Imaging non support Linux distros in Ghost solution suite.

Purpose:

To be able to capture and deploy an image using standard linux tools in the LinuxPE environment. 

Requirement:

• Knowledge of linux imaging tools
• mount points to the express share or other nfs or cifs location

Tools:

the tool i use in this experiment is dd (see dd man page) and compression tool gzip. 

Process:

Capture Image:

Optional: you can clear out the udev persistant rules. 

/bin/rm -rf  /etc/udev/rules.d/70*

NOTE: this may be different for each distro.

Step 1:

In the ghost solution suite create a new job with a runscript task that will run in linux PE automation.

#######################

#!/bin/bash

for i in a b c d e f; do do if=/dev/sd$i conv=sync, noerror bs=64k | gzip -c > /mnt/ds/Images/%NAME%_sd$i.img.gz; done;

#########################

Step 2:

Create a power control task and add it to the same job that the runscipt task is on. 

NOTE: you can capture a drive or a single partition by modifiying the script to use sda1 or sda2 instead of just sda.

Restore Image:

Step1: 

create a new job with a runscript and power control tasks 

In the run script have it run in automation again and have it run the following

############################

#!/bin/bash 

gunzip -c /mnt/ds/Images/%NAME%_sda.img.gz | dd of=/dev/sda

#############################

NOTE: you will have to have a the above command for each individual drive you want to image. Also note that the will only work in a single driver and has not been tested with LVM or mdadm software RAID.

Issues:

• no network connection:
• The mac address that is listed in theconfig files is incorrect and needs to be addressed. 
• Hostname needs to be changed.

Redhat

1. Log into the linux machine
2. Run lspci -vv | more 
3. Locate the nic

   For example, you see a MAC Address similar to:

   xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
    

4. on the Linux virtual machine.
5. Open a console and log in as root.
6. Change directory to etc/sysconfig/network-scripts.
7. Edit ifcfg-eth0 using a plain text editor and update the MAC address to reflect the MAC address in Step 3
8. Activate the ethernet card by running this command:

   ifup eth0. 

   Notes:

   • ifup eth0 may be required in some instances to activate the ethernet card.
   • The /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules may also need to be updated to the new MAC address.

SUSE

1. Log into the linux machine
2. Run lspci -vv | more 
3. Locate the MAC address. For example, you see a MAC Address similar to:

   xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
    

4. Power on the Linux virtual machine.
5. Change directory to /etc/sysconfig/network.
6. Run this command:

   ls -l if*

   /etc/sysconfig/network # ls -l if*

   # ifcfg-eth-id-xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xy

7. Rename this file to match the MAC address in Step 3:

   #mv ifcfg-eth-id-xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xy:d7 ifcfg-eth-id-xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
    

8. Activate the ethernet card by running this command:

   ifup eth0