Mavericks NetBoot Creation Failing

NowAllTheTime
Contributor III

I've tried to create a Mavericks NetBoot image several times from two separate Macs with System Image Utility and it fails every time. It sees the volume I want to use for the image but it fails with the with a bunch of ditto errors saying "no space left on device" Both Macs have over 500 gigs of free space so I'm assuming it is space on the shell volume it is creating that is the problem, but I don't know how to adjust that. Has anyone else run into this? Any suggestions? I'm kind of stuck because need to build a new NetBoot with Mavericks to support the new MacBook Pros in our environment.

2 REPLIES 2

winningham_2
Contributor

I did the following just today and maybe it is applicable to you:

I took my latest Macintosh computer running 10.9 and booted to recovery mode.

I erased Macintosh HD and then "recovered Mavericks" to that volume. This erased iLife apps more than anything else.

I configured my NetBoot image as I wanted, including adding Casper Imaging.

I captured that NetBoot image using Composer to give myself a DMG.

I used that image within System Utility on my 10.9 box, configured for my tastes, and let it place it in /Library/NetBoot/

I ran sudo hdiutil resize -size 20g /path/to/NetBoot/yourImageName.nbi/NetBoot.dmg to ensure I don't get a "Startup Disk Full" error. My image was <15GB but I expanded 125% just in case. I also made sure I didn't have a space in the imageName.nbi directory as I use JAMF's NetBoot/NetSUS server.

I enabled the image on my NetBoot server, booted to that NetBoot volume, and off I went.

michaelhusar
Contributor II

I am doing the same as winning ham.2
Just used a "create media" USB Stick for the clean install of a Mavericks 9.1 from the AppStore. Then I make my customization: rename the internal HDD so that Casper Imaging can not start to block copy when I test
root as auto-login (since some versions of Casper Imaging liked that); a little Automator to delay the start of Casper Imaging; sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist to stop spotlight
turn of WIFI
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 (thanx to jamf-acticle 7091)
after testing I do also use composer to "shrink" to a .dmg
then the System Image Utility
after that I just check whether the dmg in the .nbi has about 1GB to "breathe" - adjust as above with sudo hdiutil resize -size 10g /path/to/NetBoot/yourImageName.nbi/NetBoot.dmg
then I change the /etc/rc.netboot to that of http://www.macos.utah.edu/documentation/administration/setup_netboot_service_on_mac_os_x_10.6.x_client.x_client/setup_netboot_service_on_mac_os_x_10.6.x_client-diskless_netboot.html at this point again many thanx to franton, brock and everybody who helped me find this and of course the guys who invented it (!) thank you
then I upload to our NETSUS version 2.0
For those using also the NETSUS server: Probable my fault, but I managed to see the following: I uploaded different versions of different netboot-sets to experiment and switches from one to the other with the drop-down menu through webadmin. In my case it did not do the job properly - although I enabled and disabled the service in between - so I had some "not-diskless" netboots that led to crashes. For me it is best to just have one single uploaded netboot-set at once.