[Casper] Automating Server Installs

[Steve Wood]

I love InstaDMG, even though I haven’t been over following the development
closely.  I do not add a lot to the build train, just the major updates
(10.5.5 for example), the Create User package to create the 501 user, Quick
Add to get the machine into Casper, the Clear Reg to clear the registration
screens, and a home grown package to drop a user picture file.  The only
problem I’ve noticed with the image and Casper is that I am having problems
re-naming the machine when imaging it to either a name already in Casper, or
to the MAC or S/N.  I have not investigated this yet, and in writing this
I’m questioning the wisdom of adding the Quick Add to the image and not
doing it on restart or something.  I’ll have to test that.

On restart after imaging I have a post image script that runs to set some
small things:

# now set the time zone

systemsetup -settimezone America/Chicago

# enable network time

systemsetup -setusingnetworktime on

# set the time server

systemsetup -setnetworktimeserver time.apple.com

# set sleep times

systemsetup -setcomputersleep never

systemsetup -setdisplaysleep 15

# now re-run recon

jamf -recon

# finally, reboot

shutdown -r now

The script does more than that, like add another hidden user, but those are
the relevant parts.

I also use the images built from InstaDMG as NetBoot images.  Makes life
very easy.



No ideas on the server side.  I’ve never played around with automating a
server build, simply because I don’t have a need to mass build servers.



Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integerdallas.com

The Integer Group  |  1999 Bryan St.  |  Ste. 1700  |  Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813  |  F 214.758.6901  |  C 940.312.2475



On 10/31/08 2:16 PM, "Miles Leacy" <miles.leacy at themacadmin.com> wrote:

> This message is in two parts...
> 
> For anyone using InstaDMG with the Casper suite, I'd like to hear your
> experiences.  I like the idea of never having booted my base system before
> dropping it.  I'm curious as to how deeply we can mesh the InstaDMG concept &
> methodology with the Casper tool.  It seems that they should be largely
> compatible.
> 
> Secondly, I'm trying to automate my Mac OS X Server installs.  Right now, I'm
> just thinking through workflow conceptually.
> 
> If I create a Netinstall image from the OS X Server install disc, I'll still
> need to get a configuration file to the machine.  There's the simple Apple
> answer of putting the configuration file on a USB key attached to the server,
> but I'm looking for a more automated way that won't require me to ever see the
> server, just to know its serial number .  I've got Casper, and I want to
> rebuild Xserves via my iPhone at a café while on my way to more interesting
> things.
> 
> One thought I had was to create a traditional image at a point before going
> through the server setup, and include the configuration file as a separate
> package on top of the image.  Theoretically, at first boot, the system should
> see a config file present and use it.
> 
> If anyone has any ideas, or better yet, proven workflows, I'd love to hear
> about them.
> 
> Thanks,
> Miles
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Casper mailing list
> Casper at list.jamfsoftware.com
> http://list.jamfsoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/casper



Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integerdallas.com

The Integer Group  |  1999 Bryan St.  |  Ste. 1700  |  Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813  |  F 214.758.6901  |  C 940.312.2475



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