Apple ARD31 Remote Boot Disk Selection, NetBoot and Network Install services, Set Startup Disk

NetBoot and Network Install services

Mac OS X Server includes system imaging tools that streamline the support of Mac clients and reduce system administration costs. Administrators can use NetBoot to host a single operating system and application configuration on all desktop systems. Network Install is an ideal solution for installing and upgrading software on Mac OS X desktop and portable systems.

Technology Overview 24

Apple Remote Desktop 3

Remote Boot Disk Selection

Apple Remote Desktop 3 allows you to designate the startup disk of client systems from your own computer. This feature enables you to set any number of Mac computers to start up from a NetBoot or Network Install image or from a specific partition on the local hard drive—especially useful for deploying a standard desktop configuration across multiple systems, whether in classrooms, computer labs, kiosks, or compute clusters. After selecting the boot disk, you set the systems to restart immediately or at a later date and time. There’s no need to travel from location to location configuring each system individually.

Set Startup Disk

1

2

3

4

1Select startup disk. Choose from a list of available network volumes; specify server and image name; or select a local drive or partition to be the startup disk.

2Restart computers. You can choose to have the computers restart immediately after the startup disk setting has been changed.

3Target computer list. Select the computers and computer lists for setting their startup disk. You can drag additional computers and computer lists from the main Apple Remote Desktop window or remove computers from the list.

6

5

4Schedule task. Schedule the task for a future date and time or choose a frequency for repeating the task.

5Save task. Save the task with the current configuration and target computers for later use.

6Task Template. Save task settings for later use, or apply settings from a previously saved task. The Task Template menu includes over 30 sample scripts and UNIX commands.