Mass duplication of linux drives

[Nathan Saper]

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On Sat, 26 Aug 2000, der.hans wrote:

> Am 26. Aug, 2000 schwäzte Justin so:
> 
> > Hey everyone-
> > 
> 
> > I need to make 40 copies of one harddrive for 40 workstations. This is
> > the first time that I have ever had to do this with Linux
> > workstations. What I have done in the past with Windows workstations
> > is use Partition Magic to copy the partitions, this however is not
> > working do to the fact that LILO is in the MBR and I do not know how
> > to duplicate the MBR to make the copies bootable. I have checked the
> 
> I belive ghost will do everything, but you have to pay for it.
> 
> Another option is to use lilo to setup your mbr. One way is to move the
> new disk into the new box, use a floppy to boot, then run lilo. Another is
> while you've got the disk hooked up to the original, provided the original
> is up and running Linux, chroot to the new disk and run lilo.
> 
> I believe Nate has recently posted info about running such things via
> chroot and know Kevin and JLF know how to do it well. Searching the last
> few weeks of the list for chroot should give you the necessary info.
> 
> BTW, you could use dd, tar, cpio and a few other things to do what
> partition magic is doing. That would also allow you to run customizing
> scripts on the new drive before putting it in place.
> 

If the disks are exactly the same, I'd use dd.  If the original disk image
is on /dev/sda1, and the new disk is /dev/sdb, just make a partition on
sdb of the same size as sda1, then do a 'dd if=/dev/sda1
of=/dev/sdb1'.  You can use dd if the disks aren't the same as well, but
it's much more complicated.

> Also, several dists have quickstart autoloaders that take advantage of the
> package management systems they're using, e.g. autoinstall debian from a
> local mirror.
> 
> ciao,
> 
> der.hans
> -- 
> #  der.hans@LuftHans.com   home.pages.de/~lufthans/   www.Opnix.com
> # "... the social skills of a cow on acid." - der.hans
> 
> 
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> 

- --

Nathan Saper
natedog@well.com (PGP)
http://www.well.com/user/natedog/
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