clonepxe

clonepxe is a minimal Linux image that allows to clone and restore disk images over the network. It is made to boot from the network (using PXE). This allows to quickly restore an image on multiple computers, like a classroom for example...

Installation

In the instructions below, we assume the IP address of the server is 192.168.1.10 ...

1. Install a NFS server, to store disk images
2. Configure PXE boot (for example using iPXE)
3. Add a clonepxe entry to your iPXE menu, so it should look like this:

#!ipxe

menu Select boot option

item clonepxe         Start clonepxe
item exit             Exit iPXE and continue normal boot
item reboot           Reboot

choose --default exit --timeout 10000 option && goto ${option}

:clonepxe
kernel http://192.168.1.10/clonepxe/bzImage.efi
initrd http://192.168.1.10/clonepxe/initramfs.cpio.gz
imgargs bzImage.efi initrd=initramfs.cpio.gz ip=dhcp video=efifb
boot

:reboot
reboot

:exit
exit 1

4. Download clonepxe.zip and extract the files (bzImage.efi and initramfs.cpio.gz) in the appropriate directory:

wget https://gitlab.cylab.be/api/v4/projects/806/packages/generic/clonepxe/latest/clonepxe.zip
unzip clonepxe.zip
sudo cp -f bzImage.efi initramfs.cpio.gz /srv/http/clonepxe/

Usage

Build

If you prefer to build bzImage.efi and initramfs.cpio.gz yourself...

Install prerequisites:

make prerequisites

Build the kernel and initramfs:

make

This will build

• bzImage : the kernel
• initramfs.cpio.gz : the compressed initramfs image

You can also quickly test with qemu:

make qemu

You can stop qemu by hitting ctrl + a and then x