Davor Cengija wrote:
> On Thu, 6 Jan 2000, Frank Arnold wrote:
>
> >
> >I am interested in the possibility of cloning a preconfigured
> >linux box by putting the img on a network drive and then
> >writing it to several new boxes with the same hardware
> >configuration.
> >
> >Has anyone any experience doing this?
> >A script would probably needed to set up users
> >on the cloned machines.
>
>
If all the users are going to have access to any machine on your lan,
it is better not to store them locally but use NIS+ authentification
instead.
> If you're going to make a fresh install, and then clon the
> machine, you could find useful 'kickstart' feature from redHat
> and if I remember correctly, Mandrake 6.1. It helps you
> automating the installation process. I didn't try it, though.
>
> If you aready have installed system, thing are a little bit
> more complicated, but some people claim it's achievable.
>
> I remmber reading some HOWTO's on this topic, so check the
> standard HOWTO installation with your distribution.
>
> I don't know what do you think when you write 'putting the img
> on a network drive', but the HOWTO's I read are talking about
> the copying the files.
>
> If you're going to simply copy the files, use -a switch
> cp -a /orig/* /dest
>
> to prevent all the permissions.
>
> However, I'd suggest tar with -p switch (preserve permissions,
> although it's a default, I think).
>
> About the users: user informations are stored in /etc/passwd
> and /etc/shadow. Shadow is read-only for root only, so be
> careful. Do you need the same users on every machine? If not,
> it helps a lot.
>
> However, I'd consider kickstart feature, even if you already
> have a running box.
> --
> v
> Davor Cengija
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ===================================
> "Please allow 30 days for delivery"
