Deploy Studio with JSS enrollment

[mhatt]

Is there anyone out there using Deploy Studio for netboot imaging and Casper for management?

We are currently looking into going back to Deploy Studio for imaging as we've had major headaches with Casper Imaging (netboot). I thought by putting a base image of an OS made with AutoDMG into Deploy studio then pairing that workflow with a quickadd.pkg would be the solution. However the pkg install keeps failing:

2016-12-20 10:12:22.939 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer: Package name is MACQuickAdd
2016-12-20 10:12:22.939 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer: Installing at base path /Volumes/Macintosh HD
2016-12-20 10:12:22.939 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:PHASE:Preparing for installation…
2016-12-20 10:12:23.006 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:PHASE:Preparing the disk…
2016-12-20 10:12:23.054 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:PHASE:Preparing MACQuickAdd…
2016-12-20 10:12:23.082 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:PHASE:Waiting for other installations to complete…
2016-12-20 10:12:23.588 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:%81.422057
2016-12-20 10:12:23.588 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:PHASE:Running package scripts…
2016-12-20 10:12:24.083 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:%83.471267
2016-12-20 10:12:24.083 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:PHASE:Running package scripts…
2016-12-20 10:12:24.586 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:%85.325652
2016-12-20 10:12:24.586 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:PHASE:Running package scripts…
2016-12-20 10:12:25.086 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:PHASE:Running package scripts…
2016-12-20 10:12:26.095 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer:%97.750000
2016-12-20 10:12:26.095 DeployStudio Runtime.bin[298:16022] installer: The install failed (The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.)

We've tried setting the pkg to install during imaging and upon reboot.

[Look]

It has been a few years since we used Deploy Studio, but it certainly is possible as this is what we used to do, pretty sure we had it set to run the QuickAdd on first boot (or possibly called it with the first boot script).
Curious what issues you are having using Casper Imaging, I ask because once we sorted out the kinks we have found it much better than Deploy Studio.

[millersc]

You do need to Postpone until first boot. DeployStudio when your imaging is running from a NetBoot image. If you install without the postpone, your trying to install on that NetBoot image. AutoDMG is also a good choice. Works very well.

[mm2270]

It should absolutely work when run after the reboot. Its how we primarily do this. We use DeployStudio still for imaging here as well.

Quick question, but are you using a QuickAdd package install built out of Recon.app, or did you grab one downloaded from an enrollment page? It needs to be the former, not the latter. The latter is designed for single use, not for an imaging process.

[CapU]

Curious as to what issues you were having with Casper. I had to work hand in hand with the Infrastructure guys to get the Netbook working. Once it's set up, it's rock solid

[mhatt]

Okay so the problem happened to be with the two 11" Airs I was testing Deploystudio on. They happen to be the only 2 in our school district that for whatever reason when imaged with either Deploystudio or Casper Imaging will not create the JSS management account. I literally have to boot into recovery and use terminal to initiate first time setup to get a local account created. There's no signs of any hardware issues with these, I'm starting to think it's firmware level. Any tips with these guys would be appreciated though!

I didn't expect to get so many mixed signals in regards to Casper Imaging. I'll give some detail on our infrastructure and environment. We have 8 schools with older Mac Pro towers (some mac minis) that are setup as distribution points and Casper netboots. Our main JSS server is included in that bunch which is a newer 2013 Mac Pro. The main issue with netbooting Casper Imaging for us is consistency. The netboot takes much longer to boot than DS and we just can't seem to image as quickly with the same amount of computers. Ideally we'd like to image 10-15 at a time. We're lucky to get 6 booted into Casper Imaging, and efficiently for that matter. It's the same at every site. Speed and Versatility could be overlooked if the program was consistent. Sometimes it will randomly start installing software one by one when it's a compiled configuration. Sometimes it gives us core storage errors, or the computer will just reboot before completing the configuration.

Between the consistency and speed it's the other minor things that just make Casper Imaging not worth it for us. Only one person can use Casper Admin at a time. Compiling a configuration will take hours, and ask for admin credentials 4-5 times throughout the process which unless you're sitting in front of your computer can make the process take even longer. Replication is also another time consuming factor because our techs might go for a few days between using Casper Admin and when they finally do they'll have to replicate whatever changed. I still don't see why there's no option to set a replication frequency.

We're at the point now where we've got our base image in Deploystudio with the quickadd and we're thinking of just bundling the bigger PKGs in line with the quickadd to keep the modular concept that Casper Imaging gives minus the headaches. JSS is fantastic for management after deployment though (no complaints there!).

It's promising to see that a few of you are having great luck with it though. I can't imagine what we're missing..

[millersc]

Just to give you a warm and fuzzy, we are using DSS and JSS to do "thin" imaging. All is done with some customization. We've worked hard to get it where it is now, and each day I find ways to improve, but our Helpdesk can image anything in the field.... start the image and walk away. Having the end user know when they see X screen, the computer is ready.

What AutoDMG did you use to make your OS? What OS did you create for DSS? Which model Air is it? 4,1 or other?

[mhatt]

@millersc That's exactly what we are working on accomplishing with DS. We still want software to be modular and build on top of the base image. Right now we're adding all our pkgs from the JSS into the DS pkgs folder and putting them into a workflow to test.

I don't recall which version of AutoDMG we used but it was the latest we could get at the time to bundle up a 10.11.6 installer. All of our clients are either 13" or 11" 2015 MacBook Airs we just changed them out over the summer.

[millersc]

@mhatt If you want to chat privately about some of our customized stuff and ideas. Find my email on my github link. Always happy to help!

[Look]

On the topic of Casper Imaging:

We no longer use compiled configurations, I just have Casper Imaging install macOS and then all the packages. It sounds somewhat counter intuitive but this seems to actually give reasonable performance with lots of machine, I think it's probably because it breaks the network traffic for each machine up a bit as they work through the various stages of installation. Usually the longest part of the whole process is the OS installation which runs to about 20 minutes on our infrastructure (mostly virtualized Windows gear for JSS and DP's etc...) on SSD machines.
We also for brand new machines juts leave the shipped OS in place so these so imaging is VERY fast for these!
One thing you do need to be aware of with this process is that a lot of .pkg format installers direct from vendors will need to be set to run on reboot.

The issue where you get the packages installing one by one is caused because one of the packages has changed or you have added additional packages to the configuration so the compiled configuration is no longer accurate with what is in Casper Admin.
I agree the.

I agree about slow netboot but this is probably more dependent on how you build your netboot, we use https://macmule.com/projects/autocaspernbi/ and it is reasonably slow to boot as it's an almost full version of macOS, but yeah it can be slow, not sure what hardware our sites are running on but we have imaged hundreds of machines on the same site simultaneously and regularly do 40 or 50 (a couple of classrooms) with no real issues.

If you do want to use Compiled Images then you need to enable and sign in as root on a machine for creatoing them on, if your signed into a machine as root then you will not get prompts for authentication during the compilation process. It might be enough to enable root and authenticate Casper Admin as this, I haven't tried it that way.

The fact only one person can safely use Casper Admin (otherwise you risk losing changes) is by far the most annoying thing about the whole process!! It would be great to be able to have one person putting packages etc... in while another was creating and testing configurations.

[mhatt]

@Look Not using a compiled config seems to make the process take 2-3x longer for us. I can see what you mean by how it might speed things up in certain instances. We just threw a base image of 10.11.6 into Deploystudio and bundled software PKGs in line with that along with the casper quickadd pkg. This accomplishes the same thing you're describing except the DS netboot is much faster and consistent. Not having to log into DS, using a script in the workflow that deletes it out of the JSS before re imaging are all major time savers when imaging hundreds at a time. It's nice that DS has it's own database to, so deleting the computers out of the JSS will not affect computer names at imaging time. We've even been able to export our computer names from JSS and import them into DS. To further optimize our DS workflow we can compile our software PKGs using AutoDMG with a 10.11.6 installer to accomplish a DMG compile without being prompted for admin rights 5 times like in Casper Admin. Overall even if we got Casper Imaging's kinks worked out I still see all the small benefits accumulating and causing DS reign supreme for us.