How to integrate Casper Imaging into startup disk

[sidhu_navdeep]

Hi Folks,

I'm very new to Mac & JAMF Casper world. So please bear with me first of all.

We are using Casper 9.22 at the moment. We are trying to image Mac machines however at this point of time, we don't have Net Boot server up & running to kick off the image from network. So we are thinking to image Macs using startup/boot disk.

I was reading in various documents that Casper Imaging must be part of the startup disk so that it can allow you to select relevant configuration before imaging but unfortunately I don't know how to add Casper Imaging utility into startup/boot disk.

I just want whenever a Mac machine boots from startup/boot disk via USB then Casper Imaging should pop up & ask to select appropriate configuration & then imaging starts.

Is it possible to configure this in Casper? If yes then please help me to get this done else please suggest another appropriate way to do this.

Any help in this regard will be highly appreciable.

Cheers!

[perrycj]

If you boot up to a local distribution point, Casper imaging has to be installed on the root level of that partition. So usually, you have 2 partitions...1 is the OS you boot to and the other is a "Casper" partition which is replicated through casper admin off a workstation mac.

Once replicated, it gets all the package info and acts as a local distribution point for your other partitions OS. You then have to drag the casper apps to the "Casper" partition and then move casper imaging out of the casper folder and onto the root level of that partition. Once it's there, you can launch it and set it to launch automatically once you boot to the OS partition. Hopefully that makes sense. You will also need an active ethernet connection while performing the imaging.

[sidhu_navdeep]

Hi, Thanks for your response however I'm unable to understand the procedure explained by you. Please can you either direct me to a link where a step-by-step instruction is mentioned or paraphrase your statement. I'm really sorry for this :-(

The only part I understood to have active ethernet connection which is very much there. I also want to know which all utilities/applications that I need to use to perform the actions mentioned by you.

[perrycj]

Try this link and see if it helps you...there is a solution near the bottom:

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=1230

[stevewood]

@sidhu_navdeep first of all, welcome to the JAMF community! It can seem a bit overwhelming at first, especially if this is your first foray into the Mac world, but I'm sure you'll catch on right away.

To image your Macs you will need some sort of boot disk since you are not using NetBoot. You can create this boot disk using an external USB drive, a Thunderbolt drive, or even a USB thumb drive if it is large enough. You will want to get the OS loaded on that external drive, configure the OS, patch the OS, and get Casper Imaging installed on that external drive. Once you've done all of that, you can then boot whatever Mac you want to image off of that external drive, run Casper Imaging, and then choose whichever configuration you want to apply to that new Mac.

Hope that helps, or at least gets you started in the right direction.

[sidhu_navdeep]

Hi All,

Thanks to all for your responses. I'm using USB thumb drive. Please can you let me know How do I load OS on the external drive?

As of now, I'm reading below link to create bootable mavericks install drive. Is this the way to load OS on external drive?

http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install-drive.html

[alexjdale]

You can install the OS directly to an external drive by running the installer on your Mac and selecting the USB drive as the target. Then, you can boot it up and do whatever you'd like (copy Casper Imaging to it, for example).

Our USB boot disk creation process is somewhat complicated, since our ultimate goal is creating a ~3GB DMG file that can be restored to an 8GB USB drive and be bootable. It boots straight into the "root" account and Casper Imaging launches automatically, ready to use. We have some other tools and configurations in place for support tasks.

[sidhu_navdeep]

Thanks. Let me please try to install OS on external drive & then I'll install Casper Imaging. So after all this, I'll end up having a external drive with OS, Casper Imaging & other customizations. Will this external drive be bootable or do I need to make any changes to make it bootable?

Another question -

Is it mandatory to setup a root/management user account for automated imaging & configure auto login for this account?

Thanks in anticipation

[bentoms]

Hi @sidhu_navdeep, you don't need root to auto login.

But root is used when using Casper imaging to stop being prompted multiple times for administrator privileges when installing items.

[sidhu_navdeep]

Hi, Thanks for your response bentoms.

I just want minimal user interaction while imaging the Mac. So please suggest what is the best way to achieve this keeping in mind that I'm not using Net Boot server as of now.

Please can you also offer help against my other question asked in my previous reply about making external drive bootable.

Thanks

[stevewood · Accepted solution]

No, you do not need to do anything else to make the drive bootable. Just installing the OS on the external drive will make it bootable.

To make it as minimal as possible, you will want to:

- enable the root user (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528)
- login as the root user and set the root user to automatically login (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14411)
- Open Casper Imaging and set the JSS server address
- set Casper Imaging to launch at login (http://www.macworld.com/article/1166116/how_to_set_applications_to_automatically_launch_at_startup.h...)
- OPTIONAL: if using a JDS server as your distribution point, you will want to open up Safari and navigate to the URL for your JDS. When prompted about the certificate, view and trust the certificate. (An example is here: http://goo.gl/1CpnaZ)

You can then test this by rebooting the machine. It should continue to boot off of the external drive, login as root, and start Casper Imaging.

To tell your Mac to boot from external drive http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1310

Be sure to read thru the Imaging section of the Casper Admin Guide, pages 320 thru 350 (http://goo.gl/KR4RiS)

[elliotjordan]

Hi @stevewood,

I like that idea - "to make it as minimal as possible" - and often find myself removing unnecessary apps from the Applications and Utilities folders to save space. I'm not sure whether this translates into a faster boot experience or not, but what are your thoughts on that?

Elliot

[stevewood]

@elliotjordan when creating a NetBoot Image (NBI) myself and many others on the Nation will shrink down the NBI as much as possible. Typically, removing all but necessary Apps and utilities, clearing out the /Library folders and others, to get as small an NBI as we can. You can read many discussions on JAMF Nation about it:

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=8761

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=847

And I'm sure there are plenty more. It seems the topic comes up at least once or twice a year.

When it comes to USB drives, I don't typically worry about slimming down the system as much, since I'm not having to transfer that boot image across the network like I would with an NBI.

[wmateo]

@elliotjordan][/url welcome to the community. Also while implementing keep in mind that when making your netboot, there is an article here on how to avoid the under 35MB Kernelcache issue....which will drive you crazy if you dont realize what is happening.

read this: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=9836

[sidhu_navdeep]

Hi Steve,

Many thanks for this wonderful information & explaining it very clearly. I'll surely follow the steps mentioned by you & keep you posted.

Thanks again.

[amalloy]

Hi everyone,

I am also trying to implement a solution to image our MBAs with an external thunderbolt drive. I followed the guide from Steve to get the bootable OS on the drive and installed Casper Imaging, enabled root account, set to autologon and autolaunched Imaging. Here is where I am stuck; I want to make that external drive a distribution point so everything can happen locally and not over the wireless. Can this be done or do I need to use TMI form a dedicated laptop?

Thank you in advance

[perrycj]

@amalloy all you have to do is make a 2nd partition on your external drive, drag it into casper admin on the left side bar underneath your configurations and networked distributions and replicate it. Once replicated, that 2nd partition will have an exact copy of the JSS main distribution point in it's current state. Going forward, you just have to replicate every time something new is added to Casper. Hope that helps.

[clifhirtle]

I created an entire other workflow to create restore drives with all the automatic login, Casper Suite install, etc necessary via variety of custom installer packages/scripts.

Keep in mind that if you are imaging off an external drive, you want to run Casper Imaging from the same drive partition that you DP's contents have been replicated to.

I've also found machines images locally off an external drive never actually enroll to the Casper server on first reboot (only when imaging off our central DP). YMMV.

[amalloy]

Thank you @perrycj that seemed to work well although I did hit my next stumbling block. We are an Active Directory shop and I need my machines to join AD during the imaging process which I don't think will work because they are "offline" while imaging. Any thoughts, or am I just better off using TMI where I know that I can successfully bind during the workflow?