This is especially useful for printer drivers that Apple may provide as they tend to be a one-size-fits-all, meaning their file size is usually hundreds of megabytes to cater for a wide number of printers from each manufacturer.Īpple provides their optional software packages and printer drivers via the Apple Support site.

What makes AutoDMG so great for Mac admins is that you can install software or bundle apps with the image so if you want to include Dropbox or any required printer drivers in the image, you can. Instead, let’s explore how software and drivers can be included within the image, reducing the need for additional configuration. You can then download the updates by clicking Download or you can skip updates entirely by unchecking Apply updates.Īt this point, you could simply click Build and AutoDMG would create a never-booted OS X installation that can be rolled out across any Macs it maybe needed on.

This can save both time and network traffic since you can ensure the image you create is fully up to date before rolling it out, ensuring the latest security and software updates are put in place. Creating an ImageĪfter downloading AutoDMG, launch the app to start creating a new build and then drag either an OS X Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavericks installer that has been have downloaded from the Mac App Store.Īs soon as an OS X installer has been selected, AutoDMG will check for any available software updates that might need to be applied. Instead of requiring a dedicated Mac to build an initial image from, AutoDMG builds the image itself (based upon a suitable OS X Installer from the Mac App Store) and creates a restore-ready disk image that can be deployed in any number of ways.Īpps and packages can be included with the build which are then installed into the image and any available software updates are applied, ensuring a complete installation with no additional interaction once restored.Īs the disk image has never been booted, there are no UUID mismatches and the Setup Assistant will even still run, providing the end-user with that “new Mac” experience. AutoDMGĬreated by Per Olofsson, AutoDMG is a free utility designed to create never-booted OS X disk images. Ideally, we don’t want this otherwise we could be potentially introducing issues and problems to a user’s system. More importantly, certain preferences and settings will have been created using the original Mac’s Hardware UUID, which is unique to each Mac. While this process is far better than setting each Mac up individually, the image that had been created has been booted, so any tasks like Setup Assistant will not run again. Once this disk image has been obtained, it can be restored to the remaining 19 through services like NetRestore or even just copying the image to a triage drive, which the Mac is then booted from before restoring it via Disk Utility. Although that would work, an incredible amount of time will have been wasted since the process for one is no different than the process for the other 19.Ī popular method of performing the above task more efficiently is by setting up Mac Pro to completion, then creating a disk image of it through the use of a Triage Drive. Many Mac technicians, even today, would simply set each one up, one at a time, until they were all finished. Let’s say we’ve just had a delivery of 20 new Mac Pros, all needing certain software and printer drivers installed, along with any OS X software updates applied. While we have covered disk imaging previously in the multi-part guide Disk Management From the Command-Line, we’ll now explore how to quickly and easily build a complete OS X image that includes everything we might need, including a pre-configured administrator account, providing us with a standardised image that can be restored to any Mac. The process of setting up a user account, installing any required software and applying all of the available updates on each and every Mac before handing them to users can be both laborious and horribly inefficient.

If you’re responsible for the configuration of tens, if not hundreds, of brand-new Macs then you’ll probably know how time consuming it can be to get them all set up exactly the same.

Imaging software for mac os x