[Opensource] how to set up a lab of linux boxen

[Jim Maunder]

A few years ago we had a lab of dual booting PCs - WinXP and SuSE - 
and we imaged them with 'DriveImage 2000' without trouble. In our 
Novell environment host names are not much of an issue, but I go 
around and change them by hand these days to keep the print charging 
software happy. (keeps me busy in the term hols) I used a boot floppy 
with MS 'Workgroups Extensions for DOS' or a Novell DOS client to 
connect to a Windows share or a Novell network drive that had the DI 
executable and image files. Each disk had to be tweaked to have a 
unique 'machine name' (for the WFW version only) and have the 
appropriate DOS or ODI network drivers. Because I can't always find 
such drivers these days, we now use Novell Storemanager based on 
WinPE for imaging - takes longer to load, but works on most machines. 
I have only used it on Windows boxes, and it looks like you have to 
pick the client OS when imaging or restoring. I've also used 
DriveImageXML that comes with BartPE, but that is clumsy compared to Stormgr.

Sorry that seems a bit of a ramble.

TANGENT (or possum stir as Stephen D might say): I am quite happy 
with the usage of the 'en' ending (see subject line) when used in a 
VAX environment (eg VAX herder, a cluster of VAXen etc) but I can't 
remember it being used in relation to PCs - maybe VAX boxen was 
sometimes used to describe a group of VAXen? So, what would be the 
correct ending for a group of computers running linux? Linux boxii? 
Ha! Google is my friend - the Finnish tranlation of 'linux boxes' is 
'linux boxes'.

rgds
Jim

At 03:54 PM 09/06/2008, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I'm toying with the idea of setting up a lab full of linux boxes. It
>would be really nice to be able to use something like Ghost Solution
>Suite to handle imaging each machine. Has anyone done anything like
>this? ...... Is anyone running a lab full of linux
>machines?
>
>vik
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Jim Maunder
Laptop and PC Support Technician
Ruyton Girls School
Melbourne, Australia
ph 03 9290 9374