First Time: Imagr->External Drive

[Kris Lou]

Hey guys (mostly Graham),

I'm reading through things and getting all my ducks in a row to try to tackle this, so if somebody can check my math and straighten a few things out, I'd appreciate it.

I'm trying to create a bootable external HD that I can then use to image my machines.  I currently use munki (and CreateOSXInstallPkg) to handle upgrades, but I'd like to have a 10.12 base install.  So, I'm looking at the AutoDMG->Imagr->NBICreator route to bake everything together.  So, I guess this is going to be a walkthrough of what I'd like to do, but with a few questions regarding all of the components.  Feel free to correct my ignorance or point me in a different direction!

So, I think my workflow is:

1. Create a DMG from Install macOS Sierra.App with AutoDMG
• Q: Imagr requires such a netboot DMG, correct?  Can't use the Install OSX.App directly?
2. Create firstboot workflows for Imagr
• Q: Is this significantly different from baking my firstboot packages in with AutoDMG?
• I currently use Rich Trouton's First Boot Generator to create a single pkg, which I then pass to CreateOSXInstallPkg, but it's easy enough to distribute and specify the packages indepedently with either AutoDMG/Imagr workflows.
3. Use NBICreator with the above packages as per the docs
• Q: NBICreator asks for links to the local Install OSX.App.  Is this used mostly for the NBI creation tools, but not anything to do with the deployed Image Contents itself?  
• I guess I'm asking if I have to specify the *.App "twice" -- once at the onset of the tool, and once within the DMG.

Hope you can make sense of my questions.

Thanks!

-Kris

[Graham Gilbert]

I'll try and answer these in order. 

First, it's not a NetBoot DMG. It's a disk image that can be restored with asr. This is a common workflow for Imagr users, but not the only one. You can just install packages, just run scripts etc.  It cannot take a random app (the install app) and know what to do with it. If you turn your installer into a package using COSXIP, imagr will happily ingest it (and I believe there is a section on the wiki about making this work - if there isn't, there should be). 

Yes, running things at first boot is very different. Autodmg installs things to a different volume to the boot volume. Most payload free packages won'twork correctly and any poorly made packages that make assumptions about where they're being installed won't work either. 

Rich's tool and imagr both use LoginLog to display their progress, so they will fight with each other. I personally wouldn't use both. 

The input for all the NBI creation tools is merely needed for building the boot media (NetBoot / netinstall / whatever). No relation to what you install or restore. 

I think this raises the point that the wiki could have a more generic "how pieces fit together" page. If anyone would like to take a punt at this in the list, please feel free! Otherwise this will need to wait until I next fly over the pond. 

Sent from my iPhone

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From: Kris Lou <kl...@themusiclink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2017 17:20
Subject: [imagr-discuss] First Time: Imagr->External Drive
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[Kris Lou]

Thanks for all of that.  I've done more reading, a bit more planning, and let's see how it goes.  The good news is that I generally only have 6 packages that I append to COSXIP.

On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 8:27 AM, Graham Gilbert <gra...@grahamgilbert.com> wrote:

First, it's not a NetBoot DMG. It's a disk image that can be restored with asr. This is a common workflow for Imagr users, but not the only one. You can just install packages, just run scripts etc.  It cannot take a random app (the install app) and know what to do with it. If you turn your installer into a package using COSXIP, imagr will happily ingest it (and I believe there is a section on the wiki about making this work - if there isn't, there should be). 

So, if I were to hypothetically use a COSXIP image (clean, no FirstBoot additional package due to Imagr conflicts), I would omit the <image> stanza of the workflow components and instead place it as the first <package>?

 

Yes, running things at first boot is very different. Autodmg installs things to a different volume to the boot volume. Most payload free packages won'twork correctly and any poorly made packages that make assumptions about where they're being installed won't work either. 

I would prefer to keep the workflows in one system, so would start with a "clean" AutoDMG image and then rework all of my FirstBoot packages to the Imagr workflow.

I have a few packages that deliver some files (.AppleSetupDone, munki), and one or two that install profiles as postinstall scripts. From the looks of these, the payload packages can be installed within the NetBoot Image with <first_boot>=false, but the payload-free stuff (or using a postinstall) should be handled with a <first_boot>=true?

 

And the corollary to that is, <restart_action>=Restart occurs AFTER <first_boot>=true actions, as the final thing that Imagr does after firstboot?

Thanks,

Kris Lou
kl...@themusiclink.net