how to setup NetBoot on OSX Server 10.3 Server

[gandalf01]

Hi,

To date we have been reimaging any new Macs or failed ones with an image that sits on our external firewire drive. This image includes all our corporate apps etc etc.

An an alternative to this, I would like to explore the use of NetBoot/NetInstall/NetRestore to reimage these machines.

To be clear, I dont want to NetBoot a machine just to use an image off the server (OSX server 10.3.9) and thats it, just to boot off the server and have a another image (our corporate one, applied to the client machine.

I have been reading loads about this and have been messing about creating an image etc but I underdstand that I have to enable NetBoot on the OSX server and also host the image I want applied to the client Mac on a sharepoint ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[MacDoug]

gandalf01, you are on the right track. You need to use Mike Bombich's app NetRestore to create a master image and then a NetBoot set for the server. The master image can go on any shared volume you like, but the NetBoot set needs to live in the Library/NetBoot/NetBootSP0 folder on you server's boot drive. Then you need to configure the NetBoot service to activate the image using Server Admin. I learned a ton from the doc on this page: http://www.bombich.com/mactips/workshop.html. It took me a bit of trial and error to get it working, but I got it. Make sure you take your time creating the Master image!!