Ubuntu

Cloning Ubuntu by network on "large" parc of machines

Asked by destroyedlolo

Hello,

I'm on way to install Ubuntu at my daughter's school on 12 identical PC.

All I found on the web was to create a master on a CD or DVD and spead it on all machines, but it's not suiting my needs.

What I'm looking for is :

- installation from network => I already know how to netboot
- installation on client of all packages installed on the master, if possible taking them from the master instead of the Internet to save bandwidth and time => I found a tutorial for that but I have to test it
- If a package is added or removed on the master, the same has to be done automatically on clients (w/o root authentication)
- automatic package version update w/o root autentication

During the installation, I need also :
- initial cloning of user and user's environments : users creation, firefox's bookmarks, menu configuration, securite blocking, ...

I'm sure this experience will be share on our local newspaper, so other school / clubs / groups will be surely interested, so manual intervention must be reduced as much as possible ...

Best regards,

Laurent

PS: The master is already done.

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Vu Do Quynh
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SebastienBarthelemy (barthelemy) said : 		#1

Hello,

There are several ways to do what you describe. One way is to put all the data (user data, programs...) on the master and to share it over the network (using NFS) with the clients. Thus, the clients don't need an hard drive and are always up to date. However, the clients need some specific network card in order to boot over the network, and need to be very similar (same hardware => same drivers).

Another solution is to use some software like bcfg2 and puppet (there is also cfengine but I would avoid it) to remotely (and automatically) install packages, run services, update configuration files... This is more flexible, but more complicated to set up.

In order to download the packages from the master instead of the original repository, you might use aptproxy. However, for 12 computers, I wouldn't bother.

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destroyedlolo (destroyedlolo) said : 		#2

Ok thanks. I'm checking bcfg2 and will solve this question if suitable.

For aptproxy, I think I'll use it because as the school ADSL line is 512k only, it will take ages if all machines download updates at the same time.

Thanks

Laurent

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destroyedlolo (destroyedlolo) said : 		#3

Hum, it's ok to align already installed system. But what about installing new ones ?

The current procedure I'm starting to apply is the following :

1/ install APTPROXY on the master system, as well as tftp, dhcp, ... in order to let other system to boot from it.

2/ netboot of new system and launching install from the master system

3/ align config using bcfg2

Is any faster solution ?

Bye

Laurent

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Best Vu Do Quynh (vu-do-quynh) said : 		#4

If your PC are identicals (especially for the hard disks, you could use udpcast.

http://udpcast.linux.lu/

You can build your iso online, burn the iso to a CD to boot your computer and configure it either as a master (to duplicate towards other computers) or as a slave (that will receive info from an other computer)

I use it to duplicate my installations to several computers : I just need to install as wished one computer then I would udpcast its hard drive to other computers on the same network. The only requirement is to have a DHCP server in the network that could assign IP adresses to each computer of the network.

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destroyedlolo (destroyedlolo) said : 		#5

Thanks Vu Do Quynh, that solved my question.

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destroyedlolo (destroyedlolo) said : 		#6

Perfect : I was able to install all my system in 2 hours w/o problem (depending only on the size of the HD) and it was successful even if some system use IDE disk and some others have SATA ones (but all 40 GB).

Thanks again

Lolo