Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
DaZZa wrote: OK guru's. :-) I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) Is there a better way to do this? Something which will make a smaller image and dump back quicker - most of the disk is empty, there's only about 15 gig of actual data/setup on a 160 gig drive - and still maintain the partition setup/bootability like using DD does? Willing to listen to anyone who has a cluestick and is willing to apply it. We use PXE to boot RedHat's kickstart. That installs the OS. It then runs a script. We have a RPM file which contains as dependencies the names of all of the packages we want installed and the second-last step of the kickstart is a yum install ... of that RPM (and all of its dependencies, which is the point). The last step is to run cfengine to update and maintain the configurations. Total takes about 20m from power-on to running across a 1Gbps network. You're not clear what these boxes are and what they are for. If they are for general PC use, then I'd do exactly as we have done. Because then when fielded the machines will be easy to maintain (if you want to add a package, then you add it to the meta-RPM, and the overnight yum update will pull it in; similarly if you want a widespread change of config cfengine can do that fine). I'd probably substitute puppet for cfengine, for no other reason than its newer. Have a look at past lca miniconfs and SAGE-AU conferences. Running up thousands of machines across the university break is a popular uni sysadmin topic. As is the subsequent administration of those machines. If not, then you've got some alternatives: - put the shipping config into RPMs as well, and drive the whole thing from kickstart. - format the disk, then drop the 15GB of data on top (like this: the dev machine create a 15GB partition, create the filesystem, save it using dd. On the target, dd the file into the disk. Use growfs to expand the fileysystem to the end of the 150GB partition.) Now you've copied only 15GB to get your 150GB filesystem. Either way, I'd drive the build from packages. That is one of the big lessons of the OpenWrt project -- packages have benefits for embedded software too (configuration control, etc). -- Glen Turner -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
DaZZa wrote: OK guru's. :-) I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. Sounds like systemimager may fit your needs. You set up a `golden image', replicate it (once) to the server, then boot the rest via DHCP/TFTP. You can use bittorrent once the first few are booting to get the rest of the stuff. -- Dr Peter Chubb http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au peterc AT gelato.unsw.edu.au http://www.ertos.nicta.com.au ERTOS within National ICT Australia -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
quote who=DaZZa I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) You've gone down the imaging route when you *probably* should have gone down the automated installation route. Here's why: Pretty much every distro has some form of automated installation system. Red Hat (and Fedora) have kickstart, Debian has debconf preseeding, while Ubuntu actually has both (it translates from kickstart into preseed, so you can use similar tools to deploy Ubuntu as you use with Red Hat). Once the automated installs are complete, you can execute a configuration management tool such as puppet or cfengine to make local customisations. One obvious use of this is to ensure network settings are correct (and in many cases, unique). A massive advantage of using a configuration management tool is that you can roll out changes to some or all of the machines really easily, based on a centralised change management scheme. The best bit? Next time you do an auto install of a machine, it will be as up to date as all the others, straight away, and you don't have to keep on regenerating a binary image. Rock on, - Jeff -- OSCON 2008: Portland OR, USA http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/ No shit, [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Mr. Bad -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:51 PM, DaZZa [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK guru's. :-) I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) Is there a better way to do this? Something which will make a smaller image and dump back quicker - most of the disk is empty, there's only about 15 gig of actual data/setup on a 160 gig drive - and still maintain the partition setup/bootability like using DD does? Willing to listen to anyone who has a cluestick and is willing to apply it. Building a provisioning infrastructure is the easy part. Managing a deployment of 3000+ machines is going to be a challenge. Are these set-and-forget machines, or are you going to have to change stuff on them in the future? Even if they are set and forget, I can imagine that your requirements *will* change in the future and you'll be up shit creek if you've done just plain imaging. My suggestion (speaking as someone who's done a 400+ seat deployment, twice): - use your distro's network boot + auto install system to install the most miminal of base images you can get. (kickstart, debian-preseed and PXE are your friend) - hook a configuration management system in an the end of the prep process and have it configure the machines (Puppet is perfect for this) Jeff hit the nail on the head when he explained why you need to use a configuration management system. If you don't have that infrastructure in place you're going to hate yourself when you have to change some seemingly trivial setting across 3000+ machines. You'll end up duplicating whatever work you do, because you'll need to check that the change works on existing machines *as well as* new machines that you provision. Put really simply: keep as much logic as you possibly can *out* of your provisioning process and rely on a configuration management system like Puppet. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
On Mon, 2008-04-28 at 17:09 +1000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) Is there a better way to do this? Something which will make a smaller image and dump back quicker - most of the disk is empty, there's only about 15 gig of actual data/setup on a 160 gig drive - and still maintain the partition setup/bootability like using DD does? Willing to listen to anyone who has a cluestick and is willing to apply it. For 1000s units ... make a custom install CD (or usb). Ubuntu/redhat/suse have easy to use tools. No doubt others do too. In addition you can replicate to a known start point anytime in future. James -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
OK guru's. :-) I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) Is there a better way to do this? Something which will make a smaller image and dump back quicker - most of the disk is empty, there's only about 15 gig of actual data/setup on a 160 gig drive - and still maintain the partition setup/bootability like using DD does? Willing to listen to anyone who has a cluestick and is willing to apply it. Thanks. DaZZa -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:51:47PM +1000, DaZZa wrote: OK guru's. :-) I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) Is there a better way to do this? Something which will make a smaller image and dump back quicker - most of the disk is empty, there's only about 15 gig of actual data/setup on a 160 gig drive - and still maintain the partition setup/bootability like using DD does? Willing to listen to anyone who has a cluestick and is willing to apply it. buy a disk duplicating enclose (or hardware raid/swraid ) and use it to duplicate drives Thanks. DaZZa -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods. - George W. Bush 12/20/2000 Washington, DC signature.asc Description: Digital signature -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
.. setup a scripted install using your favourite distribution. (It has hooks to do that, right?) .. get PXE booting working) (Your hardware PXE boots by default, right?) adrian On Mon, Apr 28, 2008, Alex Samad wrote: On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:51:47PM +1000, DaZZa wrote: OK guru's. :-) I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) Is there a better way to do this? Something which will make a smaller image and dump back quicker - most of the disk is empty, there's only about 15 gig of actual data/setup on a 160 gig drive - and still maintain the partition setup/bootability like using DD does? Willing to listen to anyone who has a cluestick and is willing to apply it. buy a disk duplicating enclose (or hardware raid/swraid ) and use it to duplicate drives Thanks. DaZZa -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods. - George W. Bush 12/20/2000 Washington, DC -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- - Xenion - http://www.xenion.com.au/ - VPS Hosting - Commercial Squid Support - - $25/pm entry-level VPSes w/ capped bandwidth charges available in WA - -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:51:47 +1000 DaZZa [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK guru's. :-) I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. Are they all in the same geographical location / network ? If so then some sort of multicast solution. Clonezilla supports multicast I believe. Worth a look. http://www.clonezilla.org/ 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) Is there a better way to do this? Something which will make a smaller image and dump back quicker - most of the disk is empty, there's only about 15 gig of actual data/setup on a 160 gig drive - and still maintain the partition setup/bootability like using DD does? Willing to listen to anyone who has a cluestick and is willing to apply it. -- Regards Mick Pollard ( lunix ) BOFH Excuse of the day: Static Initialisation Unavailability Warning pgpzpXOBkaQX3.pgp Description: PGP signature -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
DaZZa wrote: an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image back to the new boxes. 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) The USB is the bottleneck. You need to use 100 MB/s ethernet. I know the UTS student machines can all be re-imaged in 40 minutes and thats GBs in size. They remote boot and the image is pushed out to them I think by PXE. Mike -- Michael Lake Computational Research Centre of Expertise Science Faculty, UTS Ph: 9514 2238 -- UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER: This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views of the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. Think. Green. Do. Please consider the environment before printing this email. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
