[Casper] Casper 7.1 OS Image Building

[Don Montalvo]

Steve Wood <swood at integer.com> wrote:

> Okay, I thought I heard that Casper 7.1 allowed for a "build train"  
> like
> InstaDMG uses for building OS install images.  I know I heard Josh
> Wisenbaker mention it Tuesday at an Apple Enterprise event here in  
> Dallas,
> however I am having a difficult time figuring out how it works.
>
> Does anyone know how to use this feature in Casper 7?
>
> I thought the process was to add the DVD image of your OS, whether the
> Retail DVD or a Drop In box DVD that comes with machines, into  
> Casper Admin
> and then build a configuration.  However, that didn't work for me.
>
> I'm looking for the same functionality of InstaDMG.
>
> Anyone?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Steve Wood
> Director of IT
> swood at integer.com

Hi Steve,

First, thanks for your recent demo of Casper at your office in Dallas.  
It was comforting to see InstaDMG working along side Casper. You  
demonstrated reimaging a Mac, where the process included automagically  
layering on CS4 (Adobe's Silent Install). The time and effort are  
greatly appreciated. If there are any other shops in the Dallas (DFW)  
area, I'd love to see how you're using it in your environment  
(breakfast or lunch is on me!). :)

I'm heading to west coast to meet our front end guys who bought Casper  
for this client to review the strategy for this client. I'm holding to  
my InstaDMG workflow until Casper's imaging toolset achieves feature  
parity. InstaDMG has a workflow that satisfies a lot of the process  
requirements for us. Hopefully that'll be soon, since I have to ramp  
up for image production for all our clients from here at our back  
office location. JAMF are helping us to develop a strategy for multi- 
tiered support model.

In conversations with some Casper and InstaDMG users, the consensus  
was that Casper Imaging and even Apple's System Image Utility in 10.6  
are not yet at the level of the InstaDMG workflow. Hopefully JAMF will  
add in all the InstaDMG flexibility and controls, so we can lay  
InstaDMG down to rest. JAMF certainly backs up their product with firm  
commitments and resources.

Thanks,
Don

Don Montalvo
Dallas, TX