Use DSL for imaging other PCs..?
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Use DSL for imaging other PCs..?
started by: Kiba
Posted by Kiba on Mar. 13 2006,08:50
I would like to use DSL on USB bootable stick to boot other PC.Is there any kind of software for DSL which is able to create clone images (restore from clone) of other Linux (Windows based, better any kind) machines?
The situation where I would like it to use:
1) PC doesn't have CD drive. So only USB boot is possible.
2) Boot with DSL and cloning software (if you help me with it)
3) Take the image of the localmachine and put it to USB hdd (connected to other USB port, as DSL supports it). Or restore the image of hdd from file also saved on USB hdd.
So, this could be the ultimate solution for all administrators tasks. Sounds cool, isn't it?
Thanks in advance.
Vlad
Posted by Onyarian on Mar. 13 2006,13:34
This is exactly what I do for a long time.The soft is partimage, is a executable, you don't have to install it, only copy it to the USB bootable stick and execute it as root in a xterm window.
Don't mount the partition to clone, only mount the partition to copy to the image file.
Thats all.
Onyarian
Posted by Kiba on Mar. 13 2006,15:42
Just another brilliant idea came up to my mind.It's also necessary to have something for remote administration (VNC server? or similar). Does DSL support it with own s/w or 3rd party maybe???
So, you just need to change BIOS parameters only once for booting from USB with DSL. After that it'd be nice to have remote access from anywhere, even when you are hundreds kilometers away from the machine.
Posted by clivesay on Mar. 13 2006,16:35
I've been using the bzip2 method to image HD's from DSL. I like the compression it gives when it creates an image. It's slow, but I like it. It's just a couple commands, no additional software needed. One note.......
I have a server in my home that is running from DSL running toram on a USB drive. I like doing this because my hard drives are completely free for data. Apparently, the Knoppix 3.4 kernel was not compiled with Large File Support so if I try to write an image to this server I get the good old 2gig limit error. I have tried this imaging with the bzip2 command and imaging to the server over FTP with G4U with the same result. I also tried this with the 2.4.31 kernel with the same results.
I started to see if I could compile 2.4.26 with LFS but couldn't figure out how you enable LFS or even if you can in the 2.4 kernels. I haven't learned much from google.
Now, if you image with DSL directly to a USB hard drive, there are no size limitations. I have no idea if this is because you are using scsi or not. This all starts to get over my head.
If anyone has any insight or suggestions about LFS I would love to hear them.
Chris
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 13 2006,18:28
I think LFS is compiled into the kernel.The problem was the busybox utilities did not have large file support compiled into them.
Also, some filesystem types do have limits on the filesize, such as FAT32 cannot have files larger than 4GB.
I would try either a newer version of DSL, or try the "Upgrade to GNU utils" to see if you can replace your busybox program with the original GNU program. Or maybe the coreutils.uci extension.
Posted by clivesay on Mar. 13 2006,18:41
Thanks, CB.I'll try the coreutils.uci.
The filesystem isn't the issue because I can save large files to ext2 without issue when I save directly to a usb drive using DSL. The issue is saving TO a PC running DSL via samba or FTP. I'll do more experimentation and welcome any ideas
Chris
Posted by Kiba on Mar. 15 2006,12:55
I'm little bit confused with this partimage s/w... 
where is the option to clone whole HDD to file... not just the partition.
Maybe only by CLI?
Btw, what about remote administration of DSL itself when it's booted? Possible?