Mike Gore School of Computer Science

This talk is on the Web in TWIKI format A more detailed copy of this talk can be access on with web page. Including dozens of links to documentation, code and examples! NetworkImaging2013 #watitis2013

Why "imaging" The really big picture Expectations We have students and faculty that expect rich computing environments with all of the bells and whistles tossed in. We have many systems to setup and limited time #watitis2013

Basic Problem statement Installing computers one at time, from scratch, operating systems, updates and settings can be very time consuming #watitis2013

Desired solution So wouldn't be great if we could somehow take a copy of a fully configured system with multiple operating systems and apply it other machines? Bonus points if we can do this on more than one at a time. #watitis2013

Is this possible ? Yes! - There are a number of tools and solutions available. The goal of this talk is to share some of the solutions and tools we have been using in Computer Science #watitis2013

What kinds of alternatives to manual installation are there? Remote software package deployment tools These let you manage the installation of software on remote workstations Imaging tools These make an entire copy of an existing systems #watitis2013

Why chose imaging over remote package deployment There are cost benefits to each choice Imaging has a much simpler overhead Package deployment allows for continual changes after installation #watitis2013

Experience guides your choices In CS we update systems every 4 years Observed that most of the packages self update Concluded that imaging is good enough in many cases after examining implementation options Does not imply it is the correct choice for you! #watitis2013

What are the main difficulties of imaging? Windows Licensing issues and copy protection Fees to be paid in some cases Linux Licensing issues - no copy protection #watitis2013

Hardware driver issues challenges Windows Is extremely sensitive to hardware changes Free Microsoft tool called SYSPREP to the rescue! #watitis2013

Hardware driver issues challenges continued... Linux You can copy to identical hardware without issue Problems limited to "proprietary drivers“ or unsupported drivers #watitis2013

Minimizing Imaging problems Stick with standard configurations that change infrequently Say once per year Advantages You can now put vender specific drivers and software into the image No special post install scripting or configuration #watitis2013

Summary formula for creating a master image in two stages First - we create a vender neutral configuration That is; no special drivers or vender software Install everything licensed or free even if only a few people use it. Save image, then Sysprep, save again #watitis2013

Summary formula for creating a master image in two stages Second - we customize the image for the target hardware we plan to use Install the image on the target hardware Add any vender drivers and software Save image, sysprep and save final image #watitis2013

Imaging Tools and recommendations 1.Try Clonezilla - it is now a mature product. When we started imaging (many years ago) this option was not viable. Free and open source Web site: #watitis2013

Imaging Tools and recommendations Acronis Backup and Recovery Costs money Various Licensing options - not cheap CS TWIKI ImageDeploymentAcronisImageDeploymentAcronis #watitis2013

Windows Specific Tools Sysprep Permits a Windows system to be imaged BCDEDIT Manage multi OS booting #watitis2013

Linux Specific Tools Rsync and Grub –Don't even have to create an image - just use the rsync command to clone the system #watitis2013

Image Creation Environments VMWARE workstation Fantastic for creating initial images Snapshot feature allows you to try multiple configurations You can use sysprep and the imaging tools from within this environment #watitis2013

Network Image Server Summary We use Ubuntu Linux Uses free open source packages Samba - windows file server NFS file server DNSMASQ – PXE,DNS,TFTPBOOT NAT firewall Accounts #watitis2013

Services References DNSMASQ PXE, DNS and TFTPBOOT –CS TWIKI DNSMASQDNSMASQ NAT Firewall using iptables –CS TWIKI NatMasqFirewallExampleNatMasqFirewallExample PXE Live Booting –CS TWIKI PXELiveBootPXELiveBoot #watitis2013

References in the talk NetworkImaging2013 #watitis2013

IST software information and Licensing links CS TWIKI kImaging2013 IST software information and Licensing links technology/ #watitis2013

Using the PXE booting environment Example screen shots #watitis2013

Booting #watitis2013

PXE Boot Menu #watitis2013

PXE Booting Acronis #watitis2013

Acronis Boot - network settings #watitis2013

Acronis 10 Main screen #watitis2013

Connecting to server #watitis2013

Find the Archive #watitis2013

Restore #watitis2013

PXE Live Boot #watitis2013

Live Boot Ubuntu prerelease #watitis2013

Questions? #watitis2013