Copy a diskless MD image?

[nosebreaker]

I'm going to be setting up several MD's that are identical, and I'd like to save some time by copying the diskless images if possible.  Each has the same exact hardware (Jetway JNC62K), is this possible?  It looks like it might take just as long to copy and then try to change the IP and system name than to just create it from scratch each time.

[tkmedia]

Dont think you can copy the diskless  folder to create a new MD






Tim

[darrenmason]

nosebreaker,
Effectively the setup of a new MD is just copying a base image as it is. When it recognises a new PC as a MD then it takes a compressed base image and copies/decompresses it to create the base OS which then configures itself further on first boot.

I think you are likely to break things just copying the diskless folders.

If you look at how the process works you may be able to create a custom base image which contains specific drivers and different kernel options to suit specific hardware.

regards
darren

[colinjones]

There is device meta data to set up as well. So you still need to create the MD device in the database, which creates the device number that the diskless image is under. So you can't copy the files until then anyway. And once you create the device by booting the MD it is going to go into the diskless image build process anyway. Also, there are likely unique identifiers in the images. And finally, you would still need to manually create the PXE boot initramfs image - that on its own is more effort than just allowing the MD image to build on its own. It only takes a few minutes anyway!