Getting Started With SL Server And Netboot

[tensixturtle]

Hello,
I am trying to get started for the first time with Snow Leopard Server so I can Netboot a few OSes. I am using a 2010 Mac mini as my server. I was wondering if there are some good resources that I would help me set this up? I have no prior experience with this and could not find anything that would help guide me.
Thanks in advance.

 

[hobowankenobi]

As long as you are aware that this is dead and buried...newer Macs won't Netboot the same way. It was fun while it lasted...but those days are long gone. It's all fading in our collective memory. The replacement method is typically booting to Recovery mode, and then pushing a new OS out to client Macs.

With that disclaimer out of the way...here is a pretty good overview for somebody still wanting to try this.

 

[tensixturtle]

@hobowankenobi thank you very much for the video. It was much better than the un-understandable 2 hour long tutorial that I found. The computers that I am targeting are mainly early Intels so SL Server makes the most sense for me.

My next question is about why none of my computers are recognizing the Netboot image that says is created and running. I have tried connecting with WiFi as well as ethernet but it doesn't seem to recognize it. Is part of my settings wrong? Please see the attached screenshots.
Thanks.

 

[Project Alice]

@hobowankenobi thank you very much for the video. It was much better than the un-understandable 2 hour long tutorial that I found. The computers that I am targeting are mainly early Intels so SL Server makes the most sense for me.

My next question is about why none of my computers are recognizing the Netboot image that says is created and running. I have tried connecting with WiFi as well as ethernet but it doesn't seem to recognize it. Is part of my settings wrong? Please see the attached screenshots.
Thanks.

When I am home I will take a look at my configuration and see what it looks like compared to yours.

Which Mac(s) are you attempting to boot from? As far as I’m aware it only works with Ethernet. Maybe newer ones can do it on Wifi but I mostly netboot old PowerPCs and very early Intel ones that don’t have internet recovery.

When you hold option on the target Mac, does it detect a Netimage at all?

 

[tensixturtle]

@Project Alice I appreciate your advice. I guess I was making the mistake of testing using my 2010 MBP 17". I just tried with my early 2006 MBP and early 2009 iMac and it seems to work flawlessly. I wonder why it doesn't work with newer things. Thank you again, I am very excited to have this up and running! Your Mac mini setup as a server (which I greatly admire) was what made me want to do this project in the first place, but it's harder than it looks...

 

[Project Alice]

@Project Alice I appreciate your advice. I guess I was making the mistake of testing using my 2010 MBP 17". I just tried with my early 2006 MBP and early 2009 iMac and it seems to work flawlessly. I wonder why it doesn't work with newer things. Thank you again, I am very excited to have this up and running! Your Mac mini setup as a server (which I greatly admire) was what made me want to do this project in the first place, but it's harder than it looks...

Thank you! It was a learning experience to set up for sure. It still isn’t perfect, I can’t get OS 9 booting from it nor Mac OS X 10.0, 10.1, or 10.3. But 10.2, 10.4-10.6 works flawlessly.

It looks like your image is named 10.6.8. Is it actually 10.6.8? If you attempt to boot 10.6.0 on the 2010 it won’t work as it came with 10.6.3 or 10.6.4.

 

[tensixturtle]

Thank you! It was a learning experience to set up for sure. It still isn’t perfect, I can’t get OS 9 booting from it nor Mac OS X 10.0, 10.1, or 10.3. But 10.2, 10.4-10.6 works flawlessly.

It looks like your image is named 10.6.8. Is it actually 10.6.8? If you attempt to boot 10.6.0 on the 2010 it won’t work as it came with 10.6.3 or 10.6.4.

@Project Alice The image is 10.6.8. In an unusual flash of competence I realized the 10.6.3 image I had wouldn't work with all computers so I used Target Disk Mode and took an image of my favorite 2007 MacBook running 10.6.8. (not as nice as your 4,1/5,1 that you impressively modified) It had all my apps too so it's more useful.

Also, I tried Netboot again on the 2010...and it works! I am actually writing this from my 2010 MBP netbooted. I think it might have been the ethernet that I was missing when I tried it (watch me try something new and do absolutely everything wrong) Or maybe it is some magic on your part.

Thank you again to you and also @hobowankenobi. I have tried working with OS X Server multiple times in the past and it never worked, so this is very exciting.

 

[Project Alice]

@Project Alice The image is 10.6.8. In an unusual flash of competence I realized the 10.6.3 image I had wouldn't work with all computers so I used Target Disk Mode and took an image of my favorite 2007 MacBook running 10.6.8. (not as nice as your 4,1/5,1 that you impressively modified) It had all my apps too so it's more useful.

Also, I tried Netboot again on the 2010...and it works! I am actually writing this from my 2010 MBP netbooted. I think it might have been the ethernet that I was missing when I tried it (watch me try something new and do absolutely everything wrong) Or maybe it is some magic on your part.

Thank you again to you and also @hobowankenobi. I have tried working with OS X Server multiple times in the past and it never worked, so this is very exciting.

OS X server is pretty easy compared to others, it requires a lot less knowledge of server/networking systems. And it usually works pretty well. But it does need setup right and the netboot thing was a bit of a challenge for me at first too.

I actually configured a sawtooth G4 with Leopard Server as a router/firewall once just to see how that would work lol. It worked but was too slow.

 

[hobowankenobi]

One OS X Server tip: Often (as I recall), after a config change, one would need to stop and start services, and even then...it could be tricky with some other complications. The easiest thing: after config tweaks, when in doubt, reboot.