Tools for cloning

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1

I would like to know what’s the easy way to clone from one system to other clients system.

At present, I have a system, call it ‘master-client’, installed and custom configured with openSUSE 11.1. I have setup/configured apache2, openldap, nvidia for dual monitor, kde-look, etc, etc.
Now, I have 5 other PC, Windows based, that exactly have the same disk capacity, dual monitors, and graphic cards. I would like to clone from ‘master-client’ into those PCs, so they have exactly the same config ( apache2, openldap, nvidia setup, kde-look, etc,etc ).

I was thinking using autoyast, but given I have a custom configuration, I need to write a post-install script to repeat those custom configuration. I would like to avoid that.

Second option is using systemimager, but I don’t know much about it.

I am looking for a solution in which once the image is cloned into a client and boot the client, it become fully operational, no need for post install script. Do you have any experience to share ?

Cheers.

2

Clonezilla
Clonezilla

3

caf4926, thanks for your reply. Have you used this tool ? Would you share with other member of this forum your experiences ?

4

No. I have not used it.
I was simply offering a suggestion. I do know users in this forum have used it with good reports.

Do a forum search on it.

You should come across the dd option too.

5

How similar is the hardware? Just a note that IMHO dd is only for cases where hardware is identical (and new hard drive is equal or larger than older drive), and even then, because hard drives are never identical, one may have to do a few extra things. There is also dd-rescue (of which I am not familiar) that has more robust cloning than dd.

Be very certain dd is the app you want, before using.

6

I agree with you an friend of my his computer wizard,he installed my suse11.0 on my computer and I have the same HD like his it works on my computer,but in his computer not at all.
What you explain we need little luck;)

7

Gents, thanks for your reply. Using dd, does it mean that I have to open the PC and connecting each disk side by side ?

8

I wrote a guide here:
Cloning an old drive to a new drive - openSUSE Forums
Note it could fail if you have bad blocks so running fsck (linux) and chkdsk (windos) beforehand may be a good idea. Also note how and when you connect the drives is critical and if you inappropriately connect the drives at any time before or after the cloning, you could completely mess up your MS-Windows mapping. So follow the instructions in the how-to carefully. Also note the comment about changing the /etc/fstab so that it does not mount partitions based on disk ID.