The following sections cover procedures to prepare devices for imaging. The procedures that are applicable to you depend on your imaging deployment strategy. For more information, see Section 2.4.2, Deploying Preboot Services in a Network Environment.
If you are using Preboot Services (PXE) as your imaging method, you need to enable PXE on the device. For more information, see Section 2.3.1, Using Preboot Services (PXE).
If you are using a ZENworks partition as your imaging method, you need to create the partition on the device. For more information, see Creating a ZENworks Partition.
If your cloned virtual or physical machine does not boot up properly, you must disable the use of persistent device names for networks and storages for CODE 10 products. For more information, see Disabling Persistent Device Names.
The following sections contain additional information:
This section gives the requirements for using a network-connected device.
It is possible (but usually not as convenient) to image a device without connecting to the network. Such operations can’t be fully automated.
The following are the requirements for the device:
Table 2-12 Device Requirements
|
Device Must Have |
Because |
|---|---|
|
A supported Ethernet card |
The device must connect with the Imaging Server to store or retrieve the images. This connection is made when the device is under the control of the ZENworks Imaging Engine. Therefore, make sure the device has a supported Ethernet card. For more information, see Section H.0, Supported Ethernet Cards. |
|
Free disk space for a ZENworks partition (optional) |
Unless you are using PXE, unattended operations require a ZENworks partition to be installed on the device hard disk, so that the ZENworks Imaging Engine can gain control when booting. The default partition size is 150 MB, and the minimum partition size is 50 MB. This partition is not required if you are performing manual imaging operations using bootable CDs, DVDs, or diskettes. Partition size can be in megabytes of disk space. |
|
Standard hardware architecture |
NEC PC98 architecture is not supported. |
|
PXE enabled |
If you are using Preboot Services, PXE must be enabled in the BIOS. For more information, see Section 2.3.1, Using Preboot Services (PXE). |
|
Supported imaging partition type |
The supported partition types for imaging are the NTFS, , ReiserFS, Ext2, and Ext3 file systems. |
NOTE:ZENworks imaging does not support devices running boot managers, such as System Commander. Boot managers create their own information in the MBR and overwrite the ZENworks boot system, which prevents the device from communicating with the Imaging Server. If you are using boot managers in your environment, you should disable or remove them before performing imaging operations.
Use one of the following methods to enable a device for auto-imaging operations:
You can set up a device to be automatically imaged from Preboot bundles by enabling PXE on the device.
For more information, see Section 2.7.1, Enabling PXE on a PXE-Capable Device.
If you cannot enable PXE on the device, you can use a partition to perform unattended imaging operations.
For more information, see Creating a ZENworks Partition.
If you cannot use the PXE or ZENworks partition methods to automate imaging of your devices, you can manually image a device using an imaging CD or DVD.
For information, see Section 3.1.3, Setting Up Disconnected Imaging Operations.
The network card of every Linux device is associated with the device MAC. If you take an image of the device along with the network card - MAC association information, a new additional network card is created when you restore the image on a different Linux device resulting in two network cards for a devices. Consequently, there will no network connectivity. To fix these issues, you must disable the persistent device names for network and storage before taking an image of a Linux device.
Review the following sections to understand how to disable the persistent network device names for Linux devices:
Perform the following tasks on the SLES 10 SP2/SP3, SLED 10 SP2/SP3, or OES 2 SP2/SP3 device:
Reset the udev configuration for the network devices by executing the following command:
cat < /dev/null > /etc/udev/rules.d/30-net_persistent_names.rules command.
Rename the Ethernet configuration files to initialize the Ethernet devices on boot.
Go to /etc/sysconfig/network.
Find the ifcfg-eth file for each Ethernet device. In the filename, the trailing identifier for an Ethernet device represents the MAC address for the device.
For example, in the ifcfg-eth-id-00:AA:BB:11:22:33 file, the trailing identifier, AA:BB:22:33, is the MAC address for the device.
Rename the file to ifcfg-ethX, where X represents the number of Ethernet devices on the system. For example, the name for the configuration eth0 is ifcfg-eth0.
In the /etc/sysconfig/network/config file, change the value of FORCE_PERSISTENT_NAMES to No.
Reboot the device to take an image.
Perform the following tasks on the SLES 11 or SLED 11 device:
Delete /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules.
Rename the Ethernet configuration files to initialize the Ethernet devices on boot.
Go to /etc/sysconfig/network.
Find the ifcfg-eth file for each Ethernet device. In the filename, the trailing identifier for an Ethernet device represents the MAC address for the device.
For example, in the ifcfg-eth-id-00:AA:BB:11:22:33 file, the trailing identifier, AA:BB:22:33, is the MAC address for the device.
Rename the file to ifcfg-ethX, where X represents the number of Ethernet devices on the system. For example, the name for the configuration eth0 is ifcfg-eth0.
Reboot the device in to PXE, then in to Imaging maintenance or auto mode.
Take an image of the device.
Restore the image on the same device.
Reboot the device, then log into it.
In the /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-ethX file, change LLADDR to the MAC address of the target device. For a virtual machine, the target virtual machine MAC address is available in the .vmx file.
Reboot the device.
Perform the following tasks on the SLES 10 SP2/SP3 or SLED 10 SP2/SP3 device:
Search for the /dev/disk/by-* references in the boot loader configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst and the file system table /etc/fstab.
Store the mapping of /dev/disk/by-* symlinks to their targets in a scratch file: ls -l /dev/disk/by-* > /tmp/scratchpad.txt.
Remove storage-specific entries, such as SAN or iSCSI volumes, that are not local to the system.
In /boot//grub/menu.lst and/etc/fstab files, replace the /dev/disk/by-* entries from the scratch file with the device names the symlinks point to.
Reboot the device.