Hello all,
I've deployed new servers - installing new CentOS servers via PXE booting using its iso distribution stored on an NFS server. For certain server types; I'd like to install custom applications into a server and then generate an image of that server, and deploy again via PXE to another group of servers.
Wanted to find out if anyone can forward any pointers to papers or links on:
1. Best and (cheapest) way to create disk image (that can be used for over the network installation over PXE) of an existing CentOS server with all its custom apps and packages ... would this be dd? would this take a long time?
2. Would like to find out if you can point me to a guide or doc - that specifically describes this process; most PXE install notes out there describe the PXE config setup and assumes an ISO image (to create a new server), as opposed to deploying a "ghosted" image of an existing server.
3. In a deployment of a "ghosted" image - would the DHCP automatically request for a new IP address upon completion of the installation on the target machine (since when I ghost the source machine, the network information will contain that source's machine IP address, MAC, etc. etc.)
Thanks in advance ..