plock Posted January 31, 2008 Posted January 31, 2008 Afternoon guys and girls! I am currently in the process of building our second iMac image. (V2) Initially I simply installed the OS, added the programs, made some configuration changes and took an image. I would like to know the best things to clear up, once the image is ready for creation. For example when creating a Windows XP PRO image I would tend to clear out the Internet Explorer Temp stuff, Windows Temp directory, run defragmenter, etc, then SysPrep. What MAC OS X tools/tips would you recommend? Thanks for your time!
Domino Posted January 31, 2008 Posted January 31, 2008 run the full list of tasks in MacJanitor (google it for downloads) it runs the system cleanup tasks that run daily,weekly and monthly 1
mac_shinobi Posted January 31, 2008 Posted January 31, 2008 what are you using or doing to image your imac?
plock Posted January 31, 2008 Author Posted January 31, 2008 I have an 'Admin' Mac. I have split the drive into two partitions. The 'Deploy Boot' partition is a clean OS X install so I can boot and create the DMG file. This is because you cannot create images from Active Partitions. Upload the DMG file to my OS X Server, hosting it via System Image Utility and deploying via 'Server Admin' > 'NetBoot'. Network Boot the client and let the image download! Not the quickest solution, but I’m a fairly new to the Mac OS.
Rozzer Posted January 31, 2008 Posted January 31, 2008 (edited) I would also be tempted to use monolingual but make sure you do not delete the architectures made that mistake and could not run any roseta products. Also another handy tool is OnyX its very handy to clear all the junk of the hard drive Ross Edited January 31, 2008 by Rozzer 1
Rozzer Posted January 31, 2008 Posted January 31, 2008 I have an 'Admin' Mac. I have split the drive into two partitions. The 'Deploy Boot' partition is a clean OS X install so I can boot and create the DMG file. This is because you cannot create images from Active Partitions. Upload the DMG file to my OS X Server, hosting it via System Image Utility and deploying via 'Server Admin' > 'NetBoot'. Network Boot the client and let the image download! Not the quickest solution, but I’m a fairly new to the Mac OS. You could always use Netrestore and make a net install set without preference sets. Then you can use tools like disk utility and you can select the images from the resource folder to image. Its quicker than using netboot. Ross 1
plock Posted January 31, 2008 Author Posted January 31, 2008 Thanks Ross, Do you have any reference guides on doing this?
Rozzer Posted January 31, 2008 Posted January 31, 2008 Thanks Ross, Do you have any reference guides on doing this? I will put something together and put it up tomorrow.
Rozzer Posted February 1, 2008 Posted February 1, 2008 http://www.edugeek.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15175 Enjoy
plock Posted March 5, 2008 Author Posted March 5, 2008 Sorry to drag this up again - finally after creating the image, ensuring it's below 50GB enabling and deploying, all went well. However, the client connects to the server pulls the Network Install down, begins the install wizard and then says successfully installed, reboots and the client computer has the same environment as before, thus not pulling the new image down. Anyone seen this, know where I'm going wrong? Cheers!
Rozzer Posted March 6, 2008 Posted March 6, 2008 Sorry to drag this up again - finally after creating the image, ensuring it's below 50GB enabling and deploying, all went well. However, the client connects to the server pulls the Network Install down, begins the install wizard and then says successfully installed, reboots and the client computer has the same environment as before, thus not pulling the new image down. Anyone seen this, know where I'm going wrong? Cheers! How many are you imaging at one time?
plock Posted March 6, 2008 Author Posted March 6, 2008 Just trying to push it out to one client at the moment. Will be imaging 20 of them in the end.
torledo Posted March 6, 2008 Posted March 6, 2008 (edited) Just trying to push it out to one client at the moment. Will be imaging 20 of them in the end. Jeez, i haven't used network install in ages, but from what i remeber there maybe two things you check; 1) is the old image still on the network install server ?, it could be that it is still setup as the default network install image instead of the new image you've created...if you haven't done so already, you should check the netboot service and the startup disk on the client to see which image the client is pulling down... 2) secondly, i'm sure there was an option to erase and install or format and install when creating the network install image in SIU, which means the client does a fresh installation and not an upgrade install. I could be wrong on that one though.... so i think one of two things is happening, the wrong image is being pulled down or it's doing an upgrade install....i remeber having one or two problems when i first started using network install, whereby the client would boot from the network but the installation process would complete very quickly. You're not noticing that behaviour by any chance ? btw in terms of the environment, normally i just ensure the byhost prefrences are checked in SIU, and i always image from a clean machine, with no internet history. Edited March 6, 2008 by torledo
plock Posted March 6, 2008 Author Posted March 6, 2008 @torledo - thanks for your feedback, everything you stated is fine. Have deleted old image, ensured that new image is default and enabled. Have checked the NetBoot service too! Have also erase disk ticked. Yeah installation begins, completes quickly and then says successfully installed, and reboots.
torledo Posted March 6, 2008 Posted March 6, 2008 [quote=plock;164663 Yeah installation begins, completes quickly and then says successfully installed, and reboots. paul - there's a problem with you're image....start image creation process again.
plock Posted March 6, 2008 Author Posted March 6, 2008 Thanks torledo - have tried that too... I've taken the image from the Mac again too...
torledo Posted March 6, 2008 Posted March 6, 2008 Thanks torledo - have tried that too... I've taken the image from the Mac again too... don't really know what else to say paul, we had the exact same problem as you when we first began to roll out network install image to imac G5 clients.....we went through every possible scenario, what i would do is isolate a mac client or two onto a single switch with a osx server, don't use the server you 're using at the moment, set up a test server at the same update level e.g 10.4.10 and setup purely as a netboot server - no other services, and create the image and attempt rollout to one or two clients.... i lost count of the number of times i deleted the image folders and stopped and restarted our netboot server, it's a moody sob at the best of times.
plock Posted March 6, 2008 Author Posted March 6, 2008 Thanks for your input toreldo - every little helps!
torledo Posted March 6, 2008 Posted March 6, 2008 Thanks for your input toreldo - every little helps! good luck with sorting it out....that's a day and a half out of you're life you'll never get back ;-)
GrumbleDook Posted March 6, 2008 Posted March 6, 2008 I found that I had a duff 3COM switch that allowed to net boot but dropped all packets when it came to the install so it did a fsck and rebooted instead.
plock Posted March 6, 2008 Author Posted March 6, 2008 Have tried two switches (Cisco Catalyst 3560's series POE) two differnt ones.
kingswood Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 Have tried two switches (Cisco Catalyst 3560's series POE) two differnt ones. Try the idea on this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1241454&tstart=0 Hope that helps, Paul
torledo Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 Try the idea on this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1241454&tstart=0 Hope that helps, Paul i think you are right kingswood. I remember getting libz error when i was having the exact same problem to the one Paul is experiencing..... but that issue, SIU related, i noticed well over a year ago with osx 10.4 on ppc machines. I'm amazed it's still a problem and hasn't been patched.
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