Re: Cloning

[Tim Ruehsen <tim.ruehsen@gmx.de>]

Just to add a point to #2:
Instead of dd'ing you could cpio one or more archives onto a NFS (or SMB) 
drive, partition all your drives and play back the cpio archives. This seems 
to bee good if you have a big HD but little space used (e.g. 80GB drive, but 
just 3GB data). AND you could start the copy on each of your clones at 
(nearly) the same time and go to lunch... ;-)

Am Donnerstag, 29. Januar 2004 17:12 schrieb Gregory Seidman:
> On Thu, Jan 29, 2004 at 04:00:23PM +0100, Pedro Hernandez wrote:
> } Hello all!
> }
> } I'm about to install Debian on 12 computers (i*86). They will use the
> } same setup regarding software, but the hardware differs somewhat
> } between them.
> }
> } I would like to know if there is possible to, for example, install and
> } configure one box and then somhow "copy" the install to the others. Or
> } is the debian installer maybe scriptable?
> }
> } Well, I have never done anything similar before- suggestions, anyone?
>
> Though I don't have an immediate need for this, I expect to in the
> future. This means that I've been playing with ideas in my head, but
> haven't tested anything. Here are a few ideas, starting from the
> assumptions that you have configured a "master" and that your machines
> are x86 and identical:
>
> 1) dpkg --get-selections | grep '\<install\>' | cut -f1 | xargs dpkg-repack
>
>    This will produce .debs of everything installed, including any
>    changes you have made to config files, which you can use to recreate
>    the system on a new machine once it has gone through a base install.
>    Note that this will not capture additional config files, and that it
>    can cause some issues with new versions overwriting modified config
>    files later. See the dpkg-repack man page for details. Note that this
>    still requires an install on each machine.
>
> 2) Get an external disk identical to all the internal disks. This isn't
>    as hard as it sounds; get the disk, then get a USB or Firewire
>    external enclosure for it. Boot with Knoppix and use dd to copy the
>    master disk (entire disk, including MBR, e.g. /dev/hda not /dev/hda1)
>    onto the external. Boot other machines with Knoppix and external
>    drive connected and dd from external to internal. This preserves
>    partitioning and everything, but can be expected to be slow for large
>    disks.
>
> 3) Variant of #2. Instead of using an external disk, both the master and
>    the clone with Knoppix, then use dd over netcat (you'll need a named
>    pipe on each side). It may be possible to use UDP multicast or
>    broadcast with netcat (this might require modifying the netcat
>    source) to do more than one clone at a time. This requires a fast
>    network (probably disconnected from everything else temporarily
>    because it will completely fill the bandwidth) and many Knoppix CDs.
>    It can be expected to be even slower than #2 for large disks, but
>    if the multi-/broadcast trick works then it is amortized over the
>    multiple concurrent installs.
>
> 4) Get an extra disk large enough to hold the full install (need not be
>    identical to other disks, need not be external, only needed
>    temporarily). Between installing and configuring the master,
>    duplicate the master onto the external disk. After configuring, boot
>    Knoppix and produce a diff -ur of the roots of the two disks. Get the
>    output of dpkg --get-selections. Install the base system on a clone.
>    Armed with the dpkg selections (named selections) and the diff output
>    (name clone.patch), load the selections into dpkg (dpkg
>    --set-selections < selections), install the selected packaged
>    (apt-get dselect-upgrade), then boot into Knoppix and patch the
>    system (patch < clone.patch). This needs refining, but it should work
>    pretty dependably, especially with a local repository mirror.
>
> 5) Refinement of #4. No need for an extra disk, just keep a backup of
>    each config file you change and produce patches for each one
>    separately.
>
> } Thanks,
> } --ph
> --Greg