We developed the live-build-mgr – an Open Source Solution based on live-build to build live systems and serve them in a local network for booting using PXE. It was developed for a state organization and is put into operation there right now. We will publish the source code once we are sure that it seems to work in the target environment and potential issues are discovered and resolved. We are interested in bringing this project into Debian.
Design: It’s a web application implemented in python that permits editing the input files for live-build and building the images with live-build. The built images and the corresponding configuration files for PXE capable bootloaders are served using http. For each IP and IP range, the served image can be selected. Grub and iPXE can be used and both are able to use http. For Debian itself, we are using the fetch= option from live-boot. In the target environment, stability is important and thus the image is copied to RAM of which enough is available. While httpfs= could be implemented with a switch, we have no use case for this yet. In contrast to the current LTSP project, we generate a new image from scratch instead of editing existing images or chroots. Building new images is a fast procedure when using an apt cache and provides clean images every time. The engineering of our system ensures that either one or another image is loaded – that is, kernel, initramfs and rootfs always match and are never changed for a particular system while it is running. Even with the httpfs= mode, it would be guaranteed that the image that a client uses is never changed – with the exception that the image could be deleted while the client is still running. To simplify the management, our system includes the ability to provide simple controls for administrators to adjust configuration files in the live-build source folder and to adjust the command line parameters for the served systems. While central home folders, central authentication and installation of the images on the client machines are currently out of scope for our project. All of this is possible based on the live-build-mgr. It’s no decided yet if and how this project continues. Mit freundlichen Grüßen Carsten Burkhardt -- Dipl. Ing. Carsten Burkhardt | [email protected] bcs kommunikationslösungen Harz 51 | 06108 Halle (Saale) | Germany tel +49 345 29849-0 | fax +49 345 29849-22 www.b-c-s.de | www.halle.it | www.wivewa.de
