Getting IT Done
View more stories‘Part 2’ looks to cover the configuration of the DeployStudio Repository and server. ‘Part 3’ should cover the configuration of the Netboot service and building of the DeployStudio NetBoot set. These should leave you with a fully functioning DeployStudio solution. Learn how to setup and configure DeployStudio Server and Netboot Set to enable multi and unicast imaging on your network by holding down the 'N' key on any i. Both are running 10.11.2. I've got DeployStudio up and running on my server (Early 2009 iMac running 10.11.2 and current version of Mac Server with DeployStudio 1.7.1) I created the netboot set on the Late 2011 MacBook Pro and transferred it over via flash drive.
Macs are on the rise in businesses and educational institutions, and while IT managers might not like it, users are increasingly asking for more Mac support from their workplaces. Supporting Macs means coming up with ways to manage and configure them to run your programs and comply with your IT department’s best practices, and doing that quickly and effectively means finding ways to install pre-configured operating system images and approved applications on them.
Software like Disk Utility or Mike Bombich’s Carbon Copy Cloner, which can copy the contents from one Mac’s hard drive to another’s, are fine for imaging individual Macs, but these tools typically don’t scale very well, and administrators will still need to perform some post-install configuration tasks manually—things like renaming computers and binding them to directories. The tools Apple builds into OS X Server are more useful for larger deployments, but they don’t make it all the way there. The System Image Utility, part of the OS X Server Admin Tools package, can capture your images, and the NetBoot service will let you apply that image to multiple Macs without the need for third-party programs or bootable media. These tools can deploy fully configured images with all of your desired programs and customizations, but if you need to make changes for individual computers or departments, you’re left to either make these changes manually or create and maintain multiple images, adding to your workload.
Enter DeployStudio, a free third-party tool that combines the convenience of NetBoot with flexible and customizable tools for automating application installs and post-configuration tasks. If you’ve got a large number of Macs to image and not a lot of time to image them, it may just be the program you’ve been waiting for.
AdvertisementSetting up DeployStudio
DeployStudio can actually be installed and run from any external drive large enough to hold the software, a basic OS X install, and your images and installers; but the best and most convenient DeployStudio setup will use NetBoot to simplify the imaging process. This article will focus mostly on integrating DeployStudio with NetBoot, but configuring workflows and creating and restoring images will work the same way regardless of how your back end is configured.
Here's what you'll need to host DeployStudio:
- A Mac running Lion Server and connected to your network with an Ethernet cable.
- The NetBoot service. To enable and configure it, you'll need the OS X Server Admin Tools, which are a separate download from Apple. Apple's own documentation on setting up the NetBoot service is pretty extensive if you need help.
- A networked file share using the AFP or NFS protocol. This does not necessarily need to be hosted on the same server providing the NetBoot service, though it can be.
First, you’ll need to download and install the DeployStudio package on your server. The current stable version is 1.0rc131b, but the project is updated fairly regularly with bug fixes, new features, and support for new OS X versions. Nightly builds are also available, if you prefer to live on the bleeding edge.
Once installed, launch the DeployStudio Assistant, which will walk you through configuring your server and your DeployStudio NetBoot sets. At first launch, accept the prompt to start the DeployStudio server service, and then select 'Set up a DeployStudio Server' from the list of tasks.
Deploystudio Server
The first thing you'll be asked to do is specify your server's name, and a username and password that can be used to log in to it. The name can be either the server's IP address or DNS name, if one is available, and the credentials can be any account that can log in to the server. I usually create a local, non-administrator service account called 'DSAdmin' as a best practice, but this isn't strictly necessary.
Deploystudio Server
Advertisement Next, you'll choose whether your DeployStudio server will be a master or a replica—your first server will be a master, but additional replica servers can be used for redundancy and load balancing—and whether to use a local folder or network share point for your images and other files. You'll need to enter the path to your network share point, as well as credentials that have read/write access to the share. DeployStudio will create several folders in this location that it will use for storage of files, images, and logs—remember this for later.
From here, everything else is optional. You can configure email notifications, whether to use SSL encryption, which port the server will use (the default is 60080, or 60443 for SSL), permissions to the various DeployStudio apps, and a few others. Configure everything as desired, and once you're done you'll be sent back to the main DeployStudio Assistant window.
Now, elect to create a DeployStudio NetBoot set. You just need to create a name and unique identifier for your NetBoot set and input your DeployStudio server's information (the name, the port, and access credentials) to get what you need, but you can also change the desktop wallpaper, enable or disable wireless support, disable DeployStudio's unobtrusive banner ads (with no penalty, though you will be prompted to donate), and you'll be done. Since you're creating the NetBoot set on the actual NetBoot server, the assistant will automatically offer to put the image in the right place and set it as the default, but you can also run the assistant on any OS X client and manually copy the NetBoot image to the server if you wish.
Deploystudio Server Download
That's it! You've configured a basic DeployStudio server, and are ready to begin using the program. DeployStudio NetBoot sets include not just the things DeployStudio needs to work, but also a handful of other tools like the Disk Utility and System Information tool. You can even add your own utilities and make your NetBoot set into a useful diagnostic and file recovery tool.