New Mac Admin Help - Imaging a lot of computers

[Caist]

New(ish) Mac Admin here recently hired at a college. I am needing to re-image about 75 Macs across campus (labs) and am looking for the easiest way to do it. Can I build one machine and image it out to the network, and if so, how is the easiest way to do this?

Thanks so much for all your help!!

[rderewianko]

Here's what I'd do, i'd build out a few pre-stage imagining configs in casper, tie it to the SN of the mac build out a netboot server that boots up to CasperImaging (checkout Auto Casper NBI

Then setup a Policy that auto reboots them to the netboot server, and images them. (i'd have this happen after hours, where network utilization is typically lower)

[bentoms]

@Todrick Using one image across all Macs is not really the done thing anymore.

There are a number of ways to image using the Casper Suite, I've blogged how I do it here

[Chris_Hafner]

There are a great many ways to accomplish this task. Depending on how urgent your need is and what you have access to already will determine the best and most efficient ways to do this. Does your college currently use the Casper Suite? If not, what was used previously?

Like @bentoms said, monolithic imaging is generally, not a popular or efficient way to accomplish this, though it can work. Modular or thin imaging (google search will do) via a management suite like the Casper Suit or varied software title designed to allow you to package software and then distribute them to various machines over the network or via external hard drive (Such as AutoDMG, Packages and DeployStudio) can be used with great effect.

Personally, I believe that the Casper Suite is the way to go, but there's a bit of work to get it setup. It's certainly not hard mind you, but if you need to image 75 computers by Friday, and you don't have the suite, we're going to point you in other directions.

[Caist]

I appreciate everyones help with this. I have a couple months to work on this, so I might be back if I run into any trouble.

Thanks all!

[talkingmoose]

Just making sure... You're using Casper, right? The answers you'll get here will be Casper centric.

Have you completed your JumpStart yet?

[Caist]

Yes I am using Casper.

Not sure what JumpStart is...

[talkingmoose]

@Todrick, as part of your purchase of Casper, JAMF Software requires you also purchase a JumpStart.

A JumpStart is in-depth training to get you up to speed quickly with Casper.
- Two days for OS X, one day for iOS
- Onsite at your organization
- 1:1 training (or one trainer to as many people you want present from your organization)

While you read this on the JAMF Nation website, look for your name in the upper right corner of the page, choose My Support > My Account Team and contact your Account Executive about your JumpStart.

[Caist]

I took over from the last Mac Admin here. So they had purchased that for them. Ill have to get with my supervisor and account rep to see about this for me as well.

But still, helps to have all of your brains to pick :)

[Chris_Hafner]

Agreed! I would got the CCT route. You probably don't need a jump start since you've already got a JSS up and running. In a jump start a JAMF tech fly's out to get your servers up and running while showing you how it all works. It gets you up and going. It might be better to go to a class and learn more than just the super basics. http://www.jamfsoftware.com/training/

See if you can't talk your supervisor into a training pass and then you can hit all the concurrent trainings you can manage in a year. Maybe you could ever get someone else some backup training too! Without sounding like I'm pushing JAMF trainings too much (which I am) I've got to say that I've throughly enjoyed the two that I've done (CCA and CJA). I'm still trying to find a way to squeeze in the CCE.