Image Macbook Airs with Macbook Pro

[khurram]

Can we image 11" Macbook Airs with 15" Macbook Pro OS X. We have purchased a latest Macbook Pro and we are rolling out some students macbook Airs so the latest OSX with latest machine configuration we have is Macbook Pro. Would there be any hardware conflicts.

[TA373 · Accepted solution]

Hi Khurram - you might want to peek at this Apple KBase page http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1159 - it lists the OS X builds that shipped with each particular model of hardware.

So long as both machines are capable of running the same build of OS X then you should be able to create a base image from one, and use it on another.

That said, you might want to keep an eye out for things like network port configurations differences - if you captured the base image from one model of hardware and you're deploying it to another, you might bring over some remnants of the original machine's configuration when you deploy the image to the other machine.

You can easily capture the base image with Composer and deploy the resulting .DMG using Disk Utility just to test the base image prior to uploading into Casper Admin and creating an imaging configuration.

Best of luck!

[TA373 · Accepted solution]

Hi Khurram - you might want to peek at this Apple KBase page http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1159 - it lists the OS X builds that shipped with each particular model of hardware.

So long as both machines are capable of running the same build of OS X then you should be able to create a base image from one, and use it on another.

That said, you might want to keep an eye out for things like network port configurations differences - if you captured the base image from one model of hardware and you're deploying it to another, you might bring over some remnants of the original machine's configuration when you deploy the image to the other machine.

You can easily capture the base image with Composer and deploy the resulting .DMG using Disk Utility just to test the base image prior to uploading into Casper Admin and creating an imaging configuration.

Best of luck!

[emily]

If they're new out of the box, why image them? They have the right OSX with them when they ship. Set up an image without the OS and just "image" the software you need (and settings, etc.).

Of course, there is always this too: http://macmule.com/2014/03/06/how-to-create-an-never-booted-os-dmg-using-casper-admin/

[bentoms · Accepted solution]

@emilykausalik thanks for linking to my blog, glad it's helped.

But, if using the JDS then images can't be compiled. With that & as AutoDMG makes the process stupid easy, I'd recommend that from now: https://github.com/MagerValp/AutoDMG

[acdesigntech]

I would suggest taking a dmg of that air and using asr to restore to that model if you need to reimage it ever. Of course this is if space permits and you can sync that much data to other DPs if imaging is done from sites other than your main site.

[pblake]

The latest MacBook Air has a different 10.9.2 build than the MacBooks before it. To use one build you should either makes a new base image from the air or wait for 10.9.3 in a few weeks.

[calum_rmit]

http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/downloading-lion-os-installers-for-your-specific-mac-model/

That process should also allow you to get the hardware specific install ESD which can then be used with AutoDMG.

This would then allow you to solve the problem of needing to re-image a machine.

But I would suggest going the thin-imaging to start with, why remove a perfectly good OS on the machine when you can simply apply packages and scripts to configure it the way you want?

[bthomason]

Do you know if this applies to distributing the Mavericks Installer via Self Service. I downloaded it on an iMac, and mostly MB Airs are updating via Self Service.

[pblake]

@bthomason - Self Service is to update to Mavericks. My comment applies to only the new 2014 MacBook Airs that shipped with a new version of 10.9.2 (13C1021). You cannot use an older base image for those machines. You want to thin image it like @calum_rmit said or wait for 10.9.3.

[khurram]

Thanks guys for your valuable responses. I looked in to this kb http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1159 suggested by @TA373 and found that our macbooks Airs and the latest Pro are not of the same build and the macbooks Airs are older. I also took the image of the new macbook Pro put it on one of the Air and tried a couple of things and didn't find any issues. Finally, I concluded that what is recommended by Apple should be followed. so now I will upgrade the macbook Airs to Mavericks and then after setting desired OS preferences make an image of it using Composer. @emilykausalik is also correct that why imaging out of the box macbooks but our macbooks are refurbished and has Lion which might take layers of updates so better make one Base OSX Mavericks image and follow on the rest.