Deploying the Mac OS in a lab environment changed dramatically when Mac OS X was introduced. While Mac OS X's built-in security and stability improve reliability and productivity, the underpinnings have changed and lab managers face new deployment challenges.

This course has been designed to quickly bring you up to speed on best-practices for deploying Mac OS X in a lab environment. Course participants are expected to have basic lab management skills (i.e., experience with Mac OS 9 or Windows in a lab) and a general familiarty with Mac OS X. This course is not, however, a replacement for Apple Certified training.

Course topics

• Prepare a Mac OS X installation for the abuses of a lab environment
• Install third party software and protect it from admin and non-admin users
• If desired/required, install and secure the Classic environment
• Create a customized environment for end users
• Implement a system that will restore the default user environment every time a user logs in
• Create a deployable disk image of a custom OS X installation
• Deploy a disk image of a custom OS X installation over the network with little to no interaction with each individual machine
• Develop software installation packages with PackageMaker
• Use Apple Remote Desktop to manage many aspects of a lab

Overview of Lab Deployment

1. Prepare the drive on the master machine
2. Install the OS and applications
3. Customize the user environment
4. Test everything for security, functionality, and reliability
5. Create a disk image of the master disk with NetRestore Helper, saving the disk image to a network volume or Firewire hard drive
6. Restore the disk image to other machines with NetRestore