RE: test VMs

[Bonno Bloksma <b.bloksma@tio.nl>]

Hi Bob,

>> I want to setup a few test VMs on my VMware servers.
>
> Fun!
>
>> Can I simply clone a basic machine? A machine with no desktop, just an 
>> "empty" server.
>
> Yes.  I do that all of the time.  Depending upon what VM system you are using there may
> be a script to clone the VM and automatically change the things like the Ethernet
> address that need to be unique across your network.
>
>> Is there a script which I can use to simply "reset" machine specific 
>> stuff like the hostname, ssh keys, etc?
>
> No.  It depends upon what you have installed.  Every system will be different.  But it is easy enough to script it for your systems.  If we knew what you had installed.

I was thinking I could run something which Debian Install runs too but then later realized that probably depends on files like ssh keys not being present yet and only creating new keys when that is the case.

> A very basic list of things that need to be changed are:
>  /etc/hostname
>  /etc/mailname
>  /etc/hosts
>  /etc/network/interfaces if static IP
>  /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*key*
>  /etc/postfix/main.cf if customized
>
> Other things depend upon what you have installed.

Thanks, that is enough for now. Just going to install a machine with only the system tools installed, need to do some basic routing / firewall testing.

Bonno Bloksma