Recovery Partition 10.9.4 How to...

[DDeleon]

Hello All,

I'm a super noob and just starting to dip my feet into the wonderful world of JAMF NATION!

is it possible to clone a 10.9.4 recovery partition and if so what are some of the ways you guys like to do this?

also is it possible to roll out the recovery partition to machines that do not have it? if so what are the best practices to do it

thank you

[carlo_anselmi]

Hello and welcome
This should be a good starting point
https://github.com/MagerValp/Create-Recovery-Partition-Installer
Cheers
Carlo

[DDeleon]

OMG, thank you so much !!!

[DDeleon]

So would it also be possible to roll out the recovery partition to machines with no recovery partitions on it?

[stevevalle]

@DDeleon][/url][/url

Hi. This is how I do my configurations with Recovery Partitions.

Mount Recovery Partition

sudo diskutil mount disk0s3

Open Disk Utility & create a new disk image from the RecoveryHD. Once it has been created, do a scan image for restore.

Open Casper Admin, upload the RecoveryHD image and give it a priority of 1.

Create a new configuration. Call it RecoveryHD and add the image to this configuration.

Create another new configuration (or edit an existing) and add a partition for the RecoveryHD. Call it RecoveryHD, give it a size of 1GB and a max percentage of 99%. Choose the RecoveryHD configuration.

Save.

You will also need this script to hide the RecoveryHD. Set the priority to after.

#!/bin/sh
/usr/sbin/diskutil unmount /dev/disk0s3
/usr/sbin/asr adjust -target /dev/disk0s3 -settype Apple_Boot

All machines that are imaged with that configuration will now have the recovery partition.

Hope that helps.

[fabian_ulmrich]

Check this link http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1595829 - pretty slick solution and works. I just extracted all the needed files and tools (dmtest) from the "Lion Recovery Update" as well as from the Mavericks Installer (BaseSystem.dmg and BaseSystem.chunklist), created a new Package via Composer and added a very little postinstall script to the .pkg which looks like this:

#!/bin/bash
# Create Recovery Partition (Mavericks 10.9.4)

# Build Recovery partition
/usr/bin/logger -s -t "Create Recovery Partition" "Building Recovery Partition. Please Wait..."
    /Library/Application Support/JAMF/bin/BaseOS/dmtest ensureRecoveryPartition / /Library/Application Support/JAMF/bin/BaseOS/BaseSystem.dmg 0 0 /Library/Application Support/JAMF/bin/BaseOS/BaseSystem.chunklist

/usr/bin/logger -s -t "Create Recovery Partition" "Rebuilding System Kext Caches"
    /usr/sbin/kextcache -f -u /

exit 0

The new .pkg is set to "Install on boot drive after imaging".

Cheers :)

[DDeleon]

Thank you for all your input. You guys saved my bacon !

[Banks]

Not for nothing, but y'know you can also make images that HAVE recovery partitions...
Allister
@sacrilicious

[DDeleon]

@Banks I do know that, but someone before me rolled out images without the recovery partition. I just wanted to know if you can push out just the partition without reimaging everything.

[mpermann]

@DDeleon, yes you can. Have a look at https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=5934. I used @rtrouton's article to create 10.7 and 10.8 recovery partitions and deploy them via Casper. I have not tried making a 10.9 recovery partition though. Maybe Rich will comment on whether he knows if his procedure will work for 10.9 or not.

[rtrouton]

These days, I'm using MagerValp's tool to create a partition installer:

https://github.com/MagerValp/Create-Recovery-Partition-Installer

[#12]

+1 for MagerValp's Recovery utility. Works really well.

[DDeleon]

@ mpermann @ rtrouton Thank you for pointing me in the right direction !

[#14]

The JAMF-suggested methodology to capture and image Recovery works, but it's convoluted. CRPI and AutoDMG work really, really well in a Casper workflow - been using them at multiple clients for many months.l

[thuluyang]

One more point, you can use recovery partition extension attribute to scope.

[zmbarker]

rtrouton - I tried using the tool. https://github.com/MagerValp/Create-Recovery-Partition-Installer

Everything worked great with the tool, however when I create a self-service for the .pkg to run, I am getting an error.

"Failed to download files from https://jamfserver/software/Packages/RecoveryPartitionInstaller-10.9.5.pkg/index.bom"

Thoughts?

I have been chatting with JAMF support and they want me to change the .pkg into a .dmg, but I would rather try and figure out the issue so I can use the tool.

[rtrouton]

@zmbarker][/url,

What version of Casper are you running? If you're on 8.73, I had a similar sounding issue where Casper would sometimes fail to properly download and install a bundle-style package.

[zmbarker]

@rtrouton,

Running Casper 9.32 on Windows server 2008 R2

[rtrouton]

@zmbarker,

Did you migrate your repo? If you're running 9.32 and have a migrated repo, all bundle-style packages should be automatically compressed into .zip files as part of the process of adding it to your Casper repo via Casper admin.

[zmbarker]

@rtrouton,

I don't know what you are asking by "Migrate your repo?" or how to determine if the "bundle-style" package was compressed into a .zip file?

If you are asking if I migrated everything from 8.x to 9.x when I updated the JSS, I would guess, yes. Jamf support actually did the upgrade via webex.

If you are asking what process I did for the "Recovery Partition".

I downloaded the "Create Recovery Partition Installer" from https://github.com/MagerValp/Create-Recovery-Partition-Installer. I then downloaded the latest 10.9.5 installer from the App Store under my personal apple ID. (I am still working with my bosses to get an organization apple id). I then launch the CRPI and drag/drop the 10.9.5.app file, which in turn spit out the.pkg file. I then opened Casper Admin and drag/drop the .pkg file into Casper Admin. Then saved Casper Admin. Then I went to the web-console for the JSS and created a policy that is configured with the .pkg file to install. I did not add any commands in the "Files and Processes" within the policy. The policy is very basic. No trigger/Run Ongoing/Self-service--Install pkg--Run Inventory Update after completed.

[rtrouton]

@zmbarker,

This is what I'm referring to:

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=327

[zmbarker]

@rtrouton

I have not, but I will do it migrate my stuff today.