Image a full ESX system

[twindude]

I have imaged a complete ESX system successfully and put it back up on a different piece of hardware with no problems!

This is great news to us so that we can standardize on the builds and allow us to put ESX up easier and faster!

However; this was done with Acronis TrueImage Server v9.1, which support Linux OS.

Ghost, complained and failed to do this (RED SCREENED)!

How to:

I booted off of the Acronis Boot Media and made an image then deployed is with the Boot Media CD.

Time was: Total of 5 minutes to "image and deploy"

[TomHowarth]

how do you manage the uniqueness. script?

and is this a base install or do you have all the patches installed?

[kriewald]

I used also Acronis in my testlab, but I got an exact clone of the source host. And this don't work in my cluster.

So I have the same question as Tom Howarth:

How do you manage the uniqueness?[/b]

[langonej]

No offense, but I'd much rather have a clean scripted installation. I've integrated my build into the ks.cfg and it does all of my post-installation tasks.

Then when the server boots up for the first time, I run my "configureme" script and it asks for:

hostname, Service Console IP info, VMotion IP info

I hit enter and it runs through the config in about 30 seconds. A clean install that doesn't have old hostnames lingering about.

Still nice to hear you got Ghost working.

[buckethead]

Any update on this one?

I think that the clean scripted install works best, but I would like to understand how you are dealing with the unique hostname information to see if this is an option I should consider.

[daniel_uk]

I could take a raided mirrored disk out slot it in a new box...rename the server, re IP etc but this would be silly....scripted build for uniqueness the easiest/safest/and probably longer term quickest way.

Does Acronis run a system preperation tool?

[kriewald]

I used Acronis only for file (ext3 partitions) and sector (vmfs partitions) copy, no scripting.