How to Make "One Click" Installers for
your Macintosh Labs
Would you like to...
*Save hours in configuring systems during semester breaks?
*Support hundreds of computers with a "rescue-disk"
waiting to return the computer to full operation?
*Simplify hundreds of Application Software installations into
one-click installation?
*Set up hundreds of computers at a time?
*Manage multiple schools by saving a "custom image"
for each school on your district servers?
*Create Bootable Custom Configuration One Click installers unique
to each campus, or baseline configurations combined with custom
bundled application suites?
...if you would, read on!!!
This article describes how to make a CD that will boot your Macintosh
and in one click will configure your Macintoshes to a standardized
configuration. If you do not have a CD Burner, or your Macintoshes
do not have CD drives, you can perform this service via a network
and a server
Let's see how this is done...
Contents:
1)Assumption
2)The Concept
3)What you will need
4)Here's how
Step 1 Configure the Ideal Macintosh
Step 2 Create an image of the Ideal configuration
Step 3 Make a bootable CD
Step 4 Boot, Launch and Restore
5)Using Apple Software Restore over the Network
1)Assumption:
You have a lab of Macs or a campus of Macs where many of your
computers have a similar baseline software and hardware configuration.
You want each machine to resemble the next with system settings
and applications installed. You need to do this with the least
amount of work and time. With this document and the tools listed
below, You can create a bootable CD, or a network accessible
installer which will simply and easily restore all computers
to a standard configuration, in "ONE-CLICK".
2)The concept:
a)Using a standard Macintosh from your class or lab, create an
"ideal" hard drive configuration with System Software,
Applications and any system settings preferences you desire.
b)Make an image of the "ideal" drive using Disk Copy.
c)Make a bootable CD that includes the "one-click"
installer.
d)Boot your target machines from this CD and restore the "ideal"
configuration on the target Macintoshes.
3)What you will need:
1-External hard drive partitioned with a 700 MB volume with system
software to boot your target machines.
2-Network Startup Floppy or Network Startup CD
3-ASR SDK 1.3.2 or later
(download the 12MB Installer SDK, it contains ASR SDK.)
4-CD-ROM Burner (if you want to make bootable CDs with the restoration)
5-CD-ROM Burner Software (I recommend Adaptec Toast 3.5.6 or
later)
6-Apple Disk Copy 6.1.3 or later (currently
6.3.3)
7-MacOS software
8-The software programs that you run on your labs and classroom
Macintoshes
4)Here's how:
Step 1
Identify the Macintoshes for which you will create the installer.
Depending on the vintage of Macintosh that you are working with
and the System Software licenses you own, identify the "ideal"
system software version for your lab. See the Apple Technical
Information Library Article #15582
for a guide to system software versions. Or contact your Apple
System Engineer for guidance.
If you are working with Macintosh models without CD, you can
create a "One-Click" installer that will run over a
network. See below for using Apple Software Restore via a Network.
Now, choose a common denominator Macintosh computer. A common
denominator Macintosh computer is a Macintosh that will serve
as the "ideal" machine. This is the machine on to which
you will install system software and adjust system settings in
a way that you would like all "LIKE" machines to be
configured.
Before you install and setup your ideal machine I recommend the
following.
1) Low Level Format the "ideal" Macintosh's hard drive
with the latest version of "Hard Drive Setup". In "Drive
Setup" under the "Functions" menu, choose "Initialization
Options", and select "Low Level". This insures
the boot tracks and drive sectors are unique and original.
2) Some system settings are stored in PARAMETER RAM and will
not be preserved on the "restored" systems. Do not
be alarmed. You can make these settings manually after restoration
is complete.
3) Consider your target Macintoshes RAM and Hard Drive size when
creating your "ideal" configuration. You may need to
make several configurations for use on different generation Macintoshes.
This is easy. Multiple configurations can be stored on your custom
configuration CD.
4) When you configure the "ideal" machine, name the
hard drive "Macintosh HD". This will keep things simple
and manageable later.
5) Treat the installation and configuration of this system as you would if you were setting this machine up for the first time and create the settings and installations that you would like to have on each of the systems in this group. These preferences and installations will be on each machine that you run this Restore.
Now that you know what system software you are going to use,
and you have picked the ideal Macintosh, Install System Software,
and Applications, and Customize any settings on the Macintosh.
When you are finished you will be ready to create an image of
this ideal configuration. When you are through, go to step#2.
** A special note about configuring system settings**
You will want to set some system wide settings
as default at this point, others you will NOT want to set.
Set These:
Mouse Speed and Click Speed
Key Repeat Rate
Date and Time Time-Zone Election
View options
TCP/IP Control Panel : DNS Configuration, DHCP (if used)
Appearance
Don't set these:
TCP/IP IP Address (if your using static addressing DO NOT SET
THIS)
Macintosh Name
Macintosh Owner's Name
Step 2
Create an image of the "ideal" configuration.
Now that you have created an ideal configuration, we need to
capture it in a convenient format for restoring it to target
Macintoshes. To do this, we will use Disk Copy.
Follow the instructions in Apple Software Restore for making
an Image of your ideal Macintoshes hard drive. Once you have
created the image, you must prepare it for use with Apple Software
Restore. Follow the instructions for Apple Software Restore for
preparing an image for restoration. Repeat this step for each
configuration that you desire.
Tips for making your image:
Start the Macintosh from an external volume so that Disk Copy
can make an image from the disk. Do this because, if the internal
drive is the startup volume, Disk Copy will not be able to make
an image of it.
Disk Copy cannot be run from the disk that is being imaged, so
run Disk Copy from the external disk.
According to the ASR SDK, you can save the image as Read-Only,
or Read-Only Compressed. I recommend saving as Read-Only. After
it is created, I use the "Convert..." command to change
it in to a Read-Only Compressed. It seems much faster than creating
it directly in to a Read-Only Compressed.
Put all the images you create in the Configurations folder of
the ASR Folder. This is where restoration configurations are
stored for use with ASR. (See Instructions for ASR)
Step 3
Create bootable CD.
Now create a bootable CD that contains system software that will
run Apple Software Restore (ASR requires 7.5 or later) and boot
the target machines.(I reccomend 8.1, but this won't be possible
in situations where the target computers do not have enough RAM
to run 8.1) Following the instructions for Adaptec's Toast, create
a CD that will boot your target machines. On this CD you will
need to have a System Folder, the Apple Software Restore application,
and the Configurations Folder containing the HD images that you
created in Step 2.
Step 4
Boot from the Bootable CD you created, launch Apple Software
Restore, and restore your target machines. See ASR Quick Reference
Guide for complete instructions.
5)Using Apple Software
Restore over the Network
If you do not have a CD Rom Burner, you can use Apple Software
Restore over your network. Follow the instructions above to create
the Restoration Configurations. On your AppleShare file server,
create a Shared Folder for Apple Software Restore. Put Apple
Software Restore and your configurations folder in to the Shared
Folder. Share this folder.You are now ready to mount the share
from your target computer and perform a restore over the network.
To access Apple Software Restore, and be able to restore on to the internal Hard Drive of the target Macintosh, the Macintosh must be started from a Network Ready startup disk, floppy or CD Rom. Boot your Macintosh, log on to the AppleShare server. Launch Apple Software Restore, and use the configuration you created to restore the Macintosh
This article was written by Reed Jackson, SE for Apple K-12 Northern California. Please forward any comments to rjackson@apple.com