Imaging an ESX Box

[lucheman]

Is it possible to image an ESX 3.0.1 server with all patches installed? What are some products that work well if so?

Thanks!

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You'll be better off scripting your install. Here's a recent thread on that. The 2nd link has some further links for automating patches.

http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=630084

http://www.vmware-land.com/Vmware_Links.html#Patches

[cperdereau]

Portlock works very well.

A bit to bit copy might works as well with Ghost 2003 or Version 8

Anyway you will have to change your IP configuration, name, etc .... after your restore on a second box

Anyway I won't recommend this kind of cloning procedure for an ESX server. A scripted install will be much better and reliable.

[esiebert7625]

Check out these posts and also Kickstart...

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=599725

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=567468

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=547362

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=635646

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=672727

[Jae_Ellers]

1. pourquoi? Time savings? Lotsa identical blades/systems to deploy?

2. dd + a startup script that modifies the necessary system files with the new hostname & ip address, regens ssl keys, probably a couple extra things. I haven't used any 3rd party tools to do this.

[Ritmo2k]

I can second the DD comment. Nothing beats it, heh, except everything else is faster

Although I have been using Ghost for eons in windows world, it is not without a chunk of issues, trust me:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sunset-c2002kb.nsf/0/3e0c8a75d22a6cbb85256ee500610cb1?OpenDocum...

I always use dd, or the neat helix version called dcfldd (It has a nice progress indicator) when doing linux now.

I made this post a while ago and all the gurus said to script the install, it wasn't worth the time. On that note, no one could drill down what config files I could simply replace with backups to restore all the config! There was some vmware script that tars it all up for support, so I guess someone very familiar with esx could reverse that? For my uneducated but, DD is a reliable option!

Thanks!

[lucheman]

Can you be more specific as to how to use the dd command with a script to image ESX? I am not a Linux guy, but I have used the dd command to create iso's from the service console and place them on a shared LUN formatted with the VMFS3 file system...

[Ritmo2k · Accepted solution]

Heh this is funny, I know less than anyone here about Linux I am handing out Linux help for the first time! friends would be prou d

DD if=/dev/sd? (your esx hard disc? Is it installed on more than one???) of=/path_of_place_to_dump/ conv=notrunc other=switches...

I would love some guru to 'splain what ramifications the block size has, other then speed! I'm also not even sure you need the conv=notrunc, I never used to use it but was to use it...

Thats what I do...

Thanks!