agarabaghi Posted July 29, 2014 Posted July 29, 2014 So we are a most PC university, but our mac population is growing. We have a mac server with it's own switch that run server app and we use that to deploy images to laptops and desktop that we are deploying. When we do a lab, the same process occurs. We have been looking at a more "networked" solution, something similar to SCCM / MDT / WDS that we use for our windows labs. So couple of questions: Would mac's image over the PXE protocol? Can we have both pc and mac's in the same vlan and expect the machines to communicate to the right server for imaging? Is the basic method, setting up the Server app to DHCP / PXE from our apple server? Thanks!
Norphy Posted July 30, 2014 Posted July 30, 2014 Macs cannot use PXE to boot from your network. However, they do have their own network boot protocol called NetBoot. There is a NetBoot server built into OS X Server. NetBoot and PXE servers can quite happily exist on the same network segment, your Macs and PCs will just find the right one. If you're using multiple VLANs, you will need to put in an IP helper to point at your NetBoot server. The NetBoot server built into OS X is functional but pretty basic. Deploy studio is considered to be one of the best Mac deployment solutions out there and is free as well!
free780 Posted July 30, 2014 Posted July 30, 2014 Presumably you can have the sccm client installed on the Mac. Can it do osd for macs? I know sccm treats macs like devices rather than PCs.
Norphy Posted July 30, 2014 Posted July 30, 2014 The native Microsoft SCCM client for the Mac is extremely limited. It can't do OSD. There is one from Parallels which can but it is expensive. Read my series of blogs on the subject here if you want more information 1
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 So really the simplest way for right now would be to get the mac mini that is in our data center updated with Mavericks, and Server OS X 10.9. Put it on the "lab" vlan where all the macs are and enable netboot? Previously we could build the image for our macs on a machine then use firewire to capture the netrestore image to the server to then deploy it, does that same principle apply?
Norphy Posted July 30, 2014 Posted July 30, 2014 (edited) So really the simplest way for right now would be to get the mac mini that is in our data center updated with Mavericks, and Server OS X 10.9. Put it on the "lab" vlan where all the macs are and enable netboot? That's certainly the simplest way. You don't necessarily have to move it to the same VLAN as your lab but there would need to be an IP helper in your data centre VLAN pointing at the Mac Mini Server's IP address (and a route between the two VLANs obviously). Previously we could build the image for our macs on a machine then use firewire to capture the netrestore image to the server to then deploy it, does that same principle apply? Pretty much, yes. The NetRestore image needs to be an NBI and there is a section inside the OS X Server app which lets you add NBI images to be booted from. I can't tell you exactly how to do it because I don't use it. The process would be, create a "Master" image on a Mac, install all of your software, customisations, default user profile etc. When you're finished, boot the master Mac into Target mode and connect it to another Mac using FireWire or Thunderbolt. Open the System Image Utility (Found at /System/Library/CoreServices) and take an image. You can use the System Image Utility to create a workflow to automatically partition your disks and name your Macs. Once the image has been created, copy it to your Mac server and add it to the NetBoot section in the Server app. /edit The NetInstall part of OS X Server looks pretty self explanatory: Edited July 30, 2014 by Norphy
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 ahh so 1 extra step. We would need to capture the image to another mac and then upload it. Cool. Updating the mac mini now. Ill keep everyone posted.
Norphy Posted July 30, 2014 Posted July 30, 2014 Or you could connect the master Mac to the server Mac and take the image on that. That would eliminate that step. The only reason I don't do that is because the server that hosts my NetRestore image is a) a Windows server and b) In a different physical location
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 yea i dont want the guy making the master images walking into our data center
Norphy Posted July 30, 2014 Posted July 30, 2014 Oh and just for the record, I'm sure you realise this but it's worth mentioning just in case. To boot from a network image you either need to hold the option key when starting the Mac or choose a network boot volume from the Boot Disk preference pane. Just like with a FireWire volume I guess. It looks like this under System Preferences. You may want to set a firmware password to stop people buggering about if you haven't already.
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 yup. thanks! installing 10.9... server osx 10 (v. 3) purchased here we go!
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 so we got the mac server up with osx sever and create just a maverick image from the installer. Im assuming ill have to add an ip-helper line to the vlan that points to the ip of the server?
Norphy Posted July 30, 2014 Posted July 30, 2014 (edited) That's correct, yes. This is what the configuration for the data VLAN looks like for one of our HP switches: vlan 20 name "{VLAN Name}" untagged A1-A24,B1-B24,C1-C24,D1-D3,D5-D24,E1-E24,F1-F24,G13-G17,G21 ip helper-address 10.10.1.14 ip helper-address 10.10.2.14 ip helper-address 10.10.2.30 ip helper-address 10.10.1.218 ip address {x.x.x.x} 255.255.252.0 ip igmp exit We have two DHCP servers, two PXE servers and a NetBoot server. The NetBoot server lives on the same server as one of the PXEs. Edited July 30, 2014 by Norphy
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 ok line added... flashing earth went away, circle globe showed up.... now its the spinning wheel and apple logo..... waitttting....
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 im not seeing anything under "connections" on the server though. I dont have DHCP enabled on the server (don't think i need to)...
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 interface Vlan25 description labs ip address xxx.xx.xx.xx 255.255.254.0 ip helper-address 10.20.1.10 ip helper-address 10.104.0.116 ip helper-address 10.104.0.65 no ip redirects no ip unreachables .116 is our pxe server and .65 is the ip of the mac server running osx server
agarabaghi Posted July 30, 2014 Author Posted July 30, 2014 think i figured it out. removed the host entry from the dns section and it looked like it booted and i was able to restore a mac. testing with a captured image now.
Norphy Posted July 31, 2014 Posted July 31, 2014 http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/47585116.jpg
agarabaghi Posted July 31, 2014 Author Posted July 31, 2014 indeed, just setup deploystudio on it. and working with some workflows. seems like a better way to do stuff ... base os -> packages -> settings ... instead of capturing images from master macs
Norphy Posted July 31, 2014 Posted July 31, 2014 You can set up workflows using the System Image utility too but yes, DeployStudio is considerably more powerful. We were using it until we started using the Parallels SCCM plugin to deploy OS images.
TomPearceGeek Posted August 4, 2014 Posted August 4, 2014 (edited) A Definite +1 for Deploy Studio. I swear by it at our place. It's so flexible and can make life alot easier than using something like CCC or just plain old NetInstall and ARD. Edited August 4, 2014 by TomPearceGeek Autocorrect. Thanks.
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