[OpenIndiana-discuss] Mr Grabowski's script for copying a reference installation to other hosts

[Hans J. Albertsson]

Riding home on the bus an hour ago I pondered this script, for want of 
better things to do... AND came up with the following idea(s):

First: a note: a script like this should be of general interest, so it 
should be generalised and put on the Wiki or something.

Second: why copy a snapshot live from a live machine using zfs send???
One can do

zfs send <snapshotname> > OIversion.snp

on one occasion, and then ship that file around the place, either by
accessing the file using netcat;
Advantages for this case include the image need not be owned by root, 
facilitating access over the network,
or
Putting the file on a bootable iso image that can either be served 
across the
network or put on a DVD.
Disadvantages then include the size of the image, which might easily be
way too large for a DVD, but for just the base rpool it could be doable...
I'm not sure if an iso image not on a dvd can be larger than the 8.5  GB
of a dual layer DVD and still be used for booting by the KVM built-in into
the Supermicro IPMI FW and other such utilities.
Still, a zipped image might be OK, and an example 8.5 GB image was 
compressed to 1.3 GB just now, so the DVD version might be viable for 
quite complex installations.

I think the netcat of a file idea is the easiest.

Third: if this goes on a DVD, it should use a config file so that the
script can be static and on a r/o file system.
The config file can be a simple sh file setting the various parameters 
and shell
variables of the script, to be sourced by the script by a simple option 
in the script.

And if no config file, or parameters missing, the script should ask for 
each missing bit.

I'll rewrite this script to use at least the first idea, and part of the 
second, please share your thoughts on this matter if you so desire.

One possibility might be something in between, an OI live DVD with the 
script and a template config added and the snapshot on a server somewhere.


On 2013-03-10 14:11, Udo Grabowski (IMK) wrote:
> On 03/10/13 01:27 PM, Hans J. Albertsson wrote:
>> Found some errors in the script. Questions interfoliated!
>> Mind you, my Qs might just show my limitations.. bear with me, please,
>> if so.
>>
>
>
>
>
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