Deployment Solution

Lots of people have asked questions about how to create a netboot image to be used with DS 7.6.  There are a few videos that show the process at a very high level, but none seem to show all the steps that can be taken to make it more useful.  Over the years I have created a long list of things that I will typically do when creating a netboot image that make it easier for future use.  The first high level step is to prep a computer to be used for capturing a netboot image

1. Install a fresh version of the OS.  DO NOT USE the OS that comes preinstalled on a mac as those are model specific and will not include the needed drivers to boot other models.  Download the latest version from the Apple AppStore
2. If you are using a different computer to download the media than the one you will be installing it on, I recommend a product called DiskMakerX to create a bootable USB drive.  You can also create the USB drive manually, but it is several steps.
3. After the OS installation completes, create a user account.  This account is by default an admin, but is not utilized.
4. Once the OS loads, the first thing I will do is to enable Remote Management (via System Preferences -> Sharing).  I will generally enable most remote management option (except the option to show when being observed).  This is very handy because once you have completed this step, you can connect to the machine via Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) for all further configuration.
5. Enable Remote Login (via System Preferences -> Sharing) to allow SSH connections.  This is what is used to push the agent installation.
6. Install the Symantec Management Agent via whatever method you'd prefer (I will generally just push the agent via the Console).
7. Install the Deployment Solution Plugin (not the Automation Folder) and the Software Management plugin.  You can install other plugins but they generally not needed.
8. Enable the root user.  To do this navigate to System -> Library -> Core Services -> Applications and open 'Directory Utility'.  Within Directory Utility, click on the 'Edit' menu and then 'Enable Root'.  You will need to set a root user password.  This can also be done via command line.
9. Login as the root user
10. Set auto-login as root (via System Preferences -> Accounts)
11. Set the Dock to show only the apps you would need access (I generally have Safari, System Preferences, Activity Monitor, Terminal, Symantec Management Agent, and Disk Utility) to and also set the dock to auto hide.
12. Set windows to not re-open when logging in by either restarting and unchecking the box, or by running the following terminal command:  defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginWindowLaunchesRelaunchApps -bool false
13. Remove all un-needed applications and System files.  This is not necessary, but reduces the size of the netboot image by 1-2GB's (see attaches CleanImage.sh) 
14. Turn off the computers ability to create a sleepimage (a sleep image is created to store the contents of memory on the hard drive so that if the computer runs out of power, it can restore all data when the computer is powered on) by running the following:  sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
15. Delete the current sleep image: sudo rm -rf /var/vm/sleepimage 
16. Clear the SMA task history
17. There are several settings changes I make within system preferences: 

• ​Desktop and Screen Saver ->Set ScreenSaver to never start
• Security and Privacy -> Allow apps from anywhere
• Notifications -> Disable all notifications
• CD & DVD -> Set all actions to ignore
• Energy Saver -> Never sleep (both on battery and AC), Never put the display to sleep (both), Don't put the HD to sleep when possible, and Start automatically after power failure
• Trackpad - > Enable Tap to click
• Network -> Wifi -> Disable 'Ask to join new networks'
• Time Machine -> Don't show in menu bar

Once the computer is prepped, we can create a netboot set out of it by doing the following

1. Install MOCU via the Pkg.  Note:  DO NOT access the SMB share on the Notification server from a mac.  You will want to zip this file up and place this in a location that you can access and install it from the mac.
2. Launch MOCUapp
3. On the first screen we will create a Temporary volume out of the currently booted volume.  This will create a mirrored image of the machine you are currently booted from that will then be used to create the Netboot image.  It doesn't really matter what you name it.  Alternately this can be accomplished via the Terminal's hdiutil command.
4. Once the Temporary image is created (you should see it get mounted on the Desktop), click next and open System Image Utility (SIU).
5. In SIU, select the newly created temporary volume as the source, and make sure Netboot is select, and then click customize.
6. In the customize window, select a location to save it (can either be local or a mounted server).  Give it an image name and a Network Disk name.  Also note the Image index (if you need to make changes to your netboot image and test it, if you use the same image index, you can quickly move the dmg to the MacNetShare on the NS in the same location as the old image, and boot to it without having to wait for the image to fully replicate through the NS.  If you do this, once you are happy with the results, you will want to republish it via the console and let it replicate properly, but this works well while troubleshooting Netboot config issues).  Once you've set the options click 'Run' (you can press cmd-l to see a log output of what is happening, otherwise there is very little info to show you what is happening).
7. Once SIU completes, go back to MOCU, and then choose the dmg file from the Netboot nbi folder that you just created.  This will be in the location you specified.  Then click 'Update Image'. 
8. If prompted, select the nbi folder that contains the netboot image, as well as the temporary volume that should be mounted as the source volume, and then click 'OK'.
9. Once this process completes, you are done creating the Netboot Image

Once you have the netboot image, you will want to move it to the NS (I always move it locally to the NS and then upload it) and then add it as a new preboot configuration.  

I hope this has been helpful.  If you have any recommendations for how I can improve this article, please let me know.