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I am trying to build a setup like WDS (Windows Deployment Service) in a Linux environment.

What I have:

  • A Dell server with good amount of RAM and lots of space. OS is CentOS 6.5.
  • Few 3rd party servers with small amount of RAM and space. These servers have some applications installed and are used for lab purpose. These are destroyed on daily basis and I have to re-install the OS (openSuSe) and relevant applications on them on daily basis. This is very painful.

What I need:

  • I want to make a setup where I can simply make an image of the client nodes (3rd party servers, openSuSe) and store on Dell server (CentOS). After this whenever a client node is destroyed, I can simply restore it (with OS, network configs, application and settings) on the same point as it was at the time of backup.

What I researched:

  • I found Timeshift might be able to do it. But not able to get proper information which can help me achieve the requirement on CentOS and OpenSuse system. I am getting information for Ubuntu and Linux Mint majorly.
  • Rsnapshot, it seems that it only takes minor backups and does not take backup of OS so might not be useful. Timeshift also uses Rnapshot but probably with more features as it can even restore the GRUB. Could be wrong about it.
  • Clonezilla, going to research on it. But it seems that I might need a physical drive to make an image of client nodes and will have to restore it in a same way. Not sure if it can all be done remotely/using network.

In Windows, I used to do it using WDS where I used built one system and install all the required applications on it. Then I used to take a backup image of that system and install that image on all rest of the systems (through network) having identical configuration.

Could you please help me or guide me to achieve the need ("what I need" part of the description)?

Thanks

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Setting something like this up is non-trivial, but is very doable.

I've done something similar using PXEBoot tied DHCP, Kickstart, TFTP and puppet to deploy a new node from bare metal. Unfortunaately Kickstart is a Redhat/CentOS technology, however look HERE for how to do the same thing in Suse using AutoYast.

Of-course, there is nothing stopping you from setting up PXEBoot to boot a minimal custom Linux program which will pull an image off the network and dump it onto the local disk.

This looks like a good way of doing it.

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  • Thank you for your response. I will check the links and try setting it up. I will share the results once I am finished.
    – techlover28
    Commented Jan 8, 2016 at 6:43

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