Hi, I have a centos 5 (current) mail server that I have compiled dovecot/postfix and installed some packages like mysql etc. These packages have been configured and changed to my liking. How can I now save all this and install it on another server without having to do all the work of compiling installing and configuring the same applications. Is it possible to burn this server image into multiple DVD's make it bootable and then install on another server. Basically I want to clone this server and make it easy to install on another similar hardware server without having to install centos and then manually installing/configuring dovecot/postfix/mysql etc. Not sure if I can create a bootable ISO that will install on new servers or what my options are. I would appreciate any suggestions. Paul -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20110120/e627d005/attachment-0002.html>
PA wrote:> > Hi, I have a centos 5 (current) mail server that I have compiled > dovecot/postfix and installed some packages like mysql etc. These > packages have been configured and changed to my liking. How can I now > save all this and install it on another server without having to do > all the work of compiling installing and configuring the same > applications. Is it possible to burn this server image into multiple > DVD?s make it bootable and then install on another server. > > Basically I want to clone this server and make it easy to install on > another similar hardware server without having to install centos and > then manually installing/configuring dovecot/postfix/mysql etc. Not > sure if I can create a bootable ISO that will install on new servers > or what my options are. I would appreciate any suggestions. > > Paul >We use Clonezilla for this sort of thing. http://www.clonezilla.org/ Have had decent success with this.
On 1/20/2011 2:47 PM, PA wrote:> Hi, I have a centos 5 (current) mail server that I have compiled > dovecot/postfix and installed some packages like mysql etc. These > packages have been configured and changed to my liking. How can I now > save all this and install it on another server without having to do all > the work of compiling installing and configuring the same applications. > Is it possible to burn this server image into multiple DVD?s make it > bootable and then install on another server. > > Basically I want to clone this server and make it easy to install on > another similar hardware server without having to install centos and > then manually installing/configuring dovecot/postfix/mysql etc. Not sure > if I can create a bootable ISO that will install on new servers or what > my options are. I would appreciate any suggestions.First, for anything you compile yourself you need to be prepared to rebuild and re-install at the drop of a hat as bug and security updates are available for the upstream source. And installing anything from packages should be a trivial matter of 'yum install packagelist' followed by adding your local edits to a few config files that you should have documented. But, if the target hardware is identical, you can clone the setup with any means that will do an image copy of the whole hard drive. The easiest way is probably to download/burn a 'clonezilla-live' CD, boot from it and let it do it for you. You can either connect the disks to the same machine for the clone, copy to an external USB, etc., or save the image on a network share (nfs, smb, or ssh) from one machine, and load it from the other. When the clone machine comes up, you'll have to reconfigure the IP addresses and host name. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
Hi Paul, On 20 January 2011 20:47, PA <razor at meganet.net> wrote:> Hi, I have a centos 5 (current) mail server that I have compiled > dovecot/postfix and installed some packages like mysql etc. These packages > have been configured and changed to my liking. How can I now save all this > and install it on another server without having to do all the work of > compiling installing and configuring the same applications. Is it possible > to burn this server image into multiple DVD?s make it bootable and then > install on another server.We use Mondo for cold-iron recoveries & cloning. It works for us. -- Hakan (m1fcj) - http://www.hititgunesi.org
> Basically I want to clone this server and make it easy to install on > another similar hardware server without having to install centos and > then manually installing/configuring dovecot/postfix/mysql etc. Not > sure if I can create a bootable ISO that will install on new servers > or what my options are. I would appreciate any suggestions.We use Kickstart. You can build a customised Kisckstart script to install anything you want. Just put custom config files accessible off a web server, and you can just copy those over as part of the setup. Or package them up into your own RPMs and run your own repo. In fact, if you're doing several of these, it's probably recommended to run your own repo with the base and updates for speed and bandwidth savings. You can have kickststart run a "yum update" so each box will have the latest updates as at install time. Your boot CD or flash stick can auto-boot the kickstart files, so all you have to do is insert the media and turn the box on. Once it's done, all you have to do is reboot and you're ready to go. -- Spiro Harvey Knossos Networks Ltd (04) 460-2531 : (021) 295-1923 www.knossos.net.nz -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20110121/0293e49a/attachment-0002.sig>
>You can have kickststart run a "yum update" so each box will have the >latest updates as at install time.Over and over again I see this reco and it makes no sense? If you have access to updates whether they be yours locally cached or remote, you should add a repo line in your ks and "install" updates from the start. It's faster/cleaner and just plain simpler, yeah?
I was looking into this, creating my own rpms and using kickstart. Thanks for all the info guys. Paul Spiro Harvey <spiro at knossos.net.nz> wrote:>> Basically I want to clone this server and make it easy to install on >> another similar hardware server without having to install centos and >> then manually installing/configuring dovecot/postfix/mysql etc. Not >> sure if I can create a bootable ISO that will install on new servers >> or what my options are. I would appreciate any suggestions. > >We use Kickstart. > >You can build a customised Kisckstart script to install anything you >want. Just put custom config files accessible off a web server, and you >can just copy those over as part of the setup. Or package them up into >your own RPMs and run your own repo. In fact, if you're doing several >of these, it's probably recommended to run your own repo with the base >and updates for speed and bandwidth savings. > >You can have kickststart run a "yum update" so each box will have the >latest updates as at install time. > >Your boot CD or flash stick can auto-boot the kickstart files, so all >you have to do is insert the media and turn the box on. Once it's done, >all you have to do is reboot and you're ready to go. > > >-- >Spiro Harvey Knossos Networks Ltd >(04) 460-2531 : (021) 295-1923 www.knossos.net.nz > >_______________________________________________ >CentOS mailing list >CentOS at centos.org >http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos