Wither NetInstall Creator?

[donmontalvo]

Can JAMF confirm whether NetInstall Creator works or not? If so, what versions of JSS and OS X are supported?

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/viewProduct.html?id=13

"Record Last Updated: 1/11/13 at 10:41 AM by nick"

PS, hoping this tool doesn't wither and blow away...DeployStudio offers NetInstall capability (runtime), would like to see that capability maintained at JAMF. :)

Don

[stevewood · Accepted solution]

I don't believe NetInstall Creator has worked since 10.6, maybe even before that. JAMF replaced it with an Automator action that I'm sure is here on the site somewhere. Then again, that may have been deprecated too since most of us just use System Image Utility to create our NBIs.

@dwest What problem are you having with creating your NBI?

[activitymonitor · Accepted solution]

@Orleck

Can you please point me towards a resource or how to page on modifying a deploy studio net boot set so I can use it for casper imaging?

It is really simple. Just add Casper Imaging.app to /Applications, edit /etc/rc.install replacing the path to the DS runtime with Casper Imaging and then add the required frameworks. I just rsync /System/Library/Frameworks to my NBI. It is overkill, but the total size is still under 3gb.

Way more interesting would be automating this using BaseSystem.dmg from the recovery partition as the source. Compressed it could be under 1gb.

[nick · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone,

As you may have noticed, we just posted the Casper NetInstall Creator v4.0.

We've also posted the source to our GitHub account. We look forward to working to continue to improve this tool with your support.

Please also note that if you're imaging using a JDS Instance, you'll want to follow the instructions here.

Thanks,

Nick

[nick · Accepted solution]

@donmontalvo @clifhirtle - Just to clarify a bit, the CNIC is a tool that a small group of JAMFs saw the need for and made a collaborative effort to release.

It's not a part of JAMF's core product line, and is released in an Open Source fashion much like the NetSUS appliance. We'll continue to contribute to it, but we also look forward to community contributions like we've had with the NetSUS appliance.

While it likely won't make it into the Casper Suite Administrator's Guide, we do have a KB article that we posted yesterday with a procedure that outlines how to use the CNIC.

I hope this clarifies things a bit.

[Josh_S]

Here's what I use to grab the FileVault encrypted drive number. It will only grab the last Core Storage device, as that is likely the one that is FileVault encrypted. I bundle this with an "are you sure?" script, so I don't know how comfortable I would be blowing away the drive without a confirmation. It's never picked wrong for me, but it's good to keep in mind.

diskident="$(diskutil cs list | awk '/disk[0-9]s/ { print $NF }' | cut -c 1-5 | tail -n 1)"
if [ $(echo "${diskident}" | grep -c 'disk') -eq '0' ]; then
    echo "No FileVault Encrypted Drives. Use Disk Utility instead."
    exit 1
fi

[nick]

@CasperSally - The main reason that script is failing on a NetInstall image and is working fine in a NetBoot image is that NetInstall uses RAM disks for temp space rather than a connection back to the NetBoot server.

This allows more clients to be booted to the NetBoot server simultaneously and makes for a better user experience of using a NetInstall image. It also means that the actual hard disks are typically mounted at a much higher disk identifier, such as /dev/disk20 rather than /dev/disk0.

Scripts run at the "before" priority can still function, but the script you mention would need to be modified slightly to account for the RAM disks that are mounted before the physical hard drive(s).

[wmateo]

@nick maybe I am missing a step here, but I am trying to create image, and getting a consistent error:

7/15/14 12:17:06.067 PM Casper NetInstall Image Creator[41857]: Error 0 4096 for command /usr/bin/defaults write /Library/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/CASPER_NETBOOT/NBImageInfo Architectures -array i386

have you seen this before?

[timdambrosio]

@activitymonitor can you please tell me what the required frameworks are to get casper imaging to launch in a deploy studio net boot set?

Thanks

[calumhunter]

hey @timjd4
have you tried the new version 4.0 of the casper netinstall creator?
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/viewProduct.html?id=13&view=info

[timdambrosio]

@calumhunter, I have but it spat out an 8gb NBI whereas the Deploystudio NBI is <3gb and boots much faster.

[nick]

@wmateo - I have not, but if you attempt to manually run the command listed in the error message, does it work properly? Another thing to try might be a name without an underscore, thought I don't think that would be an issue.

[activitymonitor]

@timjd4

I have never taken the time to figure it out, so I just rsync the whole folder. Still half the size of a traditional netboot image.

[rcorbin]

I tried this CNIC tool today and it worked well. The only thing really was missing was as @johnnasset said it would be great if you could quit imaging and go to a a control panel of sorts with access to Terminal, Disk Utility, Recon, Casper Remote etc.

The image is different from others we have done in the past using System Image Utility. Those come up in Netboot as a Diskless Netboot image. Where with this one Diskless is not checked and says it's a NetInstall.

[charliwest]

I have been going around these posts about netinstall and netboot, and think my brain is melting from it...Netinstall is different to netboot right? So do I use casper netinstall creator to make an image to netboot my macs from to then install a new OS or add loads of packages, or is it as System Image Utility says, it contains an image that just gets dumped on the machine? I am totally confused! :$

[donmontalvo]

NetBoot is just a bootable OS, diskless or not. Log in and you have access to the Desktop.

NetInstall is just booting into OS X Installer.

NetRestore is for dropping images you already created, block copy, onto a target drive.

Looks like JAMF's NetInstall Creator substitutes Casper Imaging for OS X Installer.

I used Mike Bombich's NetRestore application for years, until Apple hired him and rolled it into OS X Server. I had to experiment with all three types listed above to figure out how NetRestore fit into things. :)

HTH
Don

[clifhirtle]

@dwest it can get confusing. @donmontalvo has a good breakdown. Here's another way to draw analogies to what you may know:

Netinstall is to network boot+install what RecoveryHD is to local boot+install: a way to boot off internal drive and install a base OS.

Casper Netinstall Image Creator is to network imaging what your local Casper restore drive is to local imaging: a way to access your full Casper Imaging workflows and restore OS X or an imaging workflow to the Mac's internal drive.

If you are following best practice for modular imaging (core OS + application layers + configuration scripts) you may never use NetRestore, which I have always associated more with mass lab imaging or monolithic image restores (nuke + pave).

[wmateo]

+1 for the Sugestion on adding Utilities such as DiskUtility, Finder, etc. as well as addressing Unlocked FV2 drives

[donmontalvo]

Version 5 is out... :D

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/viewProduct.html?id=13&view=info

[CasperSally]

is there a change log somewhere about what is new in 5?

[bentoms]

@CasperSally AFAIK.. it's 10.10 support & the option to compress the image.

[gskibum]

Hopefully it'll start working again for me. During and shortly after my Jump Start 6 months ago NetInsall Creator was working great. Something changed however that made it utterly broken. I think the cause may have been a VLAN issue or other misconfiguration in my network, all of which have since been worked out. But I've been too busy to test Netinsall Creator again. Hopefully soon I will find time to try again!

[Aufderhaar]

@wmateo we replicated your error Posted 7/15/14 at 11:17

In our case we tried to run Casper NetInstall Image Creator under the account name "Admin". The error: an error occurred while creating nbimageinfo.plist kept coming on for complete unknown reasons.

My colleague suggested to run this application under a different account on OSX: profit!

So there is probably something in the code that doesn't like the application under the account name admin.

I'm not sure if this is the same problem as yours but it sure is something that needs to get fixed in Casper NetInstall Image Creator.

[Fissette101]

I am also getting the nbimageinfo.plist error as well. I tried what wmateo posted by logging in with a different account then admin, but am still getting the same error. Any other thoughts?

[tatiang]

We're also seeing the nbimageinfo.plist error in CNIC 5.0.

I removed spaces from the Image name and that error went away (to be replaced by "An error occurred while optimizing the image").

[nick]

@tatiang - Would you mind sending us your system.log file from around the time when you see this occur? Please send it to your account manager, and they will get it to the appropriate group here at JAMF.

Thanks,

Nick

[Chris_Hafner]

Has anyone had success suing version 5 on 10.10 units? I've had a few early failures but very little time to dig into them. So, just wondering!

[Chris_Hafner]

FYI, Just spoke with a tech from JAMF. It seems that this took only works up to 10.10.3. at the moment.

[nick]

@Chris_Hafner We've posted a new version (6.0) of the Casper NetInstall Image Creator this morning that should resolve any issues you were seeing with creating a 10.10.3 NetInstall image. This release also includes support for OS X El Capitan.

Please let us know if you're still seeing any issues with the tool.

Thanks,

Nick

[Chris_Hafner]

Ahh, I look forward to it. One thing that I've always been super happy about with Casper netInstall Image Creator is how quickly it boots. It's a full minuet quicker than a traditional .NBI! I love having both of these tools in our quiver!