This can make it a bit tedious to create images for multiple OS X versions if you need to support older Macs dropped by newer OS X releases or if you want to support installations of older versions of OS X for some specific reason.įor our purposes, let's just download the Yosemite installer from the Mac App Store and create a basic NetInstall image of it so that we can install the OS on our Macs without having to re-download the installer a bunch of times or tote around a USB drive. One of the System Image Utility's limitations is that it can only create images of the currently running version of OS X-Yosemite's System Image Utility can only make Yosemite images, Mavericks' version can only make Mavericks images, and so on. By default, it gives you a simple menu that you can use to make NetBoot, NetInstall, and NetRestore images from either a bootable OS X volume (either on an external disk or a separate volume on the Mac's hard drive you cannot make an image of the currently booted volume) or a Yosemite installer located in the Applications volume (if your installer was deleted during an update from an older version of OS X, it can easily be re-downloaded from the Mac App Store again). ![]() The System Image Utility is buried in Server.app's Tools menu. Third, you have NetRestore images, which can dump a custom OS X image directly to a client Mac's hard drive. Second, there are NetInstall images, which are more or less network-hosted versions of OS X install media. To store user files, NetBoot images can use space on the local Mac's hard drive, or they can be "diskless" images that store user data on the server and allow the built-in hard drive to be completely unmounted-useful for disk imaging and diagnostics. Apple provides tools for the creation of bootable images, though third parties like DeployStudio also use the technology to simplify OS X imaging and deployment for larger numbers of computers.Īpple distinguishes between three different kinds of bootable volumes: first are NetBoot images, which allow computers to boot to a full OS X installation hosted on a server. NetInstall forms the backbone of the Internet Recovery feature that lets newer Macs download a fresh copy of OS X from Apple's servers the difference is that with NetInstall you can serve up your own OS X bits locally. This is usually done for the purposes of recovering files, running diagnostics, or installing clean or pre-configured OS X images on Macs.īooting from a networked volume can be initiated either by holding the N key as your Mac starts up or by selecting a network volume in the Startup Disk preference pane. The NetInstall service, known in older OS X Server versions as NetBoot, is a BOOTP-based system that allows Macs to boot from network volumes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |