How do you image yours?

FirebarUK

FirebarUK

FirebarUK

Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2004
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Dorset
Hi guys,

Out of interest, how do you guys image Linux machines? I'm quite tempted to use Mondoarchive and Mondorestore to save images to an NFS mount and then restore them using the bootable CD.

Anyone use partimage or some scripts using dd? What are your experiences?

I'm just looking for ideas really.

Thanks :)
 
In all honesty.... I don't. Backing-up is kinda like flossing your teeth - I know I should do it, but I can't be bothered.
 
It really depends what level of "backup" you're talking about.

You could use dd but I see it more as a binary imaging utility- fine for taking a snapshot image of an operating system build but wasteful if you plan on taking periodic backups of files in (for example) your homedir.

For home/small office rsync scripting user files to a server box or mounting these files via NFS onto a box with built-in redundancy (tape/RAID) is the way to go.
 
I really mean to dish out a base image to many workstations. I.e; you purchase a load and want them to be identical without having to install them all seperately.
 
i use dd+bzip2 myself for Linux and XP imaging - free, simple, works with every livecd/bootable linux flash stick on the planet :) - although not very efficient when you're working with large filesystems/devices.

I generally use rsync (compiled with acl support) for UNIX backup/restores that don't require block-level imaging (ie, 99% of the time). I have a network-bootable initrd image with sufficient tools to partition/mkfs a disk and fill it with a filesystem from a rsync server. You get the advantage of a free defrag of the source filesystem onto the target filesystem :)

I've used raw Linux filesystem images shared on a network with ATAoE (vblade/aoe) when I've needed to be able to boot and modify them easily from client machines - Linux can network boot from an ATAoE with no special hardware. Works kinda like iSCSI but with lower overheads.
 
Mmmm dd scripts would be nice but I think something pre-made is a requirement in this case. Our other admins want to be able to easily manage the 'system' and they aren't too hot with *Nix.

Probably looking at 250 jiggalabites per image, not compressed.
 
Partimage from system rescue cd.

Very fast because it only copies used sectors, unlike dd which copies everything ( even free space ).

Only thing that can trip you up is if you restore the image to a different numbered partition. A quick update of grub fixes that, though.
 
For our standard builds we use kickstart and a custom repository for the packages, and then just overwrite configuration files from the master ones and update from a few scripts to get things up to scratch. To install it's just a case of booting from a CD and pointing the installer at the kickstart file across the network. That's RH/Fedora specific I think though.
 
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