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(Mods, please move this to whatever appropriate location you see fit)

Short and sweet…

I have mastered Clonezilla Live (Unicast) and Clonezilla Server/DRBL (Multicast). My boss has tasked me with the responsibility of finding a way to push out an image across a network rather than through a switch. Ultimately, we need the ability to push out an image to an entire studio which could have upwards of 80-100 computers in it. My hunch is that this can be done through the Broadcast option of Clonezilla Server but I have yet to figure it out.

Has anyone done this? If so, what steps did you take?

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From what i understand, doing it this way is a terrible, terrible idea. You would have 2 DHCP scopes being broadcast on your network.

I believe there was a way of doing it, as long as somewhere on your network (router i assume) you have something specifying the PXE boot server. I struggled with this for a bit, too, i ended up just going the removeable media way.

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I 1000% agree with you. The multicast method I am currently testing is flawless but does not do what the antiquated imaging process does (which is what my boss would like going forward). Even though it may not be the best way, it worked with the older software (Ghost) for years.

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I have setup Clonezilla to boot from a usb key and pull all of the images from a network share. This has worked great for me and all I need to do is have a small flash drive with me. I backup and restore images this way.

I can share the command I used in the clonezilla menu I created.

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I haven’t done this with Clonezilla, but it is relatively easy with FOG. If you have a pre-existing DHCP server you just need to point it at your FOG TFTP server, I imagine it is a similar configuration process for Clonezilla Server/DRBL setup.

To make a pre-existing Linux ISC-DHCP server work with FOG PXE boot you just add the following 2 lines to the dhcpd.conf file after the “option tftp-server-name” line:

next-server <ip-address-of-imaging-server>;
option bootfile-name                "undionly.kpxe";

A Windows DHCP server requires a bit more tinkering via their GUI, but it is also possible.

https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Modifying_existing_DHCP_server_to_work_with_FOG

A quick google search specific to clonezilla server / drbl returned this: http://drbl.org/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/37_coexist_with_existing_dhcp.faq#37_coexist_with_existing_dhcp.faq

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Thanks, mikentcc. Before I make any presumptions about your configuration, do you broadcast the image using DRBL and Clonezilla Server? From what you referenced, it appears you use Clonezilla Live for unicasting. but again, I do not want to presume anything.

All of my images are stored on a network share (QNAP device to be more specific). I connect a spare laptop that I use as the Clonezilla server to a network switch which connects all the other laptops on a specific table. Using DRBL and Clonezilla Server, I boot each of the laptops and, using the network option as the boot option, I deploy the image to each of the computer connected to the switch.

My boss wants me to ind a way to push out the image to all computers in the studio, not just table by table. I understand the potential ramifications but, since this is the summer session, I have room to breath in the event of failure.

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Much appreciated, RB. I will look into your suggestions.

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Yes you are correct I use the Clonezilla live on a USB to image computers. I do not use PXE to boot a boot server. The USB configuration loads the Clonezilla live into RAM and then loads the images stored on a network share and allows you to choose one to re-imaged the computer or to name the image to do the backup.

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RB, I am looking into FOG. In the meantime, based on the wiki link you provided, am I mistaken that there are only two changes that need to be made to an existing Windows DHCP server to get FOG to work properly (modify Server Options 066 & 067)?

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I haven’t configured a Windows DHCP server to work with it, but to my understanding that is all that needs to be done. Make sure you do not enable DHCP on initial configuration of your FOG server, and then make the appropriate configuration changes (as you referenced) on your Windows DHCP server and it should work as expected. I have everything configured on my own network and it works as advertised, though I’m using a Linux DHCP server.

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When I was testing Fog I didn’t want to make any changes to existing Windows Server, as we also use SCCM, so I configured fog with dnsmasq.

I’ve also used Clonezilla server broadcast restore, the company that we used to purchase the new devices agreed to test and image everything for us, I just had to come up with an ‘easy way to do this’

I installed ubuntu server and drbl on a laptop, configured a sub-interface that was used for clients

Created two scripts to start and stop the server, used drbl-ocs switches like --broadcast --clients-to-wait 45

They connected my ubuntu server to an isolated switch and imaged everything for us, in lots of 45

I wish I documented the whole thing now…

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“When I was testing Fog I didn’t want to make any changes to existing Windows Server, as we also use SCCM, so I configured fog with dnsmasq.”

Thanks for this. Are you able to broadcast or is it strictly multicast?

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That would depend on your switch infrastructure and how it’s set up. Do you use VLANs, etc

What do you mean by this:

Check the Serving ProxyDHCP to multiple subnets section:

https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Using_FOG_with_an_unmodifiable_DHCP_server/_Using_FOG_with_no_DHCP_server

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When I image a pc with and SSD drive with Clonezilla live, I can put that image back on the computer with no errors. If I use DRBL and Clonezilla server, it always errors asking if the target drive is too small.