Imaging: where to start?

[powellbc]

We are new to the Casper suite and have not yet completed our Jump Start. In the meantime we are trying to kick the tires and most of the things you can do with Casper are straightforward, but imaging is confounding me. Here are our needs:

1) Deploystudio style on demand imaging. I am not sure how to even create a netboot set in a fashion similar to Deploystudio.

2) Scheduled imaging of computers in labs, etc. initiated by an Admin from a remote console.

I have downloaded the resource kit and looked at the documentation (including the quickstart) but the sense I get is there is no good end to end description of how to accomplish either of these tasks. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[dpertschi]

Search this site and you'll find all the info you need on both accounts.
These articles are a good start:

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=63
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=64
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=173

[pat_best]

What Os's are you deploying? if you are deploying any 10.5 or 10.6 machines, the netinstall creator in the resource kit is super easy to use.

As for scheduled imaging, that process is very straight forward to set up with a policy that sets the boot disk to a netinstall image, time, date, then reboot. You back that up with stored autorun information and voila! You now have a lab that will set it's own startup disk, reboot every Friday at 8 pm, image itself with anything you specify, and if you script the flushing of policies, the machines will get everything that has been staged for the groups they reside in policy-wise.

If you would like to have it initiated by an admin instead of running on a schedule (or both), the process looks very similar, but instead of a policy you would apply the process to the lab using Casper Remote.

Hope this helps!

Welcome to the community! Come on in, the water is great!

[powellbc]

I am trying to use the netinstall creator to create a 10.7.3 based netboot set, but on my server it hangs. I have run it on a client OS and the image output is ~15GB! What am I doing wrong?

[Chris_Hafner]

Your jumpstart will help a lot... so will a CCA. However, the documentation is quite good from JAMF, though you must follow it closely.

Now, on to your nbi question. How EXACTLY are you attempting to create the image through netisntall and from what did you make the original image. There are some basic, but important differences when making Lion nbi's.

[powellbc]

I installed Lion onto a blank HDD, ran all updates, configured as directed to in https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=63, and then captured the image using the Casper Netinstall creator.

Also, I want to thank everyone for their responses. This is a great forum.

[Chris_Hafner]

Try capturing the image with Composer and then using *System Image Utility with the Casper NetBoot Automator action to make the nbi.

*Significant edit here!

[pbenham]

If you read the Casper Netinstall Image Creator.pdf that is in the Resource Kit you will see that it is designed to work on OS X 10.4 - OS X 10.6 (not OS X 10.7 - Lion):

This tool currently supports OS packages created on the following platforms: Mac OS 10.4.x image created on PPC hardware running Casper 5.x and earlier Mac OS 10.4.x image created on Intel hardware running Casper 5.x and earlier Mac OS 10.5.x image created on PPC hardware Mac OS 10.5.x image created on Intel hardware Mac OS 10.6.x image created on Intel hardware

[Chris_Hafner]

Ahh... you're correct. I've actually slapped my forehead! I mean System Image Utility with the Casper NetBoot Automator action! Wow, sorry about that!

P.S. Read the instructions very carefully with the automator action. These actions you may have already performed if you were following older directions.

[powellbc]

I just used Composer to build a DMG of my clean Lion install. Now the image is 42GB! The install is only showing ~15GB used.

My question still stands: How do I get started with Lion imaging using netboot and Casper?

This is pretty frustrating as everything else in the suite is great and easy to use, but automated imaging seems like a mess to get going, especially compared to DeployStudio.

EDIT: I ran Composer again and the file is now a reasonable 4.4GB. Only change was I saved it to another location. Odd.

[stevewood]

In reality the two sections of that article (http://bit.ly/ISdIMj) should be viewed as one. The first part, creating the minimal OS, is just the beginning. Once you have that minimal OS you should then follow the steps in the bottom part of the page to create the root user, add Casper Imaging, and make sure the system logs in and starts Casper Imaging on boot up.

I followed the instructions, setting up a machine with a minimal install of 10.7.3 (removed apps from Applications folder that do not need to be there), enabled the root user, logged in as root, enabled auto login for root, set the computer name, added Casper Imaging, added CI to the startup items, reboot to test, and then finally booted off of an external drive to capture that OS image via Composer. After all of that I had a 5 GB image.

Once I had that 5GB image, I ran Apple's System Image Utility (SIU) and used the Casper Automator action that is part of the latest Resource Kit to create the NetBoot image. That NBI folder is about 7.8GB in size.

What is the size of your Minimal OS Image after configuring the root user and adding Casper Imaging?

What is the size of your NBI folder after running through SIU?

[powellbc]

Chris, do you mean these steps:

1. Capture Thin image

2. Use Netinstall Creator

3. Run the automator action

Just want to verify that what I listed as 2 and 3 are in fact separate steps.

Steve,

I was under the impression that the automator action took care of all the times in part 2 of the article (create root user, add Casper Imaging.app, etc.). Is that not the case?

Thanks everyone for their help!

[stevewood]

You do not use the NetInstall Creator from the Resource Kit if you are creating a Lion image. NetInstall Create only works with 10.6 and below.

To create a 10.7 image you will need to use Apple's System Image Utility with the Casper Automator Action that is included in the latest Resource Kit.

[edit]
So your steps would be:

1. Capture thin image
2. Use SIU with Automator Action to create NBI

[powellbc]

I am doing the following in the SIU workflow:

1. Selecting mounted thin image
2. Creating Netboot image
3. Running Configure Casper for netboot

Am I finally on the right track?

[stevewood · Accepted solution]

Yes, you are on the right track. Although steps 2 and 3 are the same.

In SIU after selecting the OS image to use to create the NBI, you click the Customize button at the bottom which then opens the Automator interface. Add Configure Casper for Netboot to the bottom of the build workflow.

If you follow the directions in the "Casper Netboot Automator Action" PDF that comes in the Resource Kit, you'll be fine.

[powellbc]

Thanks!

Some of my confusion is over just what the automator action does. The description (to me) makes it sound like it is adding the Casper automator app to the image. Hence some of my confusion about this process.

[stevewood]

To be honest, I'm not even 100% certain you have to us the Automator action after thinking about it. I believe the action does put the Casper Imaging app into the NetBoot.

So, running the Automator action might be redundant. You might be able to simply create an NBI from the minimal OS image without using the Automator action.

I used the action myself, and it works fine.

[mm2270]

in most cases when i've created a Lion Netboot image for use with Casper Imaging, I just did it manually, installing a minimal base OS on my latest & greatest piece of hardware, installing all updates, enabling the root user, copying over the Casper Imaging.app, logging in as root, launching Casper Imaging and setting the prefs, (optionally) adding a custom desktop background, set the root account to 'auto login' and finally, setting Casper Imaging to open as a login item.
i then captured that in Composer and ran it through SIU to make my final NBI.
I'm not really clear what the Automator action does, if anything, outside of some of those steps. Back under 10.6 though, I used to use the NetInstall Creator, which was handy since it did a lot of those above steps for you.

Edit: Mixed in the middle of those steps which I didn't list was removing as much fluff from the OS as possible without breaking it, extra apps, language localizations, desktop images, screensavers, etc. Basically anything that is not strictly required for the OS to function. Under Lion, its harder to get a really slim image than it was under 10.6 and lower. Each new OS from Apple gets bigger and bigger on disk.

[powellbc]

In my experience the automator action is not doing any of the actions it is supposed to. It certainly did not add any of those things to the image I tested yesterday (10.7.3 FWIW). I guess I will just be doing it manually.

[tlarkin]

in most cases when i've created a Lion Netboot image for use with Casper Imaging, I just did it manually, installing a minimal base OS on my latest & greatest piece of hardware, installing all updates, enabling the root user, copying over the Casper Imaging.app, logging in as root, launching Casper Imaging and setting the prefs, (optionally) adding a custom desktop background, set the root account to 'auto login' and finally, setting Casper Imaging to open as a login item. i then captured that in Composer and ran it through SIU to make my final NBI. I'm not really clear what the Automator action does, if anything, outside of some of those steps. Back under 10.6 though, I used to use the NetInstall Creator, which was handy since it did a lot of those above steps for you. Edit: Mixed in the middle of those steps which I didn't list was removing as much fluff from the OS as possible without breaking it, extra apps, language localizations, desktop images, screensavers, etc. Basically anything that is not strictly required for the OS to function. Under Lion, its harder to get a really slim image than it was under 10.6 and lower. Each new OS from Apple gets bigger and bigger on disk.

Going out and performing Jump Starts with our customer base, I am finding more and more this is requested. So, when I am onsite and the customer expresses a need for a thinned out netboot image I just create it manually. It doesn't take too long and it is something we can kick off in background while we work on other things. Here is the basic work flow:

1) Install Lion base, or grab a new out-of-the-box Mac on the newest hardware available. Then run software update.

2) Manually enable the root account, set it to auto login and set the newest version of Casper Imaging to launch at login for Root.

3) Launch Casper imaging and make sure it connects to the JSS

4) Remove all uneeded apps. Most of the time we delete everything but Casper Imaging, Terminal, Disk Utility, and Safari from the Apps and Utilities folders. This varies by customer request/need.

5) Reboot machine to ensure auto login works to the root user and it automatically launches Casper.

6) Target disk mode boot over Thunderbolt to a machine running the server tools

7) Use server tools to create the netboot image, on the target disk mode booted Mac.

8) Setup the NetSUS appliance and drop our NBI we just created and then test.

This is a pretty common request. Almost all of my customers I have gone out onsite to help get them going have almost always requested a thin netboot image. This is the work flow we have come up with. Obviously there are some down sides to this, like there are a lack of apps. So, if you want to run tools like Disk Warrior or Apple Diagnostics over Netboot you would have to include those.

This has worked for me with minimal issues so far, and the customers have been happy on how it works.

Now on the flip side, if you are new Mac deployment you can look at thin imaging, and thunderbolt target disk mode imaging is ridiculous fast. I can image a Mac over thunderbolt faster than the same Mac can Netboot sometimes.

So really looking at imaging solutions you have several very viable and very great solutions. You will just have to pick out which solution works best for your environment and what solution is best for your work versus reward. I have seen deployments where the monolithic approach is actually the best, while other deployments the modular imaging approach seems most efficient. For new Mac deployments that are getting them out of the box, I think thin imaging is a great and viable solution, but other solutions can definitely work.

So, you just got to factor everything in and pick your best solution that would work for you. It is like choosing your own adventure!

Thanks,
Tom

[mm2270]

@Tom - yeah, that's pretty much the method I've followed now for some time and seems to work pretty well.
In addition to the Application and Utilities folders clean up, I also target some of the following locations for cleaning or outright deletion, which can also eat up disk space:

/Library/Automator
/Library/Desktop Pictures
/Library/Dictionaries (308 MB on my 10.7 system)
/Library/Documentation (I may not remove everything here, depending)
/Library/Image Capture
/Library/Printers (why have all those printer drivers in a Netboot system?)
/Library/User Pictures

For me, my Netboot environment is for imaging ONLY, and not a full functioning OS to be used by anyone, except for the occasional browsing session to quickly look something up. Otherwise, I want it to be a simple as possible.

I sometimes also look around in /System/Library and may remove a few select items there, though I generally leave /System alone as there have been times I've been a bit too, shall I say, overzealous in deleting items and broken the OS. :)