Hello, All;

For all matters, please assume I am a complete Newbie trying to learn my way with Linux.

I was given the task to install Red Hat (accomplished), install Oracle (accomplished), create some databases (accomplished) and install some third party product that uses those databases (installed and configured by the developer of the products).

Now, I am being asked for an easy way to replicate such environment in a way that it can be quickly deployed in other servers.

Is there such thing as a Norton Ghost for Linux?

Or, better yet, is there a way to create a customized distro, with everything we need pre-installed and pre-configured? Something like a Red Hat LiveCD modified to our needs?

Thanks in advance.

heya, welcome to the wonderfull world of linux, btw.

as far as i recall, redhat are still using the RPM install system (you didnt say which version of redhat you are using, so i will assume its a fairly recent one)

there is a good howto for building RPM's here: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/RPM-HOWTO/
an RPM is basicly like a setup.msi file for windows. it contains all the files and gubbins your system needs to be able to install the software. for example, you could make an RPM of your third party product or databse configurations, and then install it just like any of the other packages.

as for putting together your own cd, the methods can change from version to version as technology moves on. i dont know which redhat you are using, so here are a few to get you going.....

redhat 7.2 http://sysadmin.cs.caltech.edu/docs/...ux/rh7.2-ks-cd

redhat 8.0 http://www.cpqlinux.com/rh80customcd.html

rhel4 http://www.harkness.co.uk/other/RHEL4_custom_dvd.html

there are lotfs of howto's available for linux. if you are a complete newbie, might i reccomend www.tldp.org as an excellent starting place for howto's and such (tldp == The Linux Documentation Project. making sure peeps like you and I can understand linux )

Hi, Zidane;

Wow. This is great information. Thanks for the pointers.
Now I certainly have some good reading to get me going.

Sorry I failed to mention the version. Silly of me.
First post, you know... Still getting used to it all.
Just to satisfy curiosity, I am using RHEL4.

Much appreciated indeed, Zidane.

Regards

hehe, tis ok, everyone always forgets to mention the version, even me

if you are on RHEL4, the last link, the dvd one should be probably exactly what you need, its rhel4 based and you should be able to tinker and sort out whatever you need with it

all it takes is time..... oh, and patience, lots of patience.

have fun

clonezilla

g4u (ghost 4 unix) http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/ never used it but looks alright!

Check out Kickstart files as well http://www.centos.org/docs/4/html/rh...ickstart2.html

Cant you use ghost to copy a linux machine???

You probably can, I believe it works at a byte/sector level, but how are you going to run it in the 1st place? -- Some of us are lucky enough to be able to refuse to allow any M$ software, starting w/ "Winders(tm)", on our computers.