PKGImage is a modular system deployment tool to OS X (10.5/10.6)
Every image starts with the same universal base that then is stacked with .pkg or .mpkg files that you can custom build with tools like Composer, Iceberg or PackageMaker.
Using PKGImage you can then stack the order in which pkg files are installed after the base OS to make up your complete image with the click of a mouse.
Tick the options to set the startup disk, re-boot after imaging and enable Active Directory / Open Directory bindings. ByHost files are automatically renamed for User Template and all Users on the system. A report is automatically outputted to the server so you know which machines have been done, at what time and what’s been installed.
Set the host / bind name automatically from an outputted .CSV file where name to MAC Address format will automatically populate the correct fields.
Add your own custom scripts to be run at the end of imaging and much, much more. Click the image button and sit back and let the tool do the rest for you.
Because the Process is completely modular there is no need to re-image a computer because of a mistake or something was forgotten. Simply modify the original config file or Create a new one and just Get the system to update without erasing the computer or re-installing the base.
This also means saving space on the server hard drives. For example a base image of 3-4GBs is the same file for all images, Office.pkg at 600MBs is still one file even if it’s assigned to 30 different image configurations.
Once you have software as pkg files there is now no need to rebuild them to push one out mid year with ARD.
