Is System Image Utility going away with macOS Server?

[nkuhl30]

Hello everyone,

Does anyone know if System Image Utility will be dropped alongside most, if not all, of macOS Server in a future release? (Details: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208312)

I've already setup a Linux VM running NetSUS and that seems to have taken care of NetInstall. I'm just wondering if System Image Utility is goes away at some point, what my options will be for creating NetInstall images.

Thanks in advance.

[blackholemac]

While only Apple can speak for Apple’s plans, “the writing is on the wall”

Functionality is due to be cut from macOS Server (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208312) and iMac Pro doesn’t support NetInstall https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202770

As such I’m not holding hope for the technology in the future with new Mac models. I am hoping replacement provisioning (not imaging) methods come. I speculate that they will likely involve DEP or potentially APFS but sadly I don’t know anything concrete.

[CasperSally]

My feeling from Apple is netinstall and SIU will exist to help get users to 10.13. DEP provisioning is the future beyond that. Who knows what will come with 10.14.

[blackholemac]

@CasperSally I couldn't have said it better. Basically my skunkworks project at the moment is to re-make our JSS to handle Macs using modern management methods. The plan is one last "nuke and pave" to get folks on 10.13.x and do modern provisioning from there. I knew the writing was on the wall. I have rebuilt our "provisioning process" to basically get 10.13 on the box and then use DEP to enroll it and have the JSS take over from there.

I really hope that something cool with snapshots comes out of Apple or at least some way I can restore lab machines to a clean state with minimal mouse clicking/button pushing on the client side. Right now, assuming 10.13 is on the box properly the Apple way through Internet Recovery, even with a properly configured DEP Prestage, I have to choose a keyboard layout, a language, choose whether or not to enable location services and then accept that DEP is going to take over from there. Once I am through those prompts, my JSS takes over with some custom scripts that provision the device and set it for the right groups in the JSS. Any chance you'd have ideas on how to avoid some of those prompts? All but Location Services occur before the prestage ever takes over in the process.

[CasperSally]

hope i'm wrong, but don't hold your breath on consumer facing snapshots coming anytime soon.

[nkuhl30]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm currently not using DEP. How does DEP handle the installation/distribution of 3rd-party applications and their subsequent custom configurations? We have a lot of 3rd-party apps installed on our images and everything works perfectly.

[CasperSally]

@nkuhl30 workflow would be like machine enrolled in DEP gets OS (either from factory or reloaded via netinstall or internet restore), mac restarts and skips whatever welcome screens you have set for it to skip, and automatically gets jamf binary as a result of being DEP enrolled (needs network connection).

Then you can have a script that set to run on the jamf enrollment trigger. This script can do whatever you want. For example, my script starts DEPNotify which is 3rd party tool that shows technicians what is going on (could be used to show users what's going on if you're handing machines right to users), sets date/time/timzone, binds, and installs 3rd party software all using custom jamf policy triggers. DEPnotify alerts technicians when all tasks are complete with a restart prompt.

In an ideal world jamf would implement and support something like depnotify as well as a way to more easily reload macOS.

Note: reloading OS via netinstall (or startosinstall via imagr) takes much longer than you may be used to if you were putting OS down via autodmg created OS in casper imaging.

[nkuhl30]

This is probably not the appropriate venue to raise this question. But, if I understand this correctly, then you'll NEED a management solution like JAMF once Apple drops native support for imaging because DEP can't do it all by itself? Let's assume an IT department doesn't have JAMF, or a similar product. Once imaging is no longer allowed/supported, then what?