Apple Fusion Drive
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There is a new hurdle, but this is a seperate FOG-Server in a different environment that will only be interfacing with the exact same iMacs with the exact same hardware, quick fixes/rigging it up are wanted. I am in a bind due to not realizing the hard drive type.
I have an iMac (36 of them) that have a fusion drive.
27GB SSD and a 1TB SATA drive.
When I just do a typical imaging process via FOG it does not work.
When I boot up after cloning I get the following boot screen:
Help please!!
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lsblk lists the following:
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@ismith-hpu said in Apple Fusion Drive:
lsblk lists the following:
Is this on the Mac before capture or on the Mac after deploying to it?
I do remember fusion drive being a pain. Just from memory I think it’s simular to what we know as LVM on Linux. FOG can’t handle that at the moment I think.
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Is there a way to rig it so it does, a hotfix or a one-off fix?
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@ismith-hpu Have you tried cloning in dd mode?
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@ismith-hpu Was it captured in DD mode as well? Just want to make sure.
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Yes sir, it was.
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@ismith-hpu A quick research reveals that fusion drive can be a combination of disk and NAND flash for faster access to heavily used files. See here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_Drive
I will try to find some more infos on the innerhalb details.
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@ismith-hpu Just a quick idea. Create a second image definition with the same settings but a different name and set Primary Disk to
/dev/nvme0n1for this NEW image. Capture und deploy this as well. -
@Sebastian-Roth said in Apple Fusion Drive:
/dev/nvme0n1
I will do that momentarily, mind you it is already capturing and writing to /dev/nvme0n1 and booting off of /dev/nvme0n1 when it starts the boot process.
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@ismith-hpu Well the general idea was to make it clone and deploy both disks. FOS only does one disk in DD mode as far as I remember. So yes, on capture you would first set Primary Disk e.g. to
/dev/sdaand image definition A first. Let it capture. Then set Primary Disk to/dev/nvme0n1and image definition B and do another capture. Similar on deploy… -
Short term I am going to be using a time machine network backup & deploy, as I have minimal time to fix this and need this working.
I will circle back around sometime after I get the machines working at least.
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@ismith-hpu Did you get to fully test the was I proposed? Would be interesting to see if that does it.
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Not yet, I am currently in the process of imaging the devices via time machine and confirming functionality on the iMacs in the new environment before doing additional testing or changes.
I am still using the FOG-Client to manage hostnames and computer names as that is a useful feature in itself.
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While I’m sure @Sebastian-Roth will work with you to try and get this going. As someone who manages a rather large fleet of Apple computers I’m going to tell you whatever the solution is; its not worth it.
As far as Apple is concerned imaging is dead. Full stop.
The procedure for provisioning machines in bulk is as such:- Install OS via internet recovery or if the machine is brand new it should come out of the box with a current OS (You can do net install on older machines but T2 makes this impossible on newer machines unless you are willing to disable SIP, which you shouldn’t)
- Have your machines enrolled in DEP via school manager or business manager
- DEP will put your machine into your MDM of choice (JAMF, Mosley etc)
- Your MDM will provision profiles and software from your repository
Yes. You can technically image Macs for now, but the process is going to be full of work arounds and scotch tape which in the end will stop working at the next OS and you will need to start over.
Do yourself a favor and stop imaging Macs.
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@astrugatch said in Apple Fusion Drive:
Yes. You can technically image Macs for now, but the process is going to be full of work arounds and scotch tape which in the end will stop working at the next OS and you will need to start over.
^^ This I fear is also on the roadmap for MicroSquish. I can see the day when if you are not using sccm…
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@george1421
The only reason I can see it continuing to work is because microsoft isn’t primarily a hardware company. They need their OS to be available on many different standard x86_64 hardware. Now if they stop selling OEM installers and only using somesort of pre-baked internet recovery I would be more nervous.
