Mobile cloning servers and prestage imaging

[fsjjeff]

Hello all,

I'm hoping that somebody can point me in the right direction.

I'm in the process of implementing our new Casper infrastructure, and prepping for our big summer re-imaging project. The first phase of which involves re-imaging all the teacher computers over the next month (before their summer vacations).

Unfortunately, due to time and travel constraints, we have not yet deployed our Casper distribution points (scheduled for this summer, as our district is spread across the Province, and we're upgrading the 20-ish Servers to 10.6 at the same time). As an interim solution, I'm hoping to send our technicians out with "Mobile cloner" laptops configured as described below:

- Install OS X Server 10.5 with all updates. - Gateway setup, with NAT, DHCP, DNS and Firewall services. - NAT'ed network access from Airport to private Ethernet subnet. - Might also try the USB Ethernet dongle, but for now this is working. - Opened firewall completely for testing. - DNS Configured with IP forwarders and sub-dns zone. - ie: forwarding to our AD DNS servers from ad.domain.name - added a cloning.ad.domain.name zone for which mobile server is authoritative. - Created an entry for the mobile server (mobile.cloning.ad.domain.name). - Defined this as the name server for the sub-domain. - Netboot, configured to boot to a Casper Imaging NBI.

- In JSS Setup Utility, I added a New Distribution Point - Entered the *temporary* public IP address of the Airport on the mobile server. - Synced all the packages, scripts, etc from the Master JSS. - Ran the fix permissions and create http link routines.

- In the JSS Web admin, modified the public IP of the mobile cloner to mobile.cloning.ad.domain.name - Configured a Network segment with the 192.168.1.1/24 imaging subnet. - Configured mobile.cloning.ad.domain.name as the default distribution point for this subnet.

At this point, I tested and verified that Netboot, DNS, DHCP, AFP, communication with JSS, and imaging are fully working. In other words, I can plug a client computer into the mobile cloner's subnet, netboot to Casper Imaging, authenticate, choose the Config to image, and specify the distribution point to be mobile.cloning.ad.domain.name, and successfully image the computer from the mobile cloner. So far everything works beautifully. Unfortunately, the next step seems to not work...

- Setup a Pre-Stage configuration for the Mobile cloning Network Segment - Created a Mobile Cloner prestage config... - Enabled - Set dates this is valid - Set to assign names using MAC address - Set limit scope to Network Segments - Set to run automatically. - For Scope I have enabled the Mobile cloner subnet. - And then of course I have specified the install options.

Unfortunately, when I netboot a machine on the mobile subnet, it is not attempting to auto-image them. In fact, I have to manually choose the drive I want to image, mark that I want to delete it, which image, which distribution point, etc.

In summary, everything is working except the pre-stage imaging, so I'm wondering if I have configured something incorrectly, or if this is related to the lack of a stable external IP address / DNS name? Is there a methodology for testing the prestage imaging? A log on why it's not being recognized?

Any ideas / suggestions / info is greatly appreciated, especially since I am rapidly approaching my deadline for beginning this project (by the end of the month).

Thanks in advance,

Jeff Dyck | Analyste de reseaux - Mac OS X
Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie-Britannique (SD 93)
3550 Wellington Street, Annexe B - Port Coquitlam, BC - V3B 3Y5
Tel: 778-284-0902 - Cell: 778-990-7960 - http://support.csf.bc.ca

[stevewood]

Are the machines you are trying to image already in the JSS? I mean, did
you already Recon them and they are part of your inventory?

If that is the case, then a Pre-stage will not work. Pre-stage only works
with machines that are not in inventory, i.e. machines fresh out of the box
from Apple.

To accomplish what you are trying to do with machines that are already in
the JSS, you need to make sure each machine has Autorun data configured. It
is done through the Inventory tab in the JSS and looks much the same as the
Pre-stage windows do. Make sure to check the box:

"Automatically Image this Computer the next time Casper Imaging is launched"

However, you do not want to check the "Skip the 60-120 second" box.

If the machines are not already in inventory, then there is something else
wrong. And, it's 11:30 here and my brain isn't in a good position to try
and troubleshoot that. Sorry. :-)

Hope that helps.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475

[fsjjeff]

So I'm back working on this again (was a long weekend up here in Canada and was preoccupied with other tasks yesterday), and still not having any luck. Since my last message I have done the following:

• Removed my test machines from the JSS inventory based on Steve's comments.

• Configured Pre-Stage Imaging for a regular distribution point / network segment (ie: one with proper DNS name running on an X-Serve that doesn't move) to rule out problems with my Mobile cloning methodology.

• IDeleted and recreated my prestage imaging configs, just to make sure.

• Made sure the "Automatically Image this Computer the next time Casper Imaging is launched" option was turned on for the Pre-Stage config.

Unfortunately I still get no pre-stage imaging happening. The netbooted computer does get the assigned distribution point, so it seems that the network segment is being recognized, just not the prestage config.

Any other ideas? I'm hoping it's something really stupid that I'm missing as a new user.

Also, I'm not getting any Pre-Stage logs - wondering if there is a way to troubleshoot / see logs on Pre-Stage imaging?

Thanks again for any advice offered

Jeff