Specifications

Chapter 1

Netboot Services

Last updated 2009/11/07

1.1 Introduction

All recent models of Macintosh computer have the ability to be NetBooted,

where the computer boots its operating system oﬀ of a special server on the

network. This approach has several advantages in a managed setting, including

the ability to manage software and OS settings in lab environments and not

needing to clean public machines manually (as changes are lost after reboots).

Here at Suﬃeld, we do not have many public labs (each student has their own

laptop). We primarily use NetBoot as a ”rescue disk” for computers. By booting

oﬀ of the network, the internal hard drive can be examined, repaired, erased,

or reimaged with fresh software. Our NetBoot image contains various ﬁle repair

utilities, as well as installers and system imaging software.

This document describes how to set up a NetBoot server that will service clients.

Additionally, we describe how to build a ”rescue disk” to serve to clients for

repairs and system imaging.

Note: we mainly use our NetBoot image for booting damaged machines and

repairing or reimaging them. Reimaging is done using a program called Ne-

tRestore. While we discuss the installation of NetRestore in this document, it

only covers the use of the client. For more information about setting up NetRe-

store on the server, and for information on building images to install on client

machines, see our HOWTO on creating NetRestore images.