Mac Provisioner

[smithk]

I work at a College to where we receive in anywhere between 400 - 2000 systems back after fall then spring semesters. We were using Mac Provisioner to Erase and reload all of our returns to Catalina (T2 chips requiring to first boot using Command, R to get to utilities and then running command line in terminal). Now with Big Sur this does not seem to work. Any other suggestions for mass loading this many returns as running thru Jamf requires logging into all systems then running downloads to Big Sur and running the erase and reinstall commands which I do have setup in Self Service.. just trying to avoid booting and logging in and downloading.

[mahughe]

My understanding for our Apple SE, MP was broken with Big Sur and a new version is in the works.

[pduplissis]

Has a new version of Mac Provisioner to work with Big Sur been released yet?

[user-JWFuPxrOSS]

Has anyone had issues with Mac Provisioner running via terminal in internet recovery? I just downloaded the latest version of MP and created a fresh Catalina USB stick. Everything worked as expected on 1 machine coming from Mojave, but I've tried with several different USB drives and computers running Catalina (launched from terminal via internet recovery), and it consistently locks up on "Preparing to run macOS Installer...". It never proceeds.

[bcrockett]

@pduplissis Happy to announce the release of Mac Provisioner 3.0! Mac Provisioner is a rapid return to service tool for macOS, that provides the ability to quickly erase and install, block-copy restore, or update macOS from an external disk.

[bcrockett]

@smithk, consider the following;

1. Trigger the erase-install script to run a boot via a JAMF policy. Scoped to your 400-2000 computers after you have them back in your possession. Then plug them, in turn, them on, and let them cook.

[brussell]

Has anyone used Mac Provisioner to successfully restore a Catalina image to a Mac that shipped with Big Sur (T2 but not M1)?

[MrRoboto]

Last time I tried downgrading from 11.0 to 10.15 doesn't work, hangs at preparing installer step.

[MrRoboto]

I also found that using MP3 to install 11.0 only works on Macs running 10.15 or 11.0. If running an older OS then MP3 fails to verify network connectivity.

High Sierra & MP3-BigSur = No (network error)
High Sierra & MP3-Catalina = Yes

Mojave & MP3-BigSur = No (network error)
Mojave & MP3-Catalina = Yes

Catalina & MP3-BigSur = Yes
Catalina & MP3-Catalina = Yes

Big Sur & MP3-BigSur = Yes
Big Sur & MP3-Catalina = No (hangs preparing to run installer)

[sdagley]

@MrRoboto Can you try using Disk Utility to erase the SSD (presuming all of your Macs are SSD based) before trying to use MP3 to install 10.15 on an x86 Mac that came with 11.0? You'll need to select Show All Devices under the View menu in Disk Utility to select the SSD to erase.

[brussell]

i actually tried doing as you suggested @sdagley and got the same results (hanging at preparing to run installer)

[sdagley]

@brussell Thanks for the update. Not unexpected, but one can hope.

[MrRoboto]

I tried manually erasing the disk and it didn't work. When running MP3 it gets past the erasing disk step and hangs on the later preparing installer step. Must be incompatible environment similar to the network error.

[frootion]

Somehow I can’t even create a Big Sur startup disk with MP-3. The app gets stucked in various states (while erasing or writing files) but is never finishing the process?

Trying to create the disk on a 11.4 system.

Best,
D.

[gabester]

Ooh I'm going to have to look into this - wish I'd heard about Mac Provisioner sooner!
@brussell Haven't used Mac Provisioner to downgrade 16" T2 MacBook Pros but manually we have to start them up with Big Sur and create the first account somehow, then reboot into Recovery and run Startup Security to reduce to Medium Security the Secure Boot settings and allow booting from External Media. If MP can do that then it will save my organization considerable time! Otherwise, we'll be looking at MDS.

[MrRoboto]

@frootion I found that you have to create the Mac Provisioner USB drive on the same OS version that matches the OS installer being used.

[frootion]

@MrRoboto that’s exactly what I did. Host and installer are both on version 11.4. But thank you for the hint! Maybe any other ideas? I’ve also tried to create the external disk on multiple devices.

[ZakM]

I have noticed that the recovery environment effects if it works or not. As others have noted trying to use a stick to upgrade Mojave to Big Sur, just hangs or gives network errors.

• If booting into Internet Recovery (Cmd + Opt + R) on those machines it will load into a Big Sur upgrade environment and the command works within Terminal
• Same is true if you have a Big Sur computer that needs to be downgraded and originally shipped with Catalina you can hold Shift + Cmd + Opt + R and then use the stick with command in terminal
  • If the computer shipped with an earlier version then likely won't downgrade to Catalina and instead get the issue where it hangs preparing

[MrRoboto]

Is there a new version of Mac Provisioner for Monterey?

[sdagley]

@MrRoboto These may be the droids you're looking for... https://apple.ent.box.com/v/MacProvisioner-4-1

[MrRoboto]

Great, thanks for this. Looks like there is a lot of newer features compared to version 3. Works on Apple Silicon and does upgrades!

[rshepherd]

A little late to the game on this, but I was having trouble using MP to create a Monterey stick, and it seems I just needed the correct/newest version of MP. Thank you very much!

[MrRoboto]

I don't like the new version of MP as the behaviour has changed... When doing a restore it installs components on the existing macOS install. Boots to macOS, login as new service account and auto runs macOS installer.

We ended up moving away from MP and back to MDS (Mac Deploy Stick). It works great, similar to the old version of MP. Also we have a single MDS boot drive with workflows for both Big Sur and Monterey.

[MrRoboto]

What is the current version of Mac Provisioner?

[rshepherd]

4.2.3 was the version given to us by our Apple SE when they visited ~a month ago: 

https://apple.ent.box.com/v/MacProvisioner4-2-3