Deployment Tools

Introduction

Learn about deployment tools used by Student Computing Labs including Apple Software Restore, Apple NetBoot, and Radmind.

Apple Software Restore (ASR) is a collection of tools used to create custom drive images for bulk installations. It restores a folder or disk image produced by Disk Copy directly onto a hard drive in an efficient manner.

During the early stages of our deployment, we used NetBoot in concert with Apple Software Restore (ASR) to deploy Mac OS X. We began with ASR disk images created using Disk Copy that were stored on a server. Because ASR runs only in Mac OS 9.x, however, we booted each Mac from a NetBoot disk that had a Mac OS 9 system folder. To help us streamline and automate this process, we used a task specific AppleScript in the "Startup Items" folder of our NetBoot HD image. This script detected each Mac's IP address, checked to see which disk image group the IP is in, and ran the appropriate ASR image.

For information on how we developed, configured, and implemented this Autorun AppleScript, please click here (link dead) to visit the dedicated "Imaging with ASR and NetBoot" pages on www.macosxlabs.org. You may also download a copy of the application from this site.

For information on ASR, please click here (link dead) to visit the ASR page also on the www.macosxlabs.org site.

Packaged with Mac OS X Server, NetBoot allows users to boot any post-iMac Macintosh from a NetBoot server instead of from its local hard drive. When you NetBoot your client computers, they are automatically restored to a pristine state. The system then reads the assigned startup disk image from the server and all software and system settings return to the desired configuration established in the NetBoot image.

During the early stages of our deployment, we used NetBoot in concert with Apple Software Restore (ASR) to deploy Mac OS X. We booted each Mac from a NetBoot disk that had a Mac OS 9 system folder in order to accommodate ASR which runs only in Mac OS 9.x.

For information on how we developed, configured, and implemented this Autorun AppleScript, please click here (link dead) to visit the dedicated "Imaging with ASR and NetBoot" pages on www.macosxlabs.org. You may also download a copy of the application from this site.

For additional information on NetBoot, please click here (link dead) to download a copy of Apple's own descriptive pdf file that discusses NetBoot in relationship with Mac OS X Server.

Developed by the University of Michigan Information Technology Division, radmind is a suite of Unix command line tools for remote administration of Mac OS X and other Unix systems. It can examine the integrity of a local file system, and should it find any problems or modifications, restore the file system to the pristine version from a server based on a command file & corresponding transcripts for that client.

The application is designed to support multiple, layered load sets. As a result, users can easily add or remove software overloads based on client rather than removing or adding the software to a master remote volume/folder, which would usually effect all clients using that master volume/folder.

Radmind has been ported to Mac OS X and has been compiled with Mac OS 10.1.3 client & server and should work on Mac OS X 10.1 and higher. It currently requires configuring and running the tools through a command line, but there are developmental versions of GUI front-end's like: Radmind Logout GUI, which displays a borderless window and allows Radmind to run at logout giving user feedback and preventing user from logging in or launching applications.

The application offers similar functionality to Mac OS 9.x hard disk maintenance applications like RevRdist and Assimilator, but runs natively under Mac OS X and other Unix based operating systems. Radmind is similar to commercially available software like FileWave & NetOctopus, which has been recently ported to Mac OS X, but does not have the per machine costs of these packages.

Radmind doesn't directly support brute force reinstall features like Apple Software Restore which will initialize the hard disk and re-image the hard disk. It is possible, however, to startup the machine from a separate volume like a portable drive (FireWire, SCSI, etc) or internal drive and create a boot CD/DVD to use Radmind. Users can also use the Mac OS X 10.2 Server with NetInstall to give other initial setup and brute force re-install options for Radmind or in conjunction with Radmind.

It also offers some benefits over other file system maintenance utilities like RsyncX. RsyncX is a directory synchronization tool that's smart enough to copy only new or changed files and is used in many deployments to maintain & update the file systems for Mac OS X. Usually, RsyncX is used to sync against a remote volume/folder across the network causing higher bandwidth utilization. Radmind tries to minimize network bandwidth by keeping filesystem summary separate from filesystem.

To download the Mac OS X Installer, source code or get more information about the application and its operation, visit the Radmind home page, www.radmind.org.

Detailed information on how are using Radmind to distribute and maintain Mac OS X will soon be available at www.macosxlabs.org.