Winclone Pro 4.1 Adds Package Based Boot Camp Deployment and Casper Compatibility

[tperfitt]

We just released Winclone Pro 4.1 (http://twocanoes.com/winclone), which adds the ability to create installer packages to deploy a Boot Camp partition. Winclone is a great way to create an image of a Boot Camp partition and deploy it with the Casper Suite. With the package option, you can deploy an image but also have it create the Boot Camp partition based on percentage, size, or if there is an existing partition. Here is what it looks like:

external image link

(UPDATE) I also added a video showing a walkthrough of the package feature: http://twocanoes.com/winclone/support/create-a-boot-camp-installer-with-winclone-pro

(UPDATE 2): Here is a a link to the documentation of the feature: http://twocanoes.com/winclone/support/deploy-boot-camp-as-a-package-using-winclone-pro-4

Once you create a Winclone image in a package, you can then deploy it like you would any other package, and the Boot Camp partition will be created based on the settings when you created the package. This can work great in a self-service portal or in deployment.

Winclone 4.1 also adds in compatibility with the Casper Suite to do Winclone image deployment as you alway have. We have tested Winclone Pro 4.1 with the Casper Suite and it works great. You can now deploy Winclone 4 images just as you would Winclone 3 images. Winclone 4 is also much faster and has a bunch of new features, so check it out if you haven't already.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or need any assistance.

tim perfitt
twocanoes software

[franton]

I'll be testing tomorrow and i'll email with the results I get.

[franton]

Actually Tim, can you provide any kind of timescale for support for Fusion or 3Tb drive macs that use CoreStorage?

[tperfitt]

It works if the boot camp partition exists already. You can have the Casper suite create the partition prior to installing. Do you need the package to create the boot camp partition?

[franton]

Thanks Tim for your quick reply!

First things first, i've just completed a series of successful tests of your .pkg installer from Winclone Pro 4. Very impressed! Partitioned the drive and worked wonderfully. Have not tested on CoreStorage based computers as of yet.

I'm striving for a single click solution because of the mass deployments we're expecting here. Currently our deployment of Windows relies on our 2nd line manually partitioning the hard drive in Disk Utility, then using a Windows WDS install CD to do the work. I'm not going to get into why I consider this major "urghh".

Ideally i'd like a Self Service deployable one click solution regardless of computer and drive technology. Being able to split 50% of the storage to Windows without prompting or data loss would be wonderful ... if possible. I've been unable to achieve this through the limited time i've had to work on it without total data loss.

Currently with your new version of Winclone 4, we're 50% of the way to that goal. We can reliably achieve this on non fusion/3tb hd computers. Very impressed so far!

[tperfitt]

I did some further investigation and there is some good news. There are some semi-undocumented commands for diskutil (meaning that they show help when you call them without options but don't show up in the man page). I just managed to take a standard 3TB Fusion imac, and create a Windows partition similar to the one that boot camp assistant creates. I restored Windows with Winclone and it booted fine. However, the issue is that the commands are semi-undocumented. Would it be worth it to try and test on your end?

[franton]

Happy to help! I've been in contact with TJ already, and I believe you're copied in on the email chain.

(I suspect that Apple is using those commands in Bootcamp Assistant)

[TomDay]

Definitely excited about this! Upgraded from Winclone to Winclone Pro, created my winclone image and then the package as described in your helpful video. Created a Config in Casper Admin, adding this package to it. Boot a test mac and run the config, laptop reboots and The Bootcamp partition is there. Casper Imaging logs don't show any "red" errors. So then I copy the .pkg file to the laptop manually and run it, bypassing Casper, works like a charm. So my question is, what am I missing in Casper?

Thx for any help, Tom

[tperfitt]

Are you having the Casper Suite create the bootcamp partition or are you having the package create the boot camp partition? If you are having casper create the partition, then you have to image both the mac side and the windows side. I suggest just having the config install the package and the package should do the right thing.

[TomDay]

The package creates the partition, not Casper.

[TomDay]

Imaging log file shows below, no errors. "Installing Mid2013AirSysShrunkV1_0.pkg" is the name of the winclone image packaged:
Initializing Imaging Process...
Mounting afp://platinum.sch.org/CasperShare...
Installing Mid2013AirSysShrunkV1_0.pkg...
Installing rEFIt...
Setting computer name to "wg-imac-63"...
Creating /private/etc/jamf.conf...
Creating /usr/sbin/jamf...
Creating Login/Logout Hooks...
Creating jamfHelper...
Ensuring Apple's Setup Assistant does not appear...
Creating First Run Enroll Script...
Creating First Run Post Install Script...
Adding line to Update ByHost Files...
Ensuring system files are hidden...
Unmounting Distribution Point...
Blessing System..

[rhs615]

Hi All,

I'm planning on deploying my first Winclone .pkg today and was wondering if I need to change the target volume within the JSS Policy (https://www.dropbox.com/s/lv0eqr5br4zb1fj/Screenshot%202015-02-10%2013.24.24.png?dl=0) to Volumes/BOOTCAMP or if I want this to run on Macintosh HD.

Thank you,

Randy Shore

[sadamson]

This is great - do you have any updated information from WinClone Pro 5.x and the latest BootCamp solutions?
I've been trying to get this working using the "old" method (https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=399) but cannot get the system to boot from Windows (cannot bless). I'm now trying the package route but would love to see your suggestions/best practices on building a Configuration in Admin for deploying (via a fresh image AND adding the Package to a existing Mac OS machine).
Thank you
Scott Adamson