[clug] OS deployment server

[Chris Smart]

On 14/12/11 13:48, Mike Carden wrote:
> Can anyone suggest a Linux or FOSS equivalent to that sort of Ghost
> functionality?
> 

I second the motion to use Clonezilla, which, while it can do lots of
cool tricks, can also do simple things like create/restore images over
over SSH. Using a simple laptop with Linux on it, you could roll out
images quite easily on your disconnected networks.

Something like this:
* Build your base server the way you want it.
* Connect your Linux laptop to the server and set an IP.
* Boot Clonezilla live cd on the server.
* Tell Clonezilla to create clone of disk -> image.
* Location to store image is via SSH on laptop.
* Begin.

To roll out the image:
* Simply connect the laptop to server.
* Boot the Clonezilla image on server.
* Restore from SSH on laptop.

So simple, _anyone_ could do it - _and_ you can even script Clonezilla
to do all that automatically (it will even tell you at the  end what
command to run next time). Just download it and play, really, really
easy (I've even shown your guys how to use it before).

> So far my web searching seems to suggest that Spacewalk
> [http://spacewalk.redhat.com/] *might* do what I want. Ideally it
> would be great to hear from someone who has used something like this
> recently.
> 

Spacewalk is hefty but pretty good. It has support for Debian in there,
but not sure how complete - useless for you anyway pretty much due to
network architecture.

Another option is CentOS with kickstarts and custom RPMs.

-c