How to netboot to el capitan image mac os x#
How to netboot to el capitan image install#

How to netboot to el capitan image install#

It allows you to take an Install OS X/macOS application and convert it into a package.

How to netboot to el capitan image mac os x#

This tool is the current version of code I developed shortly after Mac OS X Lion was released. The End.вЂќ you wonвЂ™t be shocked when I say that today I will describe my solution.Д®nter createOSXinstallPkg ( ). Since you read the headline and you know I would not write this post only to end withвЂќbut I never found such a way.

I wanted a way to create VMware Fusion VMs, configured like my вЂњrealвЂќ machines, on my current machine no matter what version of OS X it was currently running. This limitation has slowed down my testing of new OS releases as I found it terribly cumbersome to build good test environments and could always find some other project that would distract me. You must first manually create a Sierra machine (either real or virtual, then use that machine to run AutoDMG to build your Sierra image). You canвЂ™t use AutoDMG to build a macOS Sierra image from your machine running El Capitan. This makes testing newer releases of OS X more complicated.

If you also want to build a Mavericks disk image, now you must do it from a machine running Mavericks. AppleвЂ™s installer can only install OS X when running under the same major version of OS X - so this means that in order to build a El Capitan disk image, you must do it on a machine running El Capitan. It uses AppleвЂ™s installer to install OS X and additional packages into a disk image. I use AutoDMG to build deployment disk images.ДЄutoDMG is a great tool. This doesnвЂ™t require any networking changes and I can use this method when working from home.Д«oth methods described above make use of a disk image. I can take the same disk image that would have been restored by Imagr and convert it into a Fusion VM. (And then, probably more importantly, I need to remember to clean that up when IвЂ™m done using the VM for testing, or at least when I no longer need to NetBoot the VM.) Additionally, you need to be on a network that you can NetBoot from - itвЂ™s pretty hardВ to use this method when you are working remotely over VPN, for example.ДЄnother way to set up a VM so it is configured just like our real Ms is to use Joe ChilcoteвЂ™s vfuse tool ( ) to convert a bootable disk image (like one built with Per OlofssonвЂ™s AutoDMG ( ) into a Fusion VM. You canвЂ™t use the default networking configuration in the VM you have to configure the VM for вЂњbridgedвЂќ networking, and in my environment, I have also reserve an IP address on our DHCP server for the VM so it will get an address on our production network. Since we build our machines by booting into a NetBoot image and using Graham GilbertвЂ™s excellent Imagr ( ) to restore an image, itвЂ™s great that we can also boot Fusion VMs from a NetBoot image.Д«ut this approach has its drawbacks. ItвЂ™s a great tool.ДЇor some of the testing I do, itвЂ™s important to be able to quickly and easily build a VM that is configured just like the вЂњrealвЂќ machines I manage. Fusion enables me to test in various versions of OS X, and to easily make changes and revert to a prior state. Like many people tasked with managing OS X/macOS machines, I use VMware Fusion to do a lot of testing.