This blog post is being reprinted with permission from the original author, Ian North. We are extremely excited and pleased to get to share his post as a special guest blog this week. Read on for Ian’s how-to for configuring a Mac image in Microsoft SCCM and Parallels Mac Management, and let us know if you are experiencing an increase in Macs in your network and the steps you’re taking to keep them centrally managed.
I touched briefly on using Parallels Mac Management for Microsoft SCCM to build Macs in my overview article but I thought it might be a good idea to go through the entire process that I use when I have to create an image for a Mac, getting the image deployed and getting the Mac configured once the image is on there. At the moment, it’s not a simple process.
It requires the use of several tools and, if you want the process to be completely automated, some Bash scripting as well. The process isn’t as smooth as you would get from solutions like DeployStudio but it works and, in my opinion anyway, it works well enough for you not to have to bother with a separate product for OSD. The Parallels team is working hard on this part of the product and they tell me that proper task sequencing will be part of V4 of the agent. As much as I’m looking forward to that, it doesn’t change the fact that right now we’re on V3.5 and we have to use the messy process.
When using the tools built into Mac OS X to create a deployable system disk image, you have a choice between two different methodologies: cloned system images and modular system images. With a cloned system image, you first set up a model computer that is configured with all the software and settings you intend to deploy. Then you create a duplicate copy of the system volume saved to a disk image that has been specially prepared for deployment. In order to create an AutoCAD for MAC deployment image on a MAC system, you would need to capture the installation sequence of AutoCAD for MAC, using the Composer provided by Apple. See the workflow below. Capture an install of Autocad 2015 as normal, removing non-relevant files from the Composer capture.
First of all, I should say that this is my method of doing it and mine alone. This is not Parallels’ method of doing this, it has not been sanctioned or condoned by them. There are some dangerous elements to it, and you follow this procedure at your own risk and I will not be held responsible for damage caused by it if you try this out.
Requirements
You will need the following tools:
To create a disk image of the volume ExBoot, use hdiutil to create a disk image: sudo hdiutil create /Desktop/exboot.dmg -srcfolder /Volumes/ExBoot Once complete, you now have a working installation of Mac OS X to restore whenever setting up triage drive. Automating the Process With a Shell Script. Prior to purchasing Snap Deploy, it would take us up to two hours to image a single PC, not to mention the time it takes to create a master image that is under 4GB. Using Acronis, it now takes just under one hour to image a PC, and we no longer have to worry about the master image size. Jun 09, 2015 Create a Automator workflow to deploy the Parallels agent and to do other minor configuration jobs. Use the System Image Utility to create the image and a workflow to automatically configure the disk layout and computer name. (Optional) Use the Mac OS X Netboot server to deploy the image to a Mac.
Create Mac Image For Deployment
At the end of this process, you will have an OS X Image which can be deployed to your Macs. The image will automatically name its target, it will download, install and configure the Parallels Mac Management for Microsoft SCCM agent, join itself to your Active Directory domain, attach itself to a managed wireless network and it will install any additional software that’s not in your base image. The Mac will do this without any user interaction apart from initiating the build process.
![]() Process Overview
The overview of the process is as follows:
Create A Mac Image For Deployment
I’m going to assume that you already have your SCCM infrastructure, Parallels SCCM management proxy, Parallels Netboot server and OS X Server working…
![]() Create Mac Image For Deployment Autoimg 2016Create Mac Image For Deployment Autoimg 2018
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Create Mac Image For Deployment Autoimg 2017
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