Hello All -

I am a network admin for a company of 500 people. I am a noob with SUSE but I'm learning! I recently introduced SUSE to some users (small scale) but have run into a problem. In the past I have used Symantec Ghost to image PCs. I use Ghost as an image tool rather than for backups.

The PCs are identical with the exception of the HD. The disks vary in size, model and manufacturer. While using Ghost this was not an issue. I could take my image (under 1 GB in size) that came from a 40 GB XP disk and use it to burn new disks of varying size and manufacturer, shrinking or expanding the partition size as mandated by the new disk.

I've tried G4L and partimage. The cloning process appeared to work but the new disk would not boot. It errors when trying to mount hda2. The mount process is displaying the old disk identity rather than the new one. I've checked many conf files but haven't discovered where that info is provided during boot. I altered fstab but that is ignored - I presume because the partition is not yet mounted?

Are there other Linux tools that are faster (not a bit by bit clone) that can 'shrink' the empty resierfs partition areas like Ghost does with ntfs partitions? Do any tools exist that can be used on dissimlar hardware, especially disks, without the need to modify conf files afterwards?

I appreciate any suggestions,

Dave

None of the tools you mentioned modify the MBR on the media. One may be able to use dd to make a copy of the MBR to a file which can be 'installed' on the newly cloned systems.

Example commands;
make the copy as a file: dd if=/dev/hda1 of=mbr.img count=1 fs=512
copy the file to the hard drive: dd if=mbr.img of=/dev/hda1 count=1 fs=512

Or one could install the bootloader as part of the process by using a 'rescue CD' and chroot after cloning, maybe something like;

/sbin/grub-install --recheck /dev/hda1

Thanks for the advice.

I was really hoping to find a tool that had similar features to those of Symantec Ghost on Win XP. ie. back up all partitions, including MBR, in one pass and eliminate unused space from the image file. Our company has approx. 200 HDs that I need to use in new workstation installs. Unfortunately those disks vary in size, make, model, etc. The following research is being conducted in a test environment. If the Linux install is destroyed, it is not a big deal. I'm getting alot of experience installing SUSE! <g>

The disk clone tool in G4L appeared to work properly but booting the disk produces an error during mount of hda2:

[start error list]

Loading ahci
Loading ata_piix
Loading reiserfs
Waiting for device /dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_2F020L0_F18QZF9E-part2 to appear: ............. not found -- exiting to /bin/sh
$

[end error list]

I understand the clone tool makes an exact copy of the disk and my test disks are not identical. The target disk was a Seagate while the source was a Maxtor. The source disk is 20 GB, the smallest in our HD collection.

The G4L clone tool is not the best method for distributing new desktop images due to the fact that it copies the entire disk (including free space) but I could live with it if I were able to correct the boot error above. I manually mounted the partition and altered fstab, changing the entry for hda2 to the Seagate disk ID but the boot error remains - pointing at the Maxtor. Any idea where that is read during boot?

Thanks,

Dave

Why are you using reiserfs and more importantly using the hard drive ID???? Not a good idea, try using filesystem labels instead.

I allowed default selections while installing SUSE 10.1 SP1 from Novell.

Can you give me some additional details (how to alter the existing install or what should I change during install)? I was under the impression that reiserfs was 'latest/greatest' on SUSE. Based on your remarks, my impression was incorrect?

Could you also point me to any tech docs on the good/bad/ugly of using disk ID vs paths or other?

Sorry about the noob questions....

I have quite a bit of experience with other servers and services. I worked for Novell for 15 years doing research and tech support on NDS, Netware OS and Groupwise but the SUSE world is new to me! Think an old dog can learn new tricks? <G>

Dave

You have the prove about using hard drive ID's before you. Unless all the hard drives have the same ID the "Waiting for device /dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_2F020L0_F18QZF9E-part2" is going to bite you everytime.

As a suggestion run; hdparm -i /dev/hda[sda or whatever] on a couple systems. it may be a good idea to use a LiveCD for this.

You might want to also review;
http://www.linux.com/feature/57788
http://linux.wordpress.com/2006/09/2...it-default-fs/

.

Thanks Lenard -

Those articles and your comments clarified things. I know this is a daparture from my original query but I have a SLES rack mounted server I installed using those same default settings, including reiser fs.

The machine is configured to be an email server although it is not in production yet - 2 more weeks. In your opinion would it be worth it to reinstall SLES using ext3 rather than reiser? Any way to convert the fs without a fresh install?

Dave

I would leave the server as it is now configured. For all the other systems I would go with ext3, simply because the cloning would be much easier.