Creating Installation Images with System Image Utility
System Image Utility is part of the Server Administration Tools download that includes Server Admin and Workgroup Manager. You use it to create images for NetBoot and NetInstall (see the two preceding sections). You can also use System Image Utility to create a third type: NetRestore images, which enable you to restore a volume over the network. A NetRestore image is a clone of a user's volume and is used to restore that user's boot volume by using the NetBoot service.
The System Image Utility is easy to use. When you launch it, it lists volumes or installers that it can create images from. (It can't create an image of the drive you are booted from.) The first screen lists the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion installer that you downloaded from the App Store, if you have it on a drive. You then choose whether to create a NetBoot, NetInstall, or NetRestore image. From within System Image Utility, you can save the image to the NetBoot share that Server Admin created when you started the NetBoot service.
Get Mac OS X Lion Server For Dummies® now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
