disk copy

[Paul Melson]

On Thu, Sep 21, 2000 at 10:00:54AM -0400, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> > Recently we've begun to use ImageCast to do a similar thing over the
> > network.  You get one machine set right, ImageCast makes an image, boot all
> > the clients you want to image with a network boot disk ImageCast makes, and
> > then send the image to them all.  I mention this because ImageCast (sadly)
> > is a windows solution.  Is there a way to do something similar with a Linux
> > solution?
> 
> Have you tried rsync?

	The problem w/ rsync is that it requires Win9x
	to already be up and running on the workstation
	you wish to install software to.  ImageCast
	allows you to take workstations w/ blank drives
	(altho, they must have valid partitions) and 
	boot them from a floppy or CD, connect to a
	server, and download all of the necessary software
	to the workstation.  It cuts what would be 2-3
	hours of disk-swapping down to 30-40 minutes,
	and then multiply that by the number of machines
	connected to the server - huge timesaver.

	I did find a project for Linux called CluClo that
	is like ImageCast or Norton Ghost for Linux, but
	right now the author has only adapted it to work
	for Linux clients, but he gives rough directions
	on how to adapt this to work for Windows clients
	as well.  I think I'm going to add this to my list
	of "stuff to play with."  I see some very large 
	benefits to using our firewalls to store image 
	files for local workstation configs and simply 
	going out with a floppy to reinstall the OS and 
	apps to a damaged machine.

	Oh, yeah the URL is http://members.linuxstart.com/~flux/cluclo/

PaulM

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