Images finish but are incomplete

[archimediate]

Hello all! Long time lurker, first time poster.

We are trying to start our imaging process with 10.10.3 for 4500 +/- MacBook Airs this summer but we're running into a problem where our images aren't completing correctly. Our setup is capable of imaging around 30 machines at a time. None of them will actually finish completely and it is inconsistent when it comes to what they are missing.

We've been on call with JAMF support (who are both very understanding and polite) for a total of around 20 hours this week. They are trying everything they can to try and get us going but it hasn't happened yet. I have faith in them but, just in case, I'm reaching out to you guys and gals as well.

[nessts]

My recommendation would be put the minimal stuff you can in your image and see if that works repeatedly, then add pieces one by one until things start acting weird. Make sure you have have your package install order set properly, and things that should install on the live system figured out as well.

[archimediate]

We had some imaged machines that, with only the base image, wouldn't connect to wifi because the profile for the network wouldn't come over but that was about it. When we did it that way, they "mostly" worked.

[CasperSally]

We had this issue last summer with special build of 9.32, JAMF never really got anywhere troubleshooting it. I ended up having to compile everything to get consistent results... that only works if you have lots of time to do it and lots of hard drive space to do the compiling on the server.

Even doing that, once in awhile one of my post image steps didn't complete properly but threw no error (machine wasn't on wifi was only reason we know something didn't work right).

[archimediate]

Sally! You're who I was messaging on reddit! Sorry I never got back to you, this is crazy for us. We didn't have anything close to this bad last year.

[andyinindy]

Use DeployStudio? ;)

[mpermann]

Can you share the details of your setup? For instance, what version of the JSS are you running? Are you using Casper Imaging and NetBooting the systems to be imaged or using target imaging mode?

[archimediate]

@mpermann Sure, we are using 9.65 and we are imaging using NetBoot. We are not able to use target imaging mode because we just spent around $4k on a NetBoot Imaging Station(10gig switch to 10gig server out to 30 machines at a time). :) We are currently recreating the base image and compiling our configuration.

@andyinindy I actually just found out about this today! We have different machines (teacher/IT/student) that need to receive different autorun images. With Casper imaging, when we boot it to the server it detects the scope that it's in and automatically does it for us. With 4500+ machines, that's really handy. We have 0 experience with DeployStudio but I'm still looking at it.

You guys/gals are awesome!

[mpermann]

What version of Mac OS are you using on your netboot set? Is Casper Imaging just putting down a base OS and layering some packages/dmgs on at the first boot or are you doing some other things like creating a new local user account from within Casper Imaging? Can you share a screen shot of your Casper Imaging window? I ran into an issue when testing JSS 9.72 in our test environment. We're currently on 9.63 looking to upgrade soon. As part of our imaging workflow, we have Casper Imaging create a local admin user from the Accounts panel. This was causing the JAMF Helper screen to not appear when in the temporary adobeinstall account. After my TAM added the account creation to his test imaging workflow he experienced the same behavior and filed a defect (D-009159). We are able to work around the issue by not adding the local admin account from Casper Imaging and turning on the Setup Assistant option and creating the account that way. We have been having Casper Imaging add a local admin user at imaging time for over two years over many different versions of the JSS and this is the first time we've run into this issue.

[jhalvorson]

Could it be the issue I discussed here Casper Imaging fails to run the postinstall.sh

Occasionally, the com.jamfsoftware.firstrun.postinstall.plist file that should envoke the postinstall.sh was corrupt. It was most likely to happen on MacBook Air's with USB to Ethernet adapters. But we had seen it on MBP and thunderbolt to Ethernet adapters.

I was beginning to speculate that maybe the reboot was taking place at the moment the com.jamfsoftware.firstrun.postinstall.plist was being created on the device, leading to a corrupt file.

I haven't heard of it happening lately. We are currently at: Netboot server = OS X Server 10.10.3, Server app 4.1 with 10.10.3 (14D136) netboot image w/ Casper Imaging 9.65. JSS Casper Suite version is 9.65

[bentoms]

@archimediate I'm not seeing the post install issues that @jhalvorson mentions, but I think that is due to the way I image. My workflow is blogged here.

There were some issues with 9.65 Imaging, so I wonder if you could try Casper Imaging 9.72?