From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 4 06:55:59 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F198F1065674 for ; Tue, 4 Mar 2008 06:55:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C3E3D8FC14 for ; Tue, 4 Mar 2008 06:55:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from TEDSDSK (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) by mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id m246tvpH025910; Mon, 3 Mar 2008 22:55:58 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: "Doug Hardie" , "freebsd-questions" Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 22:56:58 -0800 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1914 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <315F04DD-EBF3-451D-99C2-1C3B2D821522@lafn.org> X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]); Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:55:59 -0800 (PST) Cc: Subject: RE: Creating a custom install disk X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:56:00 -0000 > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Doug Hardie > Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 6:16 PM > To: freebsd-questions > Subject: Creating a custom install disk > > > I have a number of servers that I am going to be updating to FreeBSD 7 > from 6.2. I have built a new base system with all the configurations > and ports and local code that I need. This process takes about 2 days > from the distribution CDs. I need a way to clone this machine and > install on the others. > > My first idea was a custom install disk. The make release process > does not appear to do what I want. It would install a GENERIC kernel > and take the config files from the distribution. > > LiveCD was tried, but it fails with numerous attempts to write to > directories that do not exist. I expect I could manually create those > directories, but I am not sure what it would actually install since it > too builds a new GENERIC (but slightly modified) kernel. > > I tried creating a dump file of the new machine and restoring it on > the old one. I did root first and was going to then do /usr, but the > alterations to root were such that the system just couldn't keep going > through the process. That what I had expected, but it was worth a try. > > I have not tried this, but perhaps it might work. Creating the dump > files on the new machine, booting the old from the live filesystem cd, > recreating the filesystems on disk and then restoring from the dump > files on the new system. That would require a good net connection > between the 2 machines. > > Is there a better way to do this? Yes: http://freshmeat.net/projects/g4l/ Ted