Network Multi-Booting for Mac Lab

coiner · 06-25-2012, 02:30 PM

Hello, I have recently absorbed a lab of linux thin-clients and the users of this lab would like it to be transformed into a Mac lab. So with that, I have been spending the past few days brainstorming how the lab will be set up...

In an ideal world, I would like my lab users to be able to choose whether they want to boot into OSX, Windows 7, or a selection of Linux distros. My vision is having these lab machines show a bootloader with several images to choose from when powered on, and then loading one of these images over the network.

As for resources, I have an OSX server (10.6.8) available to serve the images. OR I have several Unix/Linux servers available as well. (I'd like to look at all options available to me.)

What software should I set up to achieve this vision?!

agentx · 06-27-2012, 09:48 AM

You can only use OS X on Mac Hardware. You are not allowed and have not ever seen an OS X netboot system to a Linux thin client anyway, even with hacking ;-)

You can easily turn the 10.6.8 server into a Netboot server to serve OS X images but without Mac Hardware on client side you are out of luck.

coiner · 06-27-2012, 10:13 AM

I guess I should have been more clear. By "tranformed into a mac lab" I meant I would be buying iMacs to replace the thin-clients.

The users still require use of several Linux distros; having Windows as an option would be nice too. I have been testing out NetBoot for a few days now and it looks promising but I have yet to test it out with Windows or Linux. I could also go the VMware Fusion route but I would prefer if they could boot directly into the OS they want to use.

trevor · 06-27-2012, 10:23 AM

I haven't done this myself, so I'm not expert enough to personally give advice about triple-booting OS X, Windows, and several Linux distros on the same Apple hardware, but there are lots of people on the web who have kindly shared their expertise:

Google search: triple-boot OS X

Trevor

agentx · 06-27-2012, 10:24 AM

Ok that has clarified things.

Overall do you really want to Netboot ?
You cannot to my knowledge host Windows/Linux Netboot images from the Mac Server and Mac's do not PXE boot as it is not built into the EFI.

You say a Lab are we talking 24-32 machines ?
Obviously gigabit ethernet is a must and a good uplink to server as well.

From what you have said so far, i would go the route of Dual Boot machine (OS X and Windows 7) with Linux distro's running in VMware Fusion in OS X...i do this myself a lot !
I used to have loads of machines, now i run all my Linux distros in VMware and have not looked back ;-)

I would get Deploystudio up and running too. It is what we use for imaging machines and laying down OS X + Recovery Partition and Windows 7 plus all directory binding etc.

coiner · 06-27-2012, 10:59 AM

In terms of infrastructure, we have plenty of resources to devote to NetBoot for this lab, so physically it's not a problem. We have gigabit and a (mostly) dedicated OSX server to use. From what I've read, the NetBoot image that is served from the OSX server just needs to be bootable. I'm going to test out what happens when it receives a bootable Windows image, I'm assuming that won't work as-is but it will be worth a shot. If that doesn't work, I'm going to try to serve a Bootcamp image that contains both OSX and Windows. I think this would be the most ideal solution anyway because then the NetBoot only has to pay attention to a single image rather than 3-5 different ones.

If all else fails, I will revert to VMware but I would like to see this work! Playing around with NetBoot is fun anyway haha.

agentx · 06-27-2012, 12:18 PM

Interesting idea and something i have never tried but have feeling it is not going to work or many of the sysadmins i know would be doing it ;-) but hey there is always a first time !
Please post back your progress, i am interested in your quest ;-)

Another pointer to build your Mac images is InstaDMG it is an excellent command line based image building tool and is totally invaluable to us Mac SysAdmins. You can use SIU (System Image utility) which has improved a lot in Lion but 10.6 SIU can build 10.6 images and 10.7 SIU can build Lion images but i have always found it to be a bit limiting.

Deploystudio will certainly be your friend too for laying down images.
Winclone is also useful for BootCamp etc.

You may better luck asking this deep stuff on macenterprise mailing list and afp548 there are some very experienced people on list that have incredible knowledge.

06-25-2012, 02:30 PM	#1
coiner Prospect Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 13	Network Multi-Booting for Mac Lab Hello, I have recently absorbed a lab of linux thin-clients and the users of this lab would like it to be transformed into a Mac lab. So with that, I have been spending the past few days brainstorming how the lab will be set up... In an ideal world, I would like my lab users to be able to choose whether they want to boot into OSX, Windows 7, or a selection of Linux distros. My vision is having these lab machines show a bootloader with several images to choose from when powered on, and then loading one of these images over the network. As for resources, I have an OSX server (10.6.8) available to serve the images. OR I have several Unix/Linux servers available as well. (I'd like to look at all options available to me.) What software should I set up to achieve this vision?!

06-27-2012, 10:23 AM	#4
trevor Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Boulder, CO USA Posts: 19,560	I haven't done this myself, so I'm not expert enough to personally give advice about triple-booting OS X, Windows, and several Linux distros on the same Apple hardware, but there are lots of people on the web who have kindly shared their expertise: Google search: triple-boot OS X Trevor __________________ How to ask questions the smart way

06-27-2012, 10:24 AM	#5
agentx Hall of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 3,832	Ok that has clarified things. Overall do you really want to Netboot ? You cannot to my knowledge host Windows/Linux Netboot images from the Mac Server and Mac's do not PXE boot as it is not built into the EFI. You say a Lab are we talking 24-32 machines ? Obviously gigabit ethernet is a must and a good uplink to server as well. From what you have said so far, i would go the route of Dual Boot machine (OS X and Windows 7) with Linux distro's running in VMware Fusion in OS X...i do this myself a lot ! I used to have loads of machines, now i run all my Linux distros in VMware and have not looked back ;-) I would get Deploystudio up and running too. It is what we use for imaging machines and laying down OS X + Recovery Partition and Windows 7 plus all directory binding etc. Last edited by agentx; 06-27-2012 at 10:27 AM.

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06-27-2012, 09:48 AM	#2
agentx Hall of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 3,832	You can only use OS X on Mac Hardware. You are not allowed and have not ever seen an OS X netboot system to a Linux thin client anyway, even with hacking ;-) You can easily turn the 10.6.8 server into a Netboot server to serve OS X images but without Mac Hardware on client side you are out of luck.

06-27-2012, 10:13 AM	#3
coiner Prospect Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 13	I guess I should have been more clear. By "tranformed into a mac lab" I meant I would be buying iMacs to replace the thin-clients. The users still require use of several Linux distros; having Windows as an option would be nice too. I have been testing out NetBoot for a few days now and it looks promising but I have yet to test it out with Windows or Linux. I could also go the VMware Fusion route but I would prefer if they could boot directly into the OS they want to use.

06-27-2012, 10:59 AM	#6
coiner Prospect Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 13	In terms of infrastructure, we have plenty of resources to devote to NetBoot for this lab, so physically it's not a problem. We have gigabit and a (mostly) dedicated OSX server to use. From what I've read, the NetBoot image that is served from the OSX server just needs to be bootable. I'm going to test out what happens when it receives a bootable Windows image, I'm assuming that won't work as-is but it will be worth a shot. If that doesn't work, I'm going to try to serve a Bootcamp image that contains both OSX and Windows. I think this would be the most ideal solution anyway because then the NetBoot only has to pay attention to a single image rather than 3-5 different ones. If all else fails, I will revert to VMware but I would like to see this work! Playing around with NetBoot is fun anyway haha.

06-27-2012, 12:18 PM	#7
agentx Hall of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 3,832	Interesting idea and something i have never tried but have feeling it is not going to work or many of the sysadmins i know would be doing it ;-) but hey there is always a first time ! Please post back your progress, i am interested in your quest ;-) Another pointer to build your Mac images is InstaDMG it is an excellent command line based image building tool and is totally invaluable to us Mac SysAdmins. You can use SIU (System Image utility) which has improved a lot in Lion but 10.6 SIU can build 10.6 images and 10.7 SIU can build Lion images but i have always found it to be a bit limiting. Deploystudio will certainly be your friend too for laying down images. Winclone is also useful for BootCamp etc. You may better luck asking this deep stuff on macenterprise mailing list and afp548 there are some very experienced people on list that have incredible knowledge.