Per Jessen said the following on 03/20/2013 08:56 AM:
Anton Aylward wrote:
In the past I've only ever had to install Linux on single machines at a time, but a new client has raised the question of doing a bulk install on many (more than 20, possibly as many as a hundred) workstations. Step and repeat, all the same.
AutoYaST ?
As far as I can make out that's an 'automated install'. It may be great as far as, if they are al the same machine, also doing non-trivial tasks like disk partitioning, which is something I have to consider, but its still the long install process. The network as a 'source' may or may not be available. In the limiting case it may be that I use my own laptop as a 'source'.
If that's too much effort for a one-off, and if the machines are all the same, how about installing one and then cloning it? Just a tar-copy will do.
At this point I don't know; I suspect the whole lot are not all the same... that would be too fortunate! In effect the LiveUSB+dd is much the same as a TAR copy? My point is that this has to be in situ, by Linux-ignorant people, fast, probably in a three hour window one Sunday morning. (Or some other suitable downtime such as a public holiday.) I look at things like this http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:KIWI_Cookbook_Live_USB-Stick and wonder.... Surely I can treat the system I get from running the LiveUDB as 'the system' and the had disk as the USB (HA HA HA) so that the final <quote> dd if=/tmp/myusb/image/suse-11.1-live-stick.i686-1.1.2.raw \ of= bs=32 </quote> does the job. Hmm. Need a large, very large, usb stick for that. I was thinking more of dd-ing the whole of the USB stick. -- Most good crime on this planet involves insiders. -- Bruce Schneier -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org