Skip to Content

The admin's freeware friend: DeployStudio

DeployStudioFor individual Mac users or small businesses, it's usually not a problem deploying new Macs with a standard image -- as a Mac support specialist, you might just load each machine manually. But imagine if you need to deploy hundreds or thousands of Macs, PCs, or XServes. You'd need a small army of techs or a way to do the job automatically.

That's where DeployStudio comes in handy. This freeware tool can be used to create deployment files using Netboot, external USB or FireWire drives, or any AFP, SMB, or NFS sharepoint on the network.

DeployStudio works with Mac OS X 10.4.11 to 10.5.3 at this point, and is updated regularly to include new OS versions. The package consists of DeployStudio Server, DeployStudio Assistant, DeployStudio Admin, and diffPackageMaker.

DeployStudio Server creates a network based deployment server containing the images. Assistant is used to configure the server and to create the NetInstall sets, while Admin is used to monitor deployments, manage disk images and scripts, enter configurations, and more. diffPackageMaker can look at the difference between two file system snapshots and create installation packages based on what has been changed or added.

Detailed documentation PDFs and screencasts are available on the DeployStudio site.

For individual Mac users or small businesses, it's usually not a problem deploying new Macs with a standard image -- as a Mac support...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

12 Comments

Filter by:
discusreilly

You want a reason to consider using Deploy studio? How about the fact that Bombich himself has decided to drop Netrestore 11/18/08 and is recommending publicly the use of Deploy Studio? I am an avid Bombich user (Netresore, CCC, and PHP) and love all his products. I rely heavily on Netrestore and have used it to manage over 800 computers beautifully. On paper, Deploy Studio seems promising. I will have to give it a try (and Dan, I would like to try to use your script to migrate my PHP over to it, so thank you in advance).

It seems like a merge between Netrestore and the new Apple mentality of mass deployment with packages. I am also excited to try something that also works with my PC's (I only have a few, but would like the same power and haven't investigated Ghost yet). Nervous, but excited and happy that I at least have some time to investigate and test this before I need to reimage all my macs again.

November 19 2008 at 9:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
hindlist

i agree. its quite useful. http://www.hindlist.com

October 20 2008 at 6:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jash Sayani

Any tool to backup and restore Applications with License, Prefs, etc.
I have got 10 Macs and have to load the same set of Applications, so instead of installing it 10 times and entering the product key 10 times and changing the settings 10 times. An app to copy selected Apps along with the Library folder and Pref. Plists would be great....

Any such app...?

October 18 2008 at 1:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Jash Sayani's comment
Boomdude

I have used both Bombich's tools, Filewave, and this. If you do not understand the differences between the tools then so be it, but this tool is very different from Bombich's.

First off, Bombich is a king. Without his hard work, tools, & Mt. Fuji-sized efforts, we would all be worse off.

DeployStudio kind of takes the whole NetBoot / NetInstall / NetRestore scenario to another level and enables you have a true server-client setup. You can create workflows specific to machines, groups, etc. If you are familiar with Symantec Ghost Solutions Suite, this is about the closest Mac equivalent I've found so far.

Your workflow (or "task" as its called in Ghost) can include a multitude of operations - restore an image, create an image, execute scripts, install licenses, whatever you want. These workflows are all setup on the server side of things, and clients know what's available to them by computer group, access level, and MAC address. As long as you have NetBoot working as it should be, taking advantage of evertyhing that DeployStudio has to offer greatly reduces your overhead.

It's really quite cool & a breeze to setup. Again, don't get me wrong, I love Bombich's tools and still use them.

October 18 2008 at 12:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joseph

boo! netboot only works on OS X server.

October 17 2008 at 5:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ars_workerbee

What's the point of dealing with something new when I've gotten the process for deploying images via NetRestore in place, and it doesn't need updates to work with new client OS versions?

I mean, heck, I had a NetRestore setup that was done from 10.3, served from a 10.4 server, delivering a 10.5 image, and it didn't even cough.

October 17 2008 at 5:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to ars_workerbee's comment
Tony

I agree. I don't see where this is anything different than NetRestore, which I use all the time to deploy images via FireWire and/or over the network.

October 17 2008 at 5:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dan Siercks

I never thought I'd leave NetRestore PHP Services behind, especially now that it's populated with 350+ machines in 42 Machine Groups. We have started looking into Deploy Studio as an additional option for deploying to labs where customizations need to be made based on area and when you don't want to rely on ARD Task Manager to do post-install tasks.

As we couldn't really start assessing Deploy Studio with out the migration of our existing NetRestore DB, I wrote up a php script and instructions on how to migrate existing machines and machine groups into Deploy Studio:

http://www.deploystudio.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?id=235

Give it a shot, the server end is a 5 minute install and the plist import is easy with the provided script. Its an additional optional NetBoot image, so it can run side by side with NetRestore, and the option of having workflows is intriguing. In the future, we'd like to maintain one thin lab image for all labs, with individual software pieces installed via workflows with a solution comparable to Deploy Studio.

October 20 2008 at 9:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joseph

The SysAdmin in me says YES!!!
The Designer in me says YES!!!
I am now complete.

October 17 2008 at 5:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.