[CentOS] Does CentOS has problems with Norton Ghost 2003 images?

Wed Apr 27 21:20:24 UTC 2005
Marc Powell <marc at ena.com>


> -----Original Message-----
> From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On
> Behalf Of Juan Pablo Espino
> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 3:45 PM
> To: centos at centos.org
> Subject: [CentOS] Does CentOS has problems with Norton Ghost 2003
images?
> 
> Hello all
> 
> We have two very important workstations dedicated to tasks of
> development and investigation.  At the moment we have installed a dual
> boot platform with CentOS 4.0 and Windows XP Proffessional SP2.  In
> order to do backups of these machines we need to create an image with
> Norton Ghost 2003.
> 
> We have worked with Ghost during several years with different
> platforms (Red Hat, White Box Linux, Windows) without problems but now
> we are facing problems with our CentOS. When the creation of the image
> reaches approximately 50% in BOTH machines the Norton Ghost aborts
> with an error.  Using the "force cloning" option of Ghost we managed
> to complete the creation of the image, nevertheless when recovering it
> we got this error: GRUB GRUB (the machine never booted)

Chapter E, Boot Configuration section of the Ghost2003 manual at
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/ghost/manuals/g
host2003_guide.pdf states --

"Boot configuration
Norton Ghost uses the file /etc/lilo.conf to determine the boot
configuration. If this file does not match the boot configuration,
Norton Ghost may be unable to patch LILO during cloning. The keyword,
default, is not supported in Lilo.conf, so the first target specified
should be the default target.

If a different boot loader, such as grub, is used, or the preceding
conditions are not met, Norton Ghost clones the system but the new disk
probably will not boot. The system should be started from a floppy disk
or CD, and the boot loader should be reinstalled by running /sbin/lilo
or an equivalent."

That last paragraph seems applicable. Did White Box use lilo or grub?

> Then we tried to boot CentOS from a floppy and linux rescue and it
> didn't work.  Two days ago we made and we recovered images to those
> same discs with White Box and WinXP without problems.
> 
> Given our experience with Norton Ghost, we considered seriously that
> the problem is CentOS.  We did many tests to have arrived at this
> consideration. Here are the details:

I believe the opposite is more likely. Ghost needs to support the OS on
the disk, not the other way around. That's why you can't use Ghost to
clone HFS or ReiserFS partitions. The table below supports that
conclusion as well --

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/8f7dc138830563c888256c220
0662ecd/b343f521f647fd1b88256caf00755887?OpenDocument&prod=Norton%20Ghos
t&ver=2003%20for%20Windows%202000/NT/Me/98/XP&src=sg&pcode=ghost&svy=&cs
m=no

My guess is that White Box was identical to or close enough to one of
the supported versions to work correctly. RHAS4 and therefore CentOS4
are much newer than Ghost 2003 so it's not too much of a stretch to
imagine that it's not supported.

--
Marc