Deployment Images in High Sierra

[monaronyc]

Hi Everyone! Trying to get a definitive answer on whether or not we need to scrap the .DMG imaging process we use and move on to something else in High Sierra. Especially when it comes to the Macs we'll receive with this new SSD APFS format. We seem to be okay still with our Fusion Drive iMacs (Thank the Lord above!), but it seems right now any workstation with SSD ONLY needs to be addressed. At least with everything we've read so far on this topic.

Our process is simple. We do the same for all our Macs (5ks, Airs, Pros) prior to HS 10.13. Build the computer to our company specs. Then boot into the recovery partition on that computer and using Disk Utility, highlight the partition, Go under the File menu > New Image > Image from Macintosh HD. Save it to and external drive and then to Restore, same way... Boot into Recovery partition, select the partition, Edit menu > Restore and/or hit the little Restore button at top of DU window and Restore image to selected volume. BAM! IMAGED! WORKS GREAT every time!!!

Now it seems we can no longer follow this process as you can see in the screenshots below. Everything is grayed out now in HS 10.13. The option to Create and the option to Restore, GONE LIKE THE WIND! Any helpful suggestions are highly welcomed!!!

Create New Image:

Restore:

[josa]

http://isimagingdead.com

[monaronyc]

Where's that DIS-LIKE button...

[alexjdale]

"Imaging is dead" ignores the very simple fact that it is significantly faster, easier, and more consistent to wipe and restore a device using bare-metal imaging than it is to do it manually.

I can produce a fully updated Mac with all the apps I need in ~20 minutes with very little interaction, built on an unbooted blank base image with modular installs. Compare that to a technician using a possibly outdated OS installer and maybe not prepping the disk properly. Who knows what state the system will be in when it gets handed to the user.

I don't want my techs to add an hour to a re-provisioning workflow just so I can say "imaging is dead" and make life easier for myself.

[monaronyc]

So then how are you/everyone doing it in High Sierra? SSD APFS? Unless it's just right in front of me and i'm just stupid!?!?

[Asnyder]

I'm not currently running high sierra on my system. I just saw a presentation from an Apple rep. where he claimed that with apfs snapshots you could return to a clean base image within 2 minutes. Unfortunately, I had to leave early and did not have the opportunity to ask him how he managed to do it. He did say that after you do the upgrade from 10.12 to 12.13 you can still image however you want, just like before. It's only that initial jump where you HAVE to run the high sierra installer.

[a_stonham]

See this post on a working solution for imaging High Sierra.

https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/25991/deploying-high-sierra-10-13-with-casper-imaging

[monaronyc]

FYI: I called Apple and they couldn't even explain what or why. Useless!!! They said they would look into it and get back to me. And then we found this:

https://support.apple.com/en-bn/HT202841

[kerouak]

@josa

Someone posted that last week mate, so, I disliked it then, I dislike it still and now I dislike you..

Did you actually think that was funny??

BORE!