Semi-n00b Questions

[ivonesh]

Hi everyone,

I’ve used InstaDMG images that a cohort of mine setup and it works great; a real time-saver!

I am now in charge of keeping the images we have made up-to-date as well as making a new image based on a 10.5.6 retail disk.

The main question that is bugging me is how to stay on top of the updates from Apple. If I start today with the 10.5.6 base retail disk I can install it on a machine or drive and then hit Apple’s software update server and see what I need to download and also in what order. I don’t mind doing this, but if I am not always cognizant of new updates and their order I lose all practicality of making modular images.

Does Apple or a third party publish a list of the updates for a specific OS/build and then the date they came out? Like a MacTracker, but for updates.

There have been many great posts on here that I have read thru, but any links to an InstaDMG walkthru or tutorial(s) would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance to all who respond.

[knowmad]

well….
You can try InstaUp2Date
That might be akin to what your looking for, though it is not automatic, its better than many alternatives.
I know a lot of people only include major updates in their packages.
I for one generally keep an eye out and add new non-point updates to the bottom of my install list as they coem by.
I only really re-jigger everything when a completely new point release comes out

[Rusty Myers]

I wrote a guide for the rest of my staff on how to image and deploy an image on a machine. In the post-install section I ask them to email me if any updates need to be done. From that, I will determine what to add to the image. Sometimes updates like aperture 2 or the iLife 09 update I don’t include.

I also ask them to let me know about any issues. This, in my mind, is mainly for new hardware issues. Fortunately, I have not come across any issues with any hardware.

It’s probably not the answer your looking for, but it’s pretty easy for me.
Rusty

[ivonesh]

Rusty,

Would that guide be something you could share with the group or me privately?

Thanks!

[Rusty Myers]

Yeah, I could. It’s pretty specific to my organization, but I’ll share. Let me take a bit of time to clean out the private data and I’ll post a link later today or tomorrow.

[Rusty Myers]

Okey Dokey, here you go-key:
[url]http://kb.educ.psu.edu/files/idd.pdf[/url]

If you have questions, let me know. Either here or email.
Rusty

[ivonesh]

Thanks for the guide. I really appreciate it.

[Anthony Reimer]

If you run Mac OS X Server on any of your machines, you could set up a software update server, which would, by default, collect all the updates. You can also have the server e-mail you when it has collected an update.

For each point update of the OS, I still do a clean install of that OS version and then find out what updates are still needed (mostly to exclude updaters that got rolled into the current update).

Anthony

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