and Casper is that I am having problems
re-naming the machine when imaging it to either a name already in Casper, or
to the MAC or S/N. I have not investigated this yet, and in writing this
I’m questioning the wisdom of adding the Quick Add to the image and not
doing it on restart or something. I’ll have to test that.

On restart after imaging I have a post image script that runs to set some
small things:

# now set the time zone

systemsetup -settimezone America/Chicago

# enable network time

systemsetup -setusingnetworktime on

# set the time server

systemsetup -setnetworktimeserver time.apple.com

# set sleep times

systemsetup -setcomputersleep never

systemsetup -setdisplaysleep 15

# now re-run recon

jamf -recon

# finally, reboot

shutdown -r now

The script does more than that, like add another hidden user, but those are
the relevant parts.

I also use the images built from InstaDMG as NetBoot images. Makes life
very easy.

No ideas on the server side. I’ve never played around with automating a
server build, simply because I don’t have a need to mass build servers.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integerdallas.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475

[milesleacy]

Thanks for that. I'd recommend leaving quick add out of the image. You can
deploy it later, or use the jamf binary to manage the machine (type "jamf
help recon" in the terminal).
Following the modular methodology common to both Casper and InstaDMG, I
would break up your post image script into a number of smaller scripts to
increase modularity. If the DNS name of your timeserver changes, you change
the script that contains that command. If you stop using a timeserver, you
just remove that script from your configuration or InstaDMG imaging folders.

This is just my unsolicited advice, if what you have works for you, there's
nothing wrong with that.