InstaDMG Output and SIU

[geestar]

Hi,

Is it possible to use the instaDMG output 10.6.7 vanilla dmg as the defined image source in SIU.

When I do use it in a SIU workflow by mounting the dmg and defining that as the source, I find that it ignores subsequent actions such as “Add User Account” or “Apply System Configurations” and just spits out the same image that I started with. SIU logs that the image process was OK but it isn’t.

By using the instaDMG vanilla latest dmg it obviously saves adding subsequent packages to the “original” Mac OS X installer dmg.

These actions do work when I use the “original” Mac OS X installer dmg. – Using SIU 2 10.6.7.

Am i doing something wrong??

[larkost]

When you select the “NetRestore” option in SIU you effectively have one of two tracks, based on what you use as the source:

1) NetRestore from volume. This grabs an ASR copy of whatever volume you give it, readies it to be restored, and wraps that in a .nbi set that will install it. Note that SIU does not check to see if you are giving it an already-ready-to-go .dmg, it instead reads out the files in the image. So basically it re-does some of the work InstaDMG is doing here.

2) NetRestore from Installer Disc. Here it does many of the same steps that InstaDMG does (or better put: InstaDMG does many of the same steps SIU does), and then wraps things in the same .nbi set.

So… backing up a step, there are two main tracks for installing systems in SIU:

A) NetInstall – This has a NetBoot image that then runs the installer through a single package targeting a single volume. They do some really nice work to bundle up any packages you provide into this single package, providing an easy way for you to add packages to “the one package”.

B) NetRestore – Takes the same NetBoot image, but swaps out “the one package” for a package-like thing that does the ASR restore. Since there is no regular package, there is no provision for you to add more packages. The reason #2 from above works is because they use the same trick from the NetInstall to merge your additional packages into “the one installer”, and then just run that on a target volume (like InstaDMG).

I have long argued that SIU’s interface was in need of a lot of re-thinking, and you have just run smack into one of the biggest problems: it will not tell you what works, and what does not. The only reason I can figure this out is because I have reverse engineered the output of SIU enough times.

A far better solution for you is going to be to switch from SIU + InstaDMG to InstaDMG + DeployStudio. With just a little bit of figuring things out the two work great together, and it is easy to achieve the sort of thing you are aiming for.

[geestar]

So basically, in SIU to have a NetRestore solution that is a modular packaged workflow you have to start with a real Install DVD (or dmg of) and use the add packages action to make it up to date – is there no way to update the Install DVD to incorporate all up to date OS patches and then use that as a base install image and then add 3rd party packages on top of that in the modular workflow. From an enterprise POV it seems very onerous.

I am from the old school of Golden Master and am going through 10.6 Deployment by K White and getting to grips with the alternate way of working. I find SIU obviously slow, the logging and reporting leave a lot to be desired – couple those 2 factors together and a lot of frustration comes out.

Then add the 2 heavyweights, Adobe and Micrososft to bundle in, I see Adobe offer a package app which fails in SIU but works in a direct ARD install and Microsoft so far has failed me but I have to research more. I have watched the instaDMG seminars from MacSysAdmins 2010 and am digesting…..

So what would be great is for Apple to acquire instaDMG into the SIU concept – which puts an easy to use GUI over a superior backend.

[Author]

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