[Casper] Deploy Studio

[Thomas Larkin]

Yup, when I was in the CCA training over this last summer one of the
drills we went through was creating a recovery partition using Casper to
image a machine locally.  It is doable, and casper even hides the
restore partition for you, so no command line wizardry has to happen.

Unfortunately, at this very moment my brain is escaping on the exact
method of how this works.  I need to bust out my Casper bible and look
it up.  It is very possible though I have seen it happen in person

___________________________
Thomas Larkin
TIS Department
KCKPS USD500
tlarki at kckps.org
blackberry:  913-449-7589
office:  913-627-0351



>>> Miles Leacy <miles.leacy at themacadmin.com> 02/05/09 3:12 PM >>>
On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Miles Leacy
<miles.leacy at themacadmin.com>
 wrote:

> Casper is not intended to image without a JSS.
>
> If I had to, I think I could "trick" Casper Imaging into deploying an
image
> without a JSS
>

It has been brought to my attention that while it's true that Casper
isn't
really intended to do imaging without a JSS, there's no need for any
trickery or feature requests if you want to image from an external drive
using Casper.  In fact, I assume it's even supported.

Page 59 of the Casper Suite Documentation describes how to "make all of
your
packages, scripts, printers and configurations available offline for
Casper
Imaging to utilize" in a section titled "Replicating FireWire or USB
Drives".

----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

 Certified System Administrator 10.4
 Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
 Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com




On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Miles Leacy
<miles.leacy at themacadmin.com>wrote:

> Thanks for the vote of confidence.  While I don't claim the title
"Casper
> Trainer", I'll try to answer your question.  I invite anyone from JAMF
to
> correct me if my understanding is flawed.
> Casper is not intended to image without a JSS.
>
> If I had to, I think I could "trick" Casper Imaging into deploying an
image
> without a JSS by pre-caching the necessary packages and scripts onto
my
> external device.  I'd have to experiment a bit to see if I am correct,
but
> my gut feeling is that it would be possible though require doing
things in
> an unsupported way.  Casper Imaging having the built-in and supported
> ability to cache configurations and the contents of a distribution
point
> could certainly be useful.  I'd recommend that anyone who finds it
useful
> contact JAMF with a feature request.
>
> Deploy Studio is free, and it does provide a decent imaging solution
for
> the price.  When used from portable drives, it seems a bit better than
> having a monolithic image deployment.  When used in its server model,
it
> seems to be of only slightly greater utility than using Apple
NetInstall.
>  The difference being that you would have to build and store
> a separate NetInstall image for each "configuration" if you went with
the
> pure Apple solution.
>
> As far as deploying Windows goes, I'm of the opinion that Casper is
the
> "best of breed" solution for deploying and maintaining Macs.  If I
ever
> assumed responsibility for deployment and maintenance of Windows PCs,
I'd
> research the "best of breed" deployment and management utility/suite
for
> Windows.
>
> ----------
> Miles A. Leacy IV
>
>  Certified System Administrator 10.4
>  Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
>  Certified Trainer
> Certified Casper Administrator
> ----------
> voice: 1-347-277-7321
> miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
> www.themacadmin.com
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 10:35 AM, Criss Myers <CMyers at uclan.ac.uk>
wrote:
>
>>  Hi Miles
>>
>>  I think the point Thomas was making was imaging PC clients from a
Mac
>> server, ive downloaded the documentation and installed the DS and for
the
>> mac side it is a very basic imaging and packing deployment product,
but FREE
>> for those >>  As your the Casper Trainer you might be able ti tell me if you can
use
>> casper from a usb/ external drive without any server/network? As i am
only
>> 6months into using capser.
>>
>>  DS can support external drives, you can use scripts, install
packages
>> and image computers and theres even a database of known approved
computers
>> to image as well as a live activity monitor.
>>
>>  On the PC side, it installs a vmlinux pxebooter and alters the dhcp
>> settings, atm i dont have a PC to test with, but from the forums
allows the
>> PC to pxe boot however it doesn't support all NIC's nor necessarily
new or
>> future PC's
>>
>>  I would have thought that maybe in the future with EFI that PC's and
>> windows might start going that way making it easier to preboot them.
>>
>>  The DS does not make a PC image, its just a pxebooter.
>>
>>  You also need DHCP on your mac server as well as cifs or nfs
support.
>>
>>  Criss
>>
>>
>> Criss Myers
>> Senior Customer Support Analyst (Mac Services)
>> Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5
>> LIS Business Support Team
>> Library 301
>> University of Central Lancashire
>> Preston PR1 2HE
>> Ex 5054
>> 01772 895054
>>
>>
>> >>> On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at  9:50 PM, in message <
>> ec2e75ff0902041350k58624731n26266194def6eb4d at mail.gmail.com>, Miles
Leacy
>> <miles.leacy at themacadmin.com> wrote:
>>
>>  I had a cursory look at it a few months ago.
>>
>>
>>   My first impression is that it's an immature product/project.
>>
>>
>>   I can't download the Architecture document from their site (the
link
>> appears to be broken), but if I recall correctly, DeployStudio is
attempting
>> to deliver features found in Casper, NetRestore and Radmind.
>>
>>
>>   I think it's an admirable effort by the project's creators and
>> contributors, however, I'll be sticking with Casper for several
reasons.
>>
>>
>>   Before Casper, I used Radmind and a collection of my own homebrewed
>> shell scripts to handle deployment, software distribution, patch
management
>> and general system maintenance.  Tasks using these technologies are
not very
>> duplicatable in junior staff due to the learning curve.  That means I
have
>> to be around all the time.  That's bad.
>>
>>
>>   If one of my scripts or Radmind doesn't work as expected, I have to
fix
>> it with no support, and I can potentially pull my hair out for days
trying
>> to fix it.  With Casper, I pay for support and get excellent response
times
>> and resolution rates.
>>
>>
>>   I know a constructive criticism was recently made on this list
about
>> the Casper documentation, but this project's documentation is
downright
>> skeletal.
>>
>>   It appears that DeployStudio may have some interesting ideas
regarding
>> PC deployment, but I don't manage PCs, and if I ever need to manage
>> BootCamp, Parallels or VMWare, I can do that through Casper.
>>
>>
>>   If there are any specific compelling features you find in
DeployStudio,
>> I'd be interested to hear about them, and perhaps they can be
presented to
>> JAMF as feature requests.
>>
>>
>> ----------
>> Miles A. Leacy IV
>>
>>  Certified System Administrator 10.4
>>  Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
>>  Certified Trainer
>> Certified Casper Administrator
>> ----------
>> voice: 1-347-277-7321
>> miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
>> www.themacadmin.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   2009/2/4 Thomas Larkin
>>
>> <tlarki at kckps.org>
>>
>>
>>   has anyone looked at this?  While I don't see anything it does that
>>> Casper Doesn't, it does do one really neat thing.   I supports PXE
>>> booting.  So, you can feasibly have PC clients netboot (or PXE boot
as they
>>> call it) to it and image Windows or Linux to them.  This sounds very
>>> interesting for mixed client environments.  While, I have not played
with it
>>> yet, I was curious if anyone on the list has used it with Casper or
what
>>> not.
>>>
>>>
>>>  I mean if I could also use one server technology to image all of
our
>>> Windo>>> do it all.  Casper does have some, unsupported, but working tools to
image
>>> Windows on a Mac.  I have used them and they do work.
>>>
>>>
>>>  I have way too much on my plate to even attempt looking at Deploy
>>> Studio, however, if anyone else has tinkered with it, what are your
>>> thoughts?  I was thinking if possible down the road I may run Deploy
studio
>>> on my Xserves in each building for netboot and imaging the PCs only,
and
>>> then keep Casper for the Macs.  I really like the auto run data and
would
>>> not want to give that up.
>>>
>>>
>>>  *http://www.deploystudio.com/Home.html*
>>>
>>>
>>>  Thoughts?  Experiences?
>>>
>>>
>>>  Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>> ___________________________
>>> Thomas Larkin
>>> TIS Department
>>> KCKPS USD500
>>> tlarki at kckps.org
>>> blackberry:  913-449-7589
>>> office:  913-627-0351
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>