OS Imaging Solution

1. OS Imaging Solution Alexandru Juncu alexandru.juncu@cs.pub.ro • Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010 Conf. Dr. Ing. Răzvan Rughiniș razvan.rughinis@cs.pub.ro

2. Agenda • System Imaging & UDP Cast • Shortcomings of UDP Cast • Benefits of a Centralised System • Architecture of the System • Conclusions • Q&A Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

3. System Imaging • Software that copies HDD contents from one computer to others • Offers scalability to administration of computer rooms (eg. School Laboratories) • Takes advantage of UDP and Multicast • Uses a Seed Host to distribuite contents Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

4. Imaging Process • Prepare hosts for imaging (physical network conectivity) • Install Operating System(s) and needed applications on the Seed Host • Start the sender process on the Seed and the receiver process on the other hosts • Transfer the contents over ther network VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID S R R R Multicast Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

5. UDP Cast • Open Souce Project • http://udpcast.linux.lu/ • udp-sender and udp-receiver • (S) cat /dev/sda | udp-sender • (R) udp-receiver > /dev/sda • Utilities • LiveCD for imaging • cast-o-matic Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

6. Shortcomings of UDP Cast • The Archiving Problem • The Backup Problem • The Moving Problem Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

7. A Centralised Solution • Client – Server Architecture • Server • Always-On Service • Hosts several system images • image information • version control of images • Can become a seed upon request from a client • Not dependant on receiver’s hardware Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

8. A Centralised Solution • Client • can send requests to server • List system images • Create a system image • Update a partition or disk of a system image • Delete a system image • Request an image • can be the receiver or just signal a request for server to seed Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

9. Backend • Python as a framework • open source • large number of available libraries • platform independant • client.py • server.py • PXE Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

10. Client ************************************** *Welcome to the Imaging System Client* ************************************** Available commands: l: list images on server c: create image u: update image d: delete image r: request image >>c Creating image... Available disks: * sda - sda5 - sda2 - sda1 Fill in description for the image (press CTRL-D to finish reading input) new test images Start transfer to server (it might take a long time)?[y/n] Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

11. Server root@hera:/home/alexj/imaging-system/server# tree images/ images/ ├── 1 │ ├── info │ ├── sda │ │ ├── 1 │ │ ├── 2 │ │ └── 3 │ └── sdb │ └── 1 ├── 2 │ ├── info │ └── sda │ ├── 1 │ ├── 2 │ ├── 3 │ ├── 4 │ └── 5 Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

12. Conclusions • Centralised Imaging Solution • Archiving • Version control • Always-On Service • Future Improvements • GUI for client • Secure Authentication • Differential Versioning Questions? Bachelor Presentation Session - July 2010

13. Thank you!