[Samba] System Imaging

[Tomasz Chmielewski]

> I am using Samba 3.0.20pre1 as a DC and I want to know if there is
> something similar to Deep Freeze www.faronics.com (except open source)
> for Linux.  Deep Freeze automatically compares the software installation
> on a client machine to an image on a server.  If the client machine
> differs, the client is automatically synced with the server.  I want to
> achieve this with Samba and a linux tool if possible.

I don't know what Deep Freeze is, but you can achieve a similar result 
to one that you describe with WPKG - http://wpkg.org
Depending on how you configure it, it is able to install and/or remove 
software on your workstations (according to the setup on the server side 
- in this case it would be Samba).

So for example, you can configure it so that all clients (or groups of 
your clients) set up to use it will have Acrobat, Firefox etc. 
installed, and some other software deinstalled (for example, if you no 
longer need to use Photoshop).

If you combine it with Unattended - http://unattended.sf.net - you will 
have self-repairing network (like they write it on www.faronics.com - "A 
simple restart restores your workstations down to the last bit and byte.").


-- 
Tomek