HT202061: OS X Server: Creating a single NetBoot, NetInstall or NetRestore image for multiple Macs

Learn about OS X Server: Creating a single NetBoot, NetInstall or NetRestore image for multiple Macs
JMRoberts84

Q: Updating NetRestore Images for New Hardware?

Good Afternoon,

 

I've just taken over Mac Imaging from a colleague who's moved in to another department, we have 2 Mavericks images now, 1 for schools and 1 for corporate. They are easy to create (we build the users and software then capture the image with NetRestore on Mavericks Server) but everytime we get a new MacBook with updated hardware the image fails to go on the new machine (it is backward compatible with no issues).

 

I come from a Windows backgroud where we use SysPrep to make sure all images are hardware independent - there doesn't seem to be a tool which will do this for Mac, not easily anyway.

 

My colleague used to create 2 new images completely from scratch every time hardware changed, this to me seems like a waste of time, I would if possible like to see if we could just update the images (via a combo update or something?), run software updates and then recapture it, saving literally a days work every time a new piece of hardware comes out.

 

Has anyone done this effectively? I know their are 3rd party tools availible that may be able to help but if possible I would like to do it whilst still using NetRestore (our deployment team are familiar with this method).

 

Kind Regards,

Jon Roberts

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 25, 2013 8:09 AM