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Re: [TCLUG:13238] cloning machines



I shy away from doing disk images, because of disk size differences..

check out the bpbatch program (part of linux remote boot).  it stores a
special zip file on a server that can save a ton of network bandwidth.
it also has a small scripting langauge (it's icky, but works) to allow
things like partition manipulation, and file modifying.

Thank You,
        Ben Kochie (ben@nerp.net)

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 "Unix is user friendly, Its just picky about its friends."

On Wed, 2 Feb 2000, Nate Carlson wrote:

> On Wed, 2 Feb 2000, Timothy Wilson wrote:
> 
> > Hi everyone,
> > 
> > Here's a quick question about cloning (or duplicating) machines.
> > 
> > I'd like to create an image of a HD and save it on my server so I can
> > easily upgrade or install Linux on a bunch of little 486s in short order.
> > I know that the RedHat Kickstart program will automate installation, but
> > I'd like to go one step easier than that.
> > 
> > These machines all NFS-mount /home from the server. Obviously, I need the
> > 'dd' command, but I'm not sure how to proceed to create the image, and
> > further, how to install the image once it's created. I don't have room to
> > save the image (even with compression) on the local drive of one of the
> > 486s. How would I create remotely then? Would someone give me a swat with
> > the clue stick?
> > 
> > -Tim
> > 
> 
> Hmmm... easiest way I can think of to do this would be to set up a tar'd
> copy of the working system on a NFS server, and then make a boot disk that
> would create partitions on the disk (and make differences in the sizes of
> partitions for different drive sizes and such), mount that NFS share, and
> then tar xfv it to / (and run lilo, of course)... if all the drives are
> the same make+model, you could just dd if=/dev/hda of=/path/to/mounted/nfs/hd.img,
> and then dd that right back to the new machines.
> 
> -- 
> Nate Carlson <carlson@real-time.com>    | Phone : (612)943-8700
> http://www.real-time.com                | Fax   : (612)943-8500
> 
> 
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