HOWTO Clone Disk Images on Linux Booted from a Network
Guilherme Tupynambá
gtupy (at) uol.com.br
2002-09-09
Revision History
Revision 0.3 2002-09-24 Revised by: gct
Review suggestions incorporated
Revision 0.2 2002-09-23 Revised by: jyg
Minor revisions
Revision 0.1 2002-09-09 Revised by: gct
First draft.
This document describes a setup that allows a machine to boot Linux from
BOOTP/TFTP, using the Grub boot loader, and save and restore disk and
partition images to and from a TFTP server.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. Legal Notices
1.1. Disclaimer
1.2. Copyright
1.3. Feedback
2. Introduction
2.1. Why clone disk images
2.2. Why boot from a network
2.3. Network boot process overview
3. Setting up DHCP and TFTP servers
3.1. Setting up DHCP
3.2. Setting up TFTP
3.3. Using different servers
4. Preparing boot files
4.1. Kernel
4.2. Files on initrd
4.3. Packing initrd
5. Booting from Grub floppy disk
5.1. Grub menu file
5.2. Compiling Grub with network support
5.3. Making the boot floppy disk
6. Running the clone script
6.1. Saving and restoring disk images
6.2. Using fdisk
7. Extending the solution
7.1. Saving and restoring files instead of file systems
7.2. Setting up the master boot record
7.3. Loading necessary modules
7.4. Predefined operations on grub.conf
A. List of files on initrd
B. Clone script
References
1. Legal Notices
1.1. Disclaimer
This article assumes that the reader using the described setup is familiar
with the technical concepts and commands. If you are not comfortable issuing
the commands in this document or don't understand the clone script, don't try
these instructions.
Additionally, if you do not know the difference between /dev/hda and /dev/
hda1, please do not use this HOWTO. This may be the difference between
restoring a partition and losing all your data. Please note that I take no
responsibility for anything that may go wrong, even if the error resulting
from any incorrectness in this article.
For the purpose of this document, the RedHat 7.3 distribution has been used
in both server and client. Although this shouldn't make great difference, no
test has been made on other distributions or custom setups.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2. Copyright
Copyright (c) 2002 Guilherme Tupynambá
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
the terms of the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html] GNU Free
Documentation License (GFDL), Version 1.1 or any later version published by
the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover
Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. The clone script is licensed in the
terms of the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html] GNU General Public
License (GPL).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3. Feedback
Comments on this article will be highly appreciated. Direct your comments to
<gtupy (at) uol.com.br>.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Introduction
2.1. Why clone disk images
The main reason to clone disk images is to ease the installation of an
operating system and a basic set of applications over a large number of
machines. One standard machine is prepared and its pristine image is saved to
be restored on other machines saving efforts and simplifying procedures.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2. Why boot from a network
Booting from hard disk would limit the possibilities of copying images. It
wouldn't be possible, for instance, to safely copy to and from a partition
mounted by the booted operating system. Also, the operating system may not be
Linux, in which case free options to clone are not available.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3. Network boot process overview
The client machine boots from a Grub floppy disk. Then, using the Grub BOOTP
support, it gets an IP address from a DHCP server. Next, the client machine
downloads the kernel and initrd images from the TFTP server. Once the initrd
image is mounted in memory, the initialization script is run, making use of
the programs and files stored in this image. This script allows block devices
contents to be saved in the TFTP server, and contents from the TFTP server to
be written to the block devices.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Setting up DHCP and TFTP servers
A DHCP server is required to provide IP addresses for the clients when
booting Grub (BOOTP) and later when booting Linux. A TFTP server is required
to make the boot images available on the network for Linux to boot. The TFTP
server is also necessary to make it possible to save and restore the disk
images.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1. Setting up DHCP
Details on DHCP are beyond the scope of this article. The "Linux Networking
HOWTO" has a chapter on DHCP.
Setting up DHCP is very easy, but if you are in a network environment
administered by someone else, it's advisable to use a preexisting DHCP
server. If you "own" the network then you can follow this procedure.
Install DHCP, if not installed, from the rpm package, normally found in Linux
distributions:
# rpm -ihv dhcp-*.rpm
Edit the /etc/dhcpd.conf file to configure DHCP service. In our setup, the
server has IP address 10.0.0.1 and provides IP addresses up to 253 clients.
Configure /etc/dhcpd.conf according to your environment:
#/etc/dhcpd.conf
server-identifier dhcp.clonedomain.com;
default-lease-time 172800;
max-lease-time 604800;
option domain-name "clonedomain.com";
subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range dynamic-bootp 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.254;
}
Start the dhcpd server:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/dhcpd start.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2. Setting up TFTP
Setting up TFTP is almost as easy as DHCP.
First install from the rpm package:
# rpm -ihv tftp-server-*.rpm
Create a directory for the files:
# mkdir /tftpboot
# chown nobody:nobody /tftpboot
The directory /tftpboot is owned by user nobody, because this is the default
user id set up by tftpd to access the files.
Edit the file /etc/xinetd.d/tftp to look like the following:
service tftp
{
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args = -c -s /tftpboot
disable = no
per_source = 11
cps = 100 2
}
The changes from the default file are the parameter disable = no (to enable
the service) and the server argument -c. This argument allows for the
creation of files, which is necessary if you want to save boot or disk
images. You may want to make TFTP read only in normal operation.
Then reload xinetd:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd reload
You can use the tftp command, available from the tftp (client) rpm package,
to test the server. At the tftp prompt, you can issue the commands put and
get.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3. Using different servers
It is possible to use different servers for DHCP and TFTP. This may be
necessary if using a preexisting DHCP server. You can configure the
next-server parameter in DHCP to point to the TFTP server or you can use the
command tftpserver in Grub.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Preparing boot files
Now that the server is set up, you need to prepare the files to make the
client boot. Two files are necessary: the kernel and the init ramdisk
(initrd) which will be mounted by the kernel as the root file system. This
document assumes that the procedures outlined in this section and the next
are made in the client machine. Normally, when saving and restoring disk
images, there is no need to have Linux installed on a local hard disk. To
deploy disk images to a number of machines, start by installing a Linux
distribution on one machine for each model. Use DHCP and have TFTP client to
test the setup made in the previous section. Unless otherwise noted, commands
are issued in the bash shell by the user root in a working directory.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1. Kernel
Identify the compressed kernel file:
# cd /boot
# ls vmlinuz-$(uname -r)
vmlinuz-2.4.18-3
The version may vary, according to your system. Upload this file to the TFTP
server, renaming it to vmlinuz:
# tftp 10.0.0.1
tftp> binary
tftp> put vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 vmlinuz
Sent 1030147 bytes in 2.3 seconds
tftp> quit
You may want to keep the file name, or have different names for different
hardware models or kernel versions. We use the same names for the kernel and
initrd so we don't have to make another boot floppy disk after changing the
kernel or the initrd images.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.2. Files on initrd
Next, make the root file system image for the client. The full listing of the
files is in Appendix A.
These files have been taken from a working system as a minimum configuration
for having powerful shell (bash), client network utilities (dhcpcd and tftp),
and copying and compressing utilities (dd, gzip). Administrative commands (
mknod, mount, fdisk and insmod) are also present.
In the working directory create a file named initrd.lst and put these file
names on it. To check the existence of these files in your system, run the
following command:
# ls -d $(<initrd.lst) > /dev/null
You should get an error output like this:
ls: /bin/clone: No such file or directory
ls: /bin/tftp: No such file or directory
ls: /lib/3c59x.o: No such file or directory
The first error is a script to be created in the working directory. The
second error is the program tftp found in the directory /usr/bin instead of /
bin. The third is the network interface card module (probably not yours)
found in the directory /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net.
These three files will be discussed in upcoming sections separately soon. If
there are other missing files, check for lack of installation or differences
in version, distribution or hardware. Adjust the list to match your system.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.3. Packing initrd
The next step is to make the image. A size of 4 Mbytes was enough to hold the
files in our setup. You may increase this size if necessary.
# dd if=/dev/zero of=initrd bs=1024 count=4096
4096+0 records in
4096+0 records out
# yes | mkfs initrd
mke2fs 1.27 (8-Mar-2002)
initrd is not a block special device.
Proceed anyway? (y,n) Filesystem label=
blah blah blah...
# mkdir mnt
# mount -o loop initrd mnt/
# egrep -v "clone|3c59x|tftp" initrd.lst | cpio -pdm mnt
4876 blocks
Now the three files excluded by the egrep command. Copy the tftp program from
/usr/bin to the image directory:
# cp -p /usr/bin/tftp mnt/bin/
Identify the proper module for your network interface card. Use the output of
the commands lspci and lsmod to identify the file, which resides in the
directory /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net.
Note Whenever you see a reference to 3c59x, use the name of the module suited
for your case.
# cp -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o mnt/lib/
Edit the clone script found in Appendix B, changing the variables as
explained in Section 6. Make it executable and copy it to the image
directory:
# chmod +x clone
# cp -p clone mnt/bin/
Unmount, compress, and send the initrd image.
# umount mnt/
# gzip initrd
# tftp 10.0.0.1
tftp> binary
tftp> put initrd.gz
Sent 1155530 bytes in 2.8 seconds
tftp> quit
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Booting from Grub floppy disk
The next step is to make a boot floppy disk using Grub. GNU Grub is the GRand
Unified Bootloader. It can handle BOOTP and TFTP, so it can boot from
network.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1. Grub menu file
In the working directory create a file named grub.conf with the following
content:
default=0
timeout=1
title Clone
bootp
root (nd)
kernel /vmlinuz rw root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=4096 init=/bin/clone
initrd /initrd.gz
In the last four lines are the Grub commands to boot from network:
* bootp, to get an IP address from the DHCP server.
* root (nd), to set the root in the network (TFTP server). An alternative
TFTP server could be set before this command using the command tftpserver
<tftp server>.
* kernel, to specify the kernel file and its parameters:
+ rw, to specify writable mounting of the root file system.
+ root, to specify where to mount the root file system (in ram memory).
+ ramdisk_size, to specify the ram disk size. 4096 (kbytes) is the
default size but if you needed a greater image, change this parameter
accordingly.
+ init, to specify (our script) as the first program to run in user
mode (in the absence of init and sh).
* initrd to specify the file holding the image of the root file system.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2. Compiling Grub with network support
To compile Grub, first download the source tarball from [http://www.gnu.org/
software/grub/] the Grub web site and unpack it. Run configure specifying the
menu file you just created and the network interface card model. Run make as
usual.
# tar xzf grub-0.92.tar.gz
# cd grub-0.92
# ./configure --enable-preset-menu=../grub.conf --enable-3c90x
# make
Again, where you see 3c90x put the model of your network interface card.
First check if it is supported by Grub.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.3. Making the boot floppy disk
Once Grub is compiled, the image of the boot floppy disk is the concatenation
of the files stage1/stage1 and stage2/stage2. To make the floppy disk run:
# cat stage1/stage1 stage2/stage2 | dd of=/dev/fd0
You should now have a boot floppy disk.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Running the clone script
The clone script, shown in Appendix B, is not essential. You can make init=/
bin/bash as a kernel parameter and end up with a shell from where you can run
the available commands and programs.
The script is presented here to show the commands in a formal way and to
propose a way to reduce the possibility of damages resulting from mistyping.
You have to change the variables tftp_server, nic_module, major_a, family_a
and image_a according to your environment and application.
Please note that the arrays major_a and family_a are corresponding. Wrong
major number for a given family name will mislead the user. You can locate
the major and minor numbers of the devices of interest (whole disks and
partitions) by listing the /dev directory. The major and minor number are
where the size of a regular file is, in the output of the command ls -l,
separated by a comma.
# ls -l /dev/fd0 /dev/hda /dev/hda1 /dev/hdc
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 2, 0 Apr 11 11:25 /dev/fd0
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 0 Apr 11 11:25 /dev/hda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 1 Apr 11 11:25 /dev/hda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 22, 0 Apr 11 11:25 /dev/hdc
The command set -e instructs the shell to abort the script should any command
return non-zero code. The message"Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!" will
follow, as in case of normal end. Don't panic! This is normal, given the
circumstances. Just turn off the computer. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to have a
smooth reboot before exiting the script to avoid this ugly message.
The command insmod will load the network interface module and the command
dhcpcd will start DHCP client. Note that the fact that Grub used DHCP during
its boot has nothing to do with Linux doing the same.
The script makes a big loop and, for each iteration, it asks for one of three
operations: Copy from network to device, Copy from device to network or Run
fdisk. Then the script asks which block device to use. The array major_a
holds the major number for the block devices allowed to be used and the array
family_a the respective names for the device families. Next, the script asks
the minor number of the block device to be used.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.1. Saving and restoring disk images
If one of the copy operations is selected, the script asks for the name of
the image to be saved or restored. The image name is limited to the elements
of the array image_a. A named pipe with the same name as the image is created
if doesn't exist. Finally, dd and tftp are invoked simultaneously to transfer
the image. Unlike regular ftp, tftp puts and gets named pipes just like
regular files.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2. Using fdisk
If fdisk command is selected it is invoked for the block device. fdisk is
normally run for the whole disk as opposed to one partition. Note that what
normally is called /dev/hda will be called /dev/hda0 by the clone script. The
input of fdisk could be put in the script to make automatic creation of
partitions if desired.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Extending the solution
7.1. Saving and restoring files instead of file systems
If you don't want to save a whole disk image just the files within the file
system, you can use a similar solution but with tar or cpio instead of dd.
Also you need to mount the file system. More commands should be added to the
clone script as shown below.
# mkdir /mnt
# mount ${device_name} /mnt
# mknod ${image} p
# tftp ${tftp_server} <<-EOT &
binary
put ${image}
EOT
tar czf ${image}
or
# tftp ${tftp_server} <<-EOT &
binary
get ${image}
EOT
tar xzf ${image}
You have to put the mkdir and tar programs in the initrd image so that the
script can use them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2. Setting up the master boot record
In a situation where you used this setup to reorganize and resize your
partitions, you may end up with a disk that doesn't boot. Running the setup
command from Grub (including the grub program in the image) should resolve
the situation. See the Grub documentation for details.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.3. Loading necessary modules
Depending on your kernel, additional modules may be necessary to access some
block devices like SCSI devices. Just put the necessary modules in the /lib
directory of the initrd image and the correspondent insmod commands in the
clone script. The same applies for file systems. If, for instance, you want
save the files instead of the image of a fat file system you will need the
fat.o and vfat.o modules.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.4. Predefined operations on grub.conf
The Grub menu file grub.conf may be customized to present a few copy options
or even execute a predefined operation such as repartitioning the disk and
retrieving specified images from network. Again, you can use the concepts
presented here to achieve a specific application.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. List of files on initrd
/bin/
/bin/bash
/bin/clone
/bin/dd
/bin/gzip
/bin/mknod
/bin/mount
/bin/tftp
/dev/
/dev/console
/dev/null
/etc/
/etc/dhcpc/
/etc/hosts
/etc/nsswitch.conf
/etc/protocols
/etc/services
/lib/
/lib/3c59x.o
/lib/i686/
/lib/i686/libc-2.2.5.so
/lib/i686/libc.so.6
/lib/ld-2.2.5.so
/lib/ld-linux.so.2
/lib/libdl-2.2.5.so
/lib/libdl.so.2
/lib/libnss_files-2.2.5.so
/lib/libnss_files.so.2
/lib/libtermcap.so.2
/lib/libtermcap.so.2.0.8
/proc/
/sbin/
/sbin/dhcpcd
/sbin/fdisk
/sbin/insmod
/tmp/
/var/
/var/run/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
B. Clone script
#!/bin/bash
set -e
export PATH=/sbin:/bin
tftp_server=10.0.0.1
nic_module=3c59x.o
major_a=(2 3 22)
family_a=(fd hda hdc)
image_a=(img0001 img0002 img0003 img0004)
operation_a=( "Copy from network to device" \
"Copy from device to network" \
"Run fdisk")
mount -t proc proc /proc
insmod /lib/${nic_module}
/sbin/dhcpcd
while true; do \
[ ! -z "${image}" ] && unset image
echo
echo "Clone Menu"
echo
echo "Operation"
echo
PS3="Choose operation (1-${#operation_a[*]}): "
select operation in "${operation_a[@]}"; do \
[ -z "${operation}" ] && continue
echo
echo $REPLY - $operation
echo
break
done
echo "Device Family"
echo
PS3="Choose device family (1-${#family_a[*]}): "
select family in "${family_a[@]}"; do \
[ -z "${family}" ] && continue
echo
echo $REPLY - $family
echo
break
done
major_i=$[REPLY-1]
major=${major_a[$major_i]}
echo "Minor Number"
echo
PS3="Choose minor number (0-255): "
echo -n "$PS3" >&2
read minor
minor=$[minor%256]
echo
echo $minor
echo
if [ "${operation}" != "${operation_a[2]}" ]; then \
echo "Image"
echo
PS3="Choose image (1-${#image_a[*]}): "
select image in "${image_a[@]}"; do \
[ -z "${image}" ] && continue
echo
echo $REPLY - $image
echo
break
done
image_i=$[REPLY-1]
image=${image_a[${image_i}]}
fi
echo
echo -e "Operation:\t$operation"
device_name=/dev/${family_a[${major_i}]}${minor}
echo -e "Device:\t\t${device_name} ($major, $minor)"
[ ! -z "${image}" ] && echo -e "Image:\t\t${image}"
echo
echo "Confirmation"
echo
PS3="Ok/Cancel (1-2): "
select ok in Ok Cancel; do \
[ -z "${ok}" ] && continue
echo
echo $REPLY - $ok
echo
break
done
if [ "${ok}" = "Ok" ]; then \
if [ ! -b ${device_name} ]; then \
echo "Creating ${device_name}"
mknod ${device_name} b ${major} ${minor}
fi
if [ ! -z "${image}" ]; then \
if [ ! -p ${image} ]; then \
echo "Creating pipe"
mknod ${image} p
fi
fi
if [ "${operation}" = "${operation_a[0]}" ]; then \
tftp ${tftp_server} <<-EOT &
binary
get ${image}
EOT
gzip -c -d < ${image} | dd of=${device_name}
elif [ "${operation}" = "${operation_a[1]}" ]; then \
tftp ${tftp_server} <<-EOT &
binary
put ${image}
EOT
dd if=${device_name} | gzip -c > ${image}
elif [ "${operation}" = "${operation_a[2]}" ]; then \
fdisk ${device_name}
fi
echo
fi
echo "Continuation"
echo
PS3="Continue/Exit (1-2): "
select new in Continue Exit; do \
[ -z "${new}" ] && continue
echo
echo $REPLY - $new
echo
break
done
[ "${new}" = "Exit" ] && break
done
exit 0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
[grub] GRUB.
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/
