• Start Deploystudio Server
• Deploystudio Server Initialization In Progress
• Deploystudio Server Download
• Deploystudio Server 1.7 9
• Deploystudio Server

What this tutorial teaches

DeployStudio Server has been a popular imaging solution that enabled Enterprise and Education system administrators to flawlessly deploy Mac computers in their organisations for 15 years (2003-2018). I just installed DeployStudio v1.6.13 on OS X Server Yosemite. Followed some directions to get everything installed and everything looks like it's working. For example, another mac can boot into the. On the DeployStudio Server or Admin station, launch DeployStudio Admin.app and authenticate with administrative credentials to connect to the server (Figure A).

• How to turn your FOG server into a Macintosh Netboot server as well

What this tutorial does not teach

• How to create images with NetRestore or Deploy Studio
• How to use NetRestore or Deploy Studio to image Macintosh's

Getting Started

Netboot is Apple's way of booting into a network. This how-to will teach how to change your FOG server to add support for Macintosh's through Netboot.

When FOG is installed on your machine, all of the services required for Netboot are installed. Other than creating the image, all the user has to do is create some directories and edit a couple files.

• First, run these commands:

• Now, you need to move the images you're going to use over to your FOG server. Creating a Macintosh image is out of this article's scope, so it is assumed you already have the boot image and Macintosh image created.
• DeployStudio settings assumes you have a working DeployStudio server, and have used it to create a master image and runtime netboot set

• Make sure you have the following files:

If you happen to have deleted these files, probably by accident, on your Mac, you may turn to Mac-how.net to find out how to recover deleted files mac

Note - files below depend on environment.

• NetInstall-Restore.dmg is the program that grabs the image from the FOG server and images the Macintosh.

• DeployStudioRuntime.sparseimage loads a boot environment for DeployStudio. This file, and the 3 files above can be found in the NetBootSP0/<runtime>.nbi folder on the DeployStudio server. The 3 boot files needed from above are located in the i386 folder.

• If you are using PowerPC Macintosh's, copy booter, mach.macosx, and mach.macosx.mkext to /tftpboot/macnbi-ppc.

• If you are using Intel Macintosh's, copy booter, mach.macosx, and mach.macosx.mkext to /tftpboot/macnbi-i386.

• Copy mach.macosx and mach.macosx.mkext to /disk/0/NetBoot/NetBootSP0

• Copy NetInstall-Restore.dmg and the OSX image to /nbi

OR

• Copy DeployStudioRuntime.sparseimage to /nbi or see dhcpd.conf for nfs mounting on DeployStudio Server

• Now add the following lines to your dhcpd.conf (located in /etc/dhcp3 on Ubuntu):

Restart the DHCP and NFS daemons. Hold down the N key to have your Macintosh netboot.

Known issues

• Please add any issues found with NetRestore or Deploy Studio.

Software known to work

• NetRestore 2.0.1
• Deploy Studio V1.0rc20

Additional information and links

• A more generic article on getting Linux to support Netboot[1]
• Information about Netboot[2]
• Deploy Studio[3]

Installing DeployStudio

First of all download the latest DeployStudio from their homepage(link). The instructions on their site are pretty clear for installation. First, run the installer and install DeployStudio. Then run the DeployStudio Assistant to setup your DeployStudio Server (Start the DeployStudio server when it prompts you).
Set the server address to your server, don’t change the port, set administrative account.
The next screen will allow you to choose whether or not your want your server to be a replica or to be a master.
After that, DS Assistant will ask your to choose where you want your repository, choose a network sharepoint (have an AFP sharepoint set up previously for this). Set the URL and authentication, don’t worry about the ‘advanced parameters’. If you have a mail-server then you can have DS send you mail upon completing a workflow (LTR). While it isn’t critical, it is recommended that you have a SSL certificate with which you can secure network traffic (i.e. the next step), in this step you also choose which interface you want DS to communicate over.
If you have an OD up and running and would like to designate multiple administrators for DeployStudio, you can drag/drop their groups in the next step into the appropriate places. Hit “Continue” and then hit “Continue” again… the options that you have skipped related to multicasting (which is still buggy over subnets). DeployStudio will now tell you setup is done, and your server is ready to use!

Using DeployStudio

Using DeployStudio is easier than setting it up. There is one thing you want to consider before jumping in though, are you going to deploy a monolithic image or a tiered build? There are advantages and disadvantages of both:
Monolithic Build:

Start Deploystudio Server

Deploystudio Server Initialization In Progress

Tiered Build:

Deploystudio Server Download

Deploystudio Server 1.7 9

While DS is great at deploying images in general, it’s my opinion that it’s best suited for the tiered build. Firstly, if there are procedures that Deploy Studio cannot handle in a workflow (i.e. setting up ldap connection to culdap), do them on the base image. Update the OS software on the base image and then netboot to the DS server via the bless command (sudo bless –netboot –server bsdp://your.DS.server.dns) and reboot. The machine will reboot to DS at which point you can make an image of the machine via one of the default workflows (“Create a Master From a Volume”). Once the image is made you can deploy it to any machine that boots to the DS server with another one of the default workflows (“Restore a master on a volume”).
With the base image ready, prepare software .pkgs/mpkgs for any software you wish to install and place them in the DS server’s package repository. Next open DS Admin and create a workflow. The ideal workflow should include the following steps (these are all drag and drops):
1. Partition Drive
2. Restore Image (restore your base)
3. Firmware lock
3. Install pkg (one of these each for each pkg you want to install)
note: you want to check on “postpone installation” so that it will install on the first launch.
4. Software Update (also postpone until reboot).

Deploystudio Server

The main difference between the tiered build workflow and the monolithic workflow is step 3 in which the packages are installed. Also before creating the base image make sure to turn off the airport (otherwise the software update gets stuck). That more or less covers installing and running the basic Deploy Studio setup.