Best way to make a VM/Parallels Mac image for testing

[ImAMacGuy]

What's the best way to do a VMware/Parrallels image for OS X Testing? The one I was using, I installed 8.7 CS on it and did a recon, however the JSS still shows teh MDM as not capeable (the MDM profiles are downloaded under system prefs) but self service hasn't come down..

What would be the best way to make an image? One that's prejoined to the JSS or one that needs to be manually added? Should I use my base OS image (installESD that's run through casper imaging) or the burn the installesd to a usb stick and do that (which is what I currently used)?

[rtrouton]

If you have NetBoot and VMware Fusion 5.x available, I'd advise booting the VM from your Casper NetBoot set then building the VM like you would a regular Mac. I've been doing this with DeployStudio since VMware's NetBoot support was introduced last summer and it's been hugely valuable for my testing.

In my builds, the Casper agent installs properly and Self Service installs and works properly. Your milage may vary with MDM, as locking and wiping don't seem to work.

I've posted an example build process that leverages DeployStudio here:

https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/building-mac-test-environments-with-vmware-fusion-netbo...

[AVmcclint]

Is there a way to do this with VirtualBox? I can't get VirtualBox to startup from anything other than a specially prepared OS install dmg. The problem is I need to replicate the full imaging process start to finish onto a VM for testing.

[ACousino]

What I do is create a VM with two drives, one with a generic OS X image and another that is empty. I essentially put Casper Imaging on the machine and image the blank drive, then boot to the drive I just imaged. Works well for me.

[AVmcclint]

Thanks @ACousino that worked for me! Too bad VirtualBox considers all Mac guest machines as "experimental" and there's a lot of features missing that you'd find in Parallels and VMWare. I guess that's to be expected for a free product. Beggars can't be choosers.