Imaging a SLED 10 SP1 Workstation

Novell Cool Solutions: Tip
By Donald Vosburg

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 27 Jul 2007

Problem:

SLE 10 SP1 presents some challenges to imaging/cloning. But following these steps, you should be able to do it successfully.

Solution:

Pre-cloning tasks

1. Install and set up your SLE SP1 machine with all the software and configuration options you need for your machines.
2. Log into a root terminal.
3. Remove all ethernet configuration files:

   rm /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth*

   You will re-configure the networking on the newly cloned machine when it comes up.


4. Remove the persistent mappings for network devices by editing /etc/udev/rules.d/30-net_persistent_names.rules
   - At the bottom of the file, you will see lines such as the following:

   SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{address}=="00:00:00:b0:fa:08", IMPORT="/lib/udev/rename_netiface %k eth0"

   - Delete all of those lines that start with SUBSYSTEM


5. Edit the /etc/fstab file and the /boot/grub/menu.lst file to change the by-id entries:

Call up YaST2 ->System ->Partitioner. For every partition change the mount option to "Device Name".

Call up YaST2 ->System ->Boot Loader. For every boot menu entry change the root device.

In case you want to perform the above changes manually instead of using YaST, edit the files /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst with a text editor of your choice (you have to be root). Replace all entries like root=/dev/disk/by-id/[partition] with root=/dev/Xda[number]. If you are unclear about the existing partitions, call "fdisk -l".

6. Remove all the sound card entries from YaST ->Hardware-> Sound You will re-configure the sound on the newly cloned machine.


7. Remove the device-specific registration files /etc/zmd/secret and /etc/zmd/deviceid

Now use your favorite imaging software to create an image and put it down on the new machine. Try Novell ZEN Imaging (included with ZENWorks Linux Management).

Post-cloning Tasks

1. Configure the networking:
   YaST, Network Devices, Network Card Be sure to change the hostname entry for your new machine.


2. Configure the sound card:
   YaST, Hardware, Sound
   You will have to reboot for the sound device to work properly with all services.


3. Register the new machine with Novell Customer Center
   YaST, Software, Novell Customer Center
   Now that you have a new hostname, you can register it with Novell Customer Center using the appropriate registration code.

That's it! Now your new machine should be ready to go!

Example:

Sample /etc/fstab (after changing to by name):

/dev/sda2       /       reiserfs        acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/sda1       swap    swap    defaults 0 0
proc    /proc   proc    defaults 0 0
sysfs   /sys    sysfs   noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug       debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs   /proc/bus/usb   usbfs   noauto 0 0
devpts  /dev/pts        devpts  mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

Sample /boot/grub/menu.lst (after changing to by name)

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Jul 18 07:16:25 EDT 2007
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

title SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1 10.1-0 - 2.6.16.46-0.14
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.46-0.14-default root=/dev/hda2 vga=0x317 resume=/dev/hda
1 splash=silent showopts
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.16.46-0.14-default

title Failsafe -- SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1 10.1-0 - 2.6.16.46-0.14
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.46-0.14-default root=/dev/hda2 vga=normal showopts ide=n
odma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.16.46-0.14-default

Reader Comments

• Nice work. Now go Post at NUGI...... :-) -Norm
• Does this mean you could image to another workstation with a different processor and motherboard

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