On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 07:48:56AM -0800, Yasha Karant wrote:
> We have a limited, small, number of IEEE 802.3 connected hardware
> platform identical workstations to clone -- no 802.11 nor any shared
> (remote, distributed) disk storage (at this time).  My plan was to
> get one fully operational and configured, and then clone the hard
> drive image onto the remaining machines one hard drive at a time.
> 


I clone SL systems using both methods - "dd" (mdadm raid1, actually) and "rsync".

The down side of cloning with "dd" is that all UUIDs become cloned (root filesystem, etc)
and that can cause some confusion.

The down side of cloning with "rsync" is that things like "persistent ethX naming"
become confused (but no more than if you replace the mobo) and you end up with eth8
and eth9 instead of eth0 and eth1, and other similar artefacts.

When cloning using "rsync", you have to "make the target disk bootable", which
requires resetting all the UUID strings in the bootloader and in /etc/fstab,
a major hassle.

Overall, it is faster to create new boot disks by cloning than by doing
a fresh installation - because of all the required post-installation stuff
that has to be done manually.

My general SL post-installation instructions are here:
https://www.triumf.info/wiki/DAQwiki/index.php/SLinstall

Cloning using mdadm raid1:
https://www.triumf.info/wiki/DAQwiki/index.php/Cloning_raid1_boot_disks

Cloning using rsync manually:
https://www.triumf.info/wiki/DAQwiki/index.php/VME-CPU#Clone_disk_manually

Cloning using rsync using a script:
https://www.triumf.info/wiki/DAQwiki/index.php/DEAP#64GB_SSD_boot_disks

To defeat the "persistent naming of ethX" "helpful" "helpers":
https://www.triumf.info/wiki/DAQwiki/index.php/SLinstall#Configure_network


-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada