Cool.

The $64,000 question: can you replicate this process using High Sierra on the same computers? And will they have HFS+ or APFS?

APFS=RIP imaging?:

http://www.addigy.com/apple-wwdc-completely-changes-managing-macs-apfs-prepared/

@bentoms Now you are just showing off man...I am very eager to see what you have to say in this regard in more detail! Specifically what you have to say because my existing imaging workflow is useless without your product specifically.

P.S. yes, this post was meant to egg you on explicitly because somehow I want to see what you have come up with but I know to some degree you can't show off because of NDA issues.

heh.. yep NDA.. also.. who knows what will happen come 10.13 release?

well...I'll put it to you this way...I am also an Apple Developer so if you wish to point me to login-walled links I'm all for it. Also if you specifically were to "wax philosophic" on the death of imaging perhaps in a post and include some waxing on the greatness of Mac-based DEP, I'm certain I could read into that how I needed to. I already am near fully DEP on the iOS side, but we never did image there.

I am already trying to get us migrated to a full DEP workflow on Macs as well. We had some pesky licensing issues with some of our Mac software that made such a migration ugly. We have since resolved that mostly, but due to summer scheduling, a migration to the new workflow isn't happening this summer. My target for full migration is June-July of 2018. I guess at that point imaging will die to us, but again that's where I like hearing from you and other creators of our imaging workflow where possible. I pride myself on keeping on open mind on such weighty matters.

@blackholemac See this

With that working, AutoCasperNBi just worked...

After some further research...it appears that imaging lives....just perhaps in an updated form.... :)

Sorry was posting on the wrong discussion.

And JAMF even admitted in yesterday's webinar "Why DEP is Replacing Imaging (and Why it's a Good Thing)". Not sure if it's posted on the site yet. The three methods they mention are: DEP, Recovery and Total Nuke and Pave.

While I am still in the process of packaging this new DMG using AutoDMG, I am super excited that I found and bookmarked this post a while back. Kudos to everyone!

UPDATE: It worked, naturally. It's also worth noting that it's imperative to include the newly created DMG with the 16F2073 build in Casper Admin as the DMG used during imaging if you're wiping the macOS device first.

@sepiemoini keep in mind that if you erase the drive on a 2017 MacBook and image with that build then the recovery partition won't be compatible (boots to prohibit when trying to access the Recovery Partition)

@mapurcel have you found a way to get a compatible recovery partition installed with the 2073 build or included with the autoDMG image?
It's interesting that FileVault works even though booting to recovery does not . . .I wonder if that means the only problem is that the board ID for the 2017 MBP's is not included since the 2073 build comes from the 2017 iMac update.
I'm doing an internet recovery on a 2017 13" right now, then going to try to build a recovery partition installer from the installESD that comes down- if that works, then that can be deployed to any 2017 MBPs that get imaged before 10.12.6 comes out and unifies everything again.

@nkalister I did not, we moved to thin imaging, leaving the OS untouched out of the box, until 10.12.6 comes out, good luck

double post!

1. use internet recovery on a 13" or 15" 2017 MBP. Grab the installESD.


2. Download the current Sierra installer from the App Store. Replace the InstallESD.dmg inside with the one from your IR download.


3. Run Mager Valp's create recovery partition installer with the frankenstein'd Sierra app.

That produces a package that can be included in imaging or deployed and will install a recovery HD that will boot all models including the 2017 MBP's.

///

@grepoli that will result in a build with a recovery HD that will not boot the 2017 MBP's like @mapurcel said above. It'll boot to the OS and enable FileVault, but attempting to boot to recovery gives the prohibit sign.

What I had to do was:

• Use Disk Utility to Capture a 10.12.5 image from the never been booted 2017 MacBook Pro (no recovery partition)




• Use AutoCasperNBI to create a bootable USB stick image




• Boot to the USB




• Copy System Image Utility from a 10.12.5 machine to the USB




• Run System Image utility to create a NetRestore Image of the never-been booted Macintosh HD of the 2017 MacBook Pro (16F2073 image that includes the recovery partition) so that any other machines that are imaged can also be encrypted.




• Then take that image and create Netboot and AutoDMG images.

@sepiemoini How were you able to get build 16F2073. I did this and still got the same build 16F73 and it doesn't work with MBP 2017. Any guess?

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@sepiemoini How were you able to get build 16F2073. I did this and still got the same build 16F73 and it doesn't work with MBP 2017. Any guess?

@jeandelgadoc I grabbed the 10.12.5 from here and completed the above steps using AutoDMG. The result of that DMG was a 10.12.5 DMG with the 16F2073 build. Only difference is that I did not opt for the "apply updates" section in AutoDMG but I can't imagine that having an impact on the DMG itself.

@sepiemoini This worked I was able to get 16F2073 build, THANKS! The problem now is that 10.11.4 didn't work on MBP 2017 from Casper Admin. I was able to install that configuration to old MBPs but not new ones. I have the Prohibited Symbol. Any tips on how to install macOS Sierra on Casper Admin?

@jeandelgadoc @sepiemoini If you started with the 16F73 installer, your 2017 MBP's will not boot into the recovery partition with that autoDMG procedure. The recovery HD is not updated and will still be 16F73.