Anyone had any luck getting 10.13 on an imaging server?

[markwilliams432]

Hi,

Any help would be appreciated.

We have a imaging server at work that deploys both installer apps and netboots with Mac OS's 10.8 to 10.12. We have tried several ways to get 10.13.4 to do the same. We keep hitting error after error.

Has anyone here had any success?

Thanks in advance.

Mark

 

[TriBruin]

Hi,

Any help would be appreciated.

We have a imaging server at work that deploys both installer apps and netboots with Mac OS's 10.8 to 10.12. We have tried several ways to get 10.13.4 to do the same. We keep hitting error after error.

Has anyone here had any success?

Thanks in advance.

Mark

What kind of errors are you getting? What imaging server are you using? (NetRestore, DeployStudio?)

Officially Apple has declared imaging on life support if not dead. Even if you can get an image created, you are very limited in what you can do with it. In many cases, you can only image a Mac with the same revision of the macOS, nothing later (i.e. you could maybe image a 10.13.3 with a 10.13.4 image, but absolutely can NOT image 10.12 with any 10.13 image.)

Apple is heavily pushing MDM/DEP enrollment workflows as an alternative to imaging. But, if you don't have an MDM (like JAMF), it is really painful now.

 

[DJLC]

I have an image of macOS 10.13 in DeployStudio if that's what you mean... but our DeployStudio Runtime is still on 10.10 and the server itself runs 10.10. Works fine though! We've received MacBooks with 10.13 preinstalled and they boot the 10.10 DSR from Netboot without issue.

At this point, I really don't have much need to image our Macs anymore. I keep an OEM 10.13 image to "factory restore" Macs quickly. The Device Enrollment Program and our MDM solution takes care of the rest automatically. If DeployStudio died tomorrow, I'd just make a fleet of 10.13 install drives.

 

[TriBruin]

Sounds like your current workflow is sufficient. As long as you are getting machines with with 10.13 or higher, you should be fine to continue to image. However, I have heard scuttlebutt that Apple will be making imaging impossible as they include security chips (T3) in devices beyond the iMac Pro. (I have not tried or talked to anyone who has tried to image an iMac Pro, so I don't if it works or not.)

You can also consider creating just a simple NetInstall of 10.13 as well.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Will be interesting moving forward. I think (hope) DEP should acceptable for individual machines that typically have one user.

Dunno about things like student labs that many have traditionally wiped and re-imaged on a regular basis. Gonna be hard to not nuke and pave so easily...

Been using DeployStudio and Munki with no major complaints....but a little birdie told me we could be moving to JAMF.

 

[guzhogi]

Been using DeployStudio and Munki with no major complaints....but a little birdie told me we could be moving to JAMF.

The school district I work for used to use DeployStudio, but now we can't due to 10.13. We have also used JAMF for our Macs for a while now, though we use AirWatch for iPads. JAMF's decent. I'm a low level IT in my district, so I don't manage JAMF as much as the higher level techs. However, it does allow us to push out software and updates, plus it allows for smart groups. Useful to see who has low storage space on their drives, who has or hasn't upgraded to the latest OS, see if they have or don't have certain apps installed (works well for MacKeeper-like software).

 

[hobowankenobi]

Just gonna leave this here. Have not tried it yet:

DeployStudio 1.7.7 imaging 10.13

 

[hobowankenobi]

And...for those following along, more success reported.

Frankly, if the extra steps listed are required for all, I am surprised and a bit saddened that the latest release of DS does not do this by default, or at least have an option built in.

That was always one of its most alluring traits...it just worked. We got to focus time to automating and streamlining imaging and deployment options, not to getting the OS to boot.