cloning/saving system
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From: John Lindsay on 19 Jul 2010 17:50 John Lindsay wrote: > I am currently using debian lenny as my primary computer. It's a Dell > Dimension 8300, P4, 3.4G with 1G Ram. 60G HD. > I also have a Dell Optiplex GX620 which currently has win7 on a 300G > HD with 1.5g ram. I will be removing files from the win7 and storing > them on DVDs and installing Debian on it. How can I clone/transfer my > current working machine with all it's files/programs like > thunderbird/iceweasel etc to the GX520 and still retain a working system? > > John > > PS I have file backup manager 'Pybackpack' currently running but I > don't think that is what I want. > > Thanks for all the info on the above. "SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED" has persuaded me NOT to do as I planned. She likes the system as is and refuses to let me change it. Thanks anyway as I did learn a lot by following up the suggestions on clonezilla etc. John -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C44C681.5010405(a)sentex.net
From: B. Alexander on 21 Jul 2010 08:50 John, For future reference, if you want to have a basic clone (not an exact copy) of a machine, what I end up doing (which allows me to provision a machine in about 15 minutes) uses the following procedure: 1. Create a package list on the old machine [1] dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall > pkglist.hostname 2. (Optional) Capture the drive layout [1] df > driveinfo.hostname df -h >> driveinfo.hostname fdisk -l >> driveinfo.hostname 3. Build the new machine with the netinst or businesscard cd. When asked what type of system to build (package selection), uncheck all the boxes. Reboot into your new system, copy pkglist.hostname from step 1 onto the machine. Do the following: dpkg --set-selections < pkglist.hostname apt-get dselect-upgrade This should give you a system with a nearly identical set of packages that you can then tweak to your hearts content. [1] You can actually back these files up and have a pool of different "types" of machine. For instance, I have a workstation packagelist, a laptop list, as well as lists for the various types of bastion hosts in my network, including a wiki host (mediawiki), firewall, backup server, etc. --b On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 5:41 PM, John Lindsay <jclind(a)sentex.net> wrote: > John Lindsay wrote: > >> I am currently using debian lenny as my primary computer. It's a Dell >> Dimension 8300, P4, 3.4G with 1G Ram. 60G HD. >> I also have a Dell Optiplex GX620 which currently has win7 on a 300G HD >> with 1.5g ram. I will be removing files from the win7 and storing them on >> DVDs and installing Debian on it. How can I clone/transfer my current >> working machine with all it's files/programs like thunderbird/iceweasel etc >> to the GX520 and still retain a working system? >> >> John >> >> PS I have file backup manager 'Pybackpack' currently running but I don't >> think that is what I want. >> >> >> Thanks for all the info on the above. "SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED" has > persuaded me NOT to do as I planned. She likes the system as is and refuses > to let me change it. Thanks anyway as I did learn a lot by following up the > suggestions on clonezilla etc. > > > John > > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a > subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org > Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C44C681.5010405(a)sentex.net > >
From: H.S. on 21 Jul 2010 09:20 On 21/07/10 08:41 AM, B. Alexander wrote: > > 3. Build the new machine with the netinst or businesscard cd. When asked > what type of system to build (package selection), uncheck all the boxes. > > Reboot into your new system, copy pkglist.hostname from step 1 onto the > machine. Do the following: I think you are also supposed to change your sources.list file at this point (for example if your machine was using Debian Unstable but if you used a Stable or Testing installer). > dpkg --set-selections< pkglist.hostname > apt-get dselect-upgrade > > This should give you a system with a nearly identical set of packages that > you can then tweak to your hearts content. I am not sure what you think about /home, but usually that is the more important consideration for me. What I usually do is: 1. Make note of the UIDs & GIDs of the users (or the order in which they were created). 'ls -nl /home' lists those. 2. Make a backup of /var as well to restore users' mail (in /var/mail) and cronjobs (in /var/spool/cron/crontabs) and perhaps at jobs (in /var/spool/cront). Finally, backing up /etc and restoring it later prevents you from having to do all the configurations again. > [1] You can actually back these files up and have a pool of different > "types" of machine. For instance, I have a workstation packagelist, a laptop > list, as well as lists for the various types of bastion hosts in my network, > including a wiki host (mediawiki), firewall, backup server, etc. All good points. Thanks. -- Please reply to this list only. I read this list on its corresponding newsgroup on gmane.org. Replies sent to my email address are just filtered to a folder in my mailbox and get periodically deleted without ever having been read. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/i26rm7$s83$1(a)dough.gmane.org
From: B. Alexander on 21 Jul 2010 11:00
On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 9:11 AM, H.S. <hs.samix(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On 21/07/10 08:41 AM, B. Alexander wrote: > > >> 3. Build the new machine with the netinst or businesscard cd. When asked >> what type of system to build (package selection), uncheck all the boxes. >> >> Reboot into your new system, copy pkglist.hostname from step 1 onto the >> machine. Do the following: >> > > I think you are also supposed to change your sources.list file at this > point (for example if your machine was using Debian Unstable but if you used > a Stable or Testing installer). > > True, I neglected to mention this. I usually copy at least /etc/apt/apt.conf, /etc/apt/sources.list (I use a universal one, so one size fits all), and /etc/apt/sources.list.d over. > dpkg --set-selections< pkglist.hostname >> apt-get dselect-upgrade >> >> This should give you a system with a nearly identical set of packages that >> you can then tweak to your hearts content. >> > > I am not sure what you think about /home, but usually that is the more > important consideration for me. What I usually do is: > 1. Make note of the UIDs & GIDs of the users (or the order in which they > were created). 'ls -nl /home' lists those. > 2. Make a backup of /var as well to restore users' mail (in /var/mail) and > cronjobs (in /var/spool/cron/crontabs) and perhaps at jobs (in > /var/spool/cront). > Good points. I was under the assumption that you would not be transferring data over from the old to the new, so I didn't consider it. Of course, if you are managing more than a few boxes, you also might want to consider a configuration management tool like cfengine or puppet. Then you could "script" all of your UIDs and GIDs as well as other configuration details. For instance, I have a list of "essential" packages (essential for me) that I install on every box. With cfengine, I can automagically install them as well as edit/modify that list in one place. > Finally, backing up /etc and restoring it later prevents you from having to > do all the configurations again. > Be careful with that. Especially if you are "cloning" a box that has been around for a while. Carte blanche copying of /etc can lead to problems. There is the problem of "etc drift," even with a fairly recently built box. > > [1] You can actually back these files up and have a pool of different >> "types" of machine. For instance, I have a workstation packagelist, a >> laptop >> list, as well as lists for the various types of bastion hosts in my >> network, >> including a wiki host (mediawiki), firewall, backup server, etc. >> > > All good points. > > Thanks. > --b |