linux build image

hello,

I know that what i have in mind must exist - and i have used similar
products in the past - but i cant recall their names. What i want is to be
able to configure a linux box and set it up perfectly, as i want it (post
install). Then i want to be able to build an image from that box that will
install on _any_ hardware. Is there such a thing? much like RIS on windows
for example.

cheers
moth

rancid moth wrote:

> hello,
>
> I know that what i have in mind must exist - and i have used
> similar products in the past - but i cant recall their names.
> What i want is to be able to configure a linux box and set it
> up perfectly, as i want it (post install). Then i want to be
> able to build an image from that box that will install on _any_
> hardware. Is there such a thing? much like RIS on windows for
> example.

man tar

modern Linux distributions do all their hardware configuration
upon boot. For example, when my old Laptop broke I got a new one
(completely different chipset, other CPU model, other graphics).
All I did was putting the harddisk of the old Laptop into the
new one.

So the best method I think is to tar up a fully prepared Linux
system. You should eventually delete those configuration files
that need some individualisation for each box (hostname, network
configuration, eventually fstab and stuff like that). You'll
have of course to use tar options to preserve special files and
permissions (-p).

Wolfgang Draxinger
--
E-Mail address works, Jabber: (E-Mail Removed), ICQ: 134682867

On 2007-09-12, Wolfgang Draxinger <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> So the best method I think is to tar up a fully prepared Linux
> system.

You would not want to do this naively. For one, special filesystems
like /proc and /dev (if mounted as dev) should not be included in a
tarball image, and you wouldn't want to take /tmp either. Depending on
the situation, you might want to exclude /home as well.

For another, you will want to be in runlevel 1 to make this sort of
tarball, to minimize the number of open files that might not be captured
correctly by tar if open.

But I think that's probably not the best way to go anyway. I would
start with the distro of choice, track any customizations made, and
include them in a package that can be installed post-OS install.

>You should eventually delete those configuration files
> that need some individualisation for each box (hostname, network
> configuration, eventually fstab and stuff like that). You'll
> have of course to use tar options to preserve special files and
> permissions (-p).

There's also systemimager, which is a more robust way of doing a
hot snapshot, including handling things like network and fstab
customizations.

--keith

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thanks for the info:

is anyone here familiar with mksysb in AIX. Thats what i want - but for
linux. Effectively it creates an install image that can be used in
conjunctionwith install media to rebuild say a p-series server. But you can
also put this on different hardware (in the same class of course) and
re-build / re-store etc.

So i will refrase - i want mksysb for linux. does it exist?

I will check out the systemimager.

cheers
moth

"Keith Keller" <kkeller-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 2007-09-12, Wolfgang Draxinger <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> So the best method I think is to tar up a fully prepared Linux
>> system.
>
> You would not want to do this naively. For one, special filesystems
> like /proc and /dev (if mounted as dev) should not be included in a
> tarball image, and you wouldn't want to take /tmp either. Depending on
> the situation, you might want to exclude /home as well.
>
> For another, you will want to be in runlevel 1 to make this sort of
> tarball, to minimize the number of open files that might not be captured
> correctly by tar if open.
>
> But I think that's probably not the best way to go anyway. I would
> start with the distro of choice, track any customizations made, and
> include them in a package that can be installed post-OS install.
>
>>You should eventually delete those configuration files
>> that need some individualisation for each box (hostname, network
>> configuration, eventually fstab and stuff like that). You'll
>> have of course to use tar options to preserve special files and
>> permissions (-p).
>
> There's also systemimager, which is a more robust way of doing a
> hot snapshot, including handling things like network and fstab
> customizations.
>
> --keith
>
> --
> kkeller-(E-Mail Removed)
> (try just my userid to email me)
> AOLSFAQ=http://www.therockgarden.ca/aolsfaq.txt
> see X- headers for PGP signature information
>

Keith Keller wrote:

> On 2007-09-12, Wolfgang Draxinger <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>>
>> So the best method I think is to tar up a fully prepared Linux
>> system.
>
> You would not want to do this naively. For one, special
> filesystems like /proc and /dev (if mounted as dev) should not
> be included in a
> tarball image, and you wouldn't want to take /tmp either.
> Depending on the situation, you might want to exclude /home as
> well.
>
> For another, you will want to be in runlevel 1 to make this
> sort of tarball, to minimize the number of open files that
> might not be captured correctly by tar if open.

Natrually you would boot from a different medium, than the one
you want to take an image of.

This will also mean, that the pseudo file systems are not going
to be included. BTW: Even on tmpfs mounted /dev you need a
basic /dev on the root partition so that the /sbin/init started
by the kernel sees /dev/null /dev/zero and /dev/console (w/o
them, it will not start). This is also required for initramfs!

/tmp should be included into the image, so that it's there, even
if it contains no files.

> But I think that's probably not the best way to go anyway.

This is actually the way, a certain distro that gets installed
this way: Gentoo.

> I would start with the distro of choice, track any
> customizations made, and include them in a package that can be
> installed post-OS install.

Not a good idea: Someone might get the idea then, to install this
package on a different version of that distro.


Wolfgang Draxinger
--
E-Mail address works, Jabber: (E-Mail Removed), ICQ: 134682867

On 2007-09-13, Wolfgang Draxinger <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Keith Keller wrote:
>
>> On 2007-09-12, Wolfgang Draxinger <(E-Mail Removed)>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> So the best method I think is to tar up a fully prepared Linux
>>> system.

[snip]

>> But I think that's probably not the best way to go anyway.
>
> This is actually the way, a certain distro that gets installed
> this way: Gentoo.

Except that Gentoo has already created the tarball for you. Why go
through all the work when Gentoo has already done it? More generally,
why go through all the work of creating an install image when X thousand
linux distributions have done the work already? Unless the changes from
the base distro are major, creating an image of the incremental changes
needed seems a much less error-prone way to go, and seems a lot easier
to modify once created.

>> I would start with the distro of choice, track any
>> customizations made, and include them in a package that can be
>> installed post-OS install.
>
> Not a good idea: Someone might get the idea then, to install this
> package on a different version of that distro.

That's their own fault! The OP need not even redistribute his package;
it could be for his use only, just as (presumably) a ginormous tarball
image of his entire disk would be for his use only. If it's really a
concern, the OP could instead create a tarball containing the
customizations made.

--keith

--
kkeller-(E-Mail Removed)
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://www.therockgarden.ca/aolsfaq.txt
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On 09/12/2007 09:48 AM, rancid moth wrote:
> hello,
>
> I know that what i have in mind must exist - and i have used similar
> products in the past - but i cant recall their names. What i want is to be
> able to configure a linux box and set it up perfectly, as i want it (post
> install). Then i want to be able to build an image from that box that will
> install on _any_ hardware. Is there such a thing? much like RIS on windows
> for example.

I don't know what's RIS on Windows, but I think, you either need to
create a LiveCD/DVD with the help debbootstrap yourself or re-master
some exiting one like Knoppix, Ubuntu and, or S

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