28 LXF249May 2019 http://www.linuxformat.comShashank
Sharma
BydayShashank
isaNewDelhitrial
lawyer,butby
nighthe’sanopen
sourcevigilante!We compare tons of stuff so you don’t have to!
Clonezilla DeepinClone FOGProject
G4L WereSyncanaging a network of computers is
an involved process. The constant
barrage of repetitive tasks such as
runningchecks, troubleshooting errors,
replacing dead hard disks and doing fresh
installations over and over again can sap the
energy out of any system admin, irrespective
of the size of your realm. Even before you can
tackle the problem of actively monitoring the
machines, you have to install an operating
system on each of them. This is a time-
consuming task even for a small network
with, say, 10 computers.
Computer cloning involves setting up the
operating system, drivers, software and dataon one computer, and then automatically
replicating the same setup on other
computers. The technique, also known as
ghosting or imaging, is used by system
admins for rolling out multiple identical
machines over the network.
The cloning tools on test here are a
blessing for harried admins who want to put
their feet up every now and then. With these
tools you can image and clone machines
without breaking into a sweat. We’ll look at
tools that, besides cloning, will also help take
the pain out of everyday admin tasks such as
installing software, and can scale up to work
over large networks and multiple locations.Disk cloning tools
Need to provision a lab full of PCs? The ever lethargic Shashank Sharma
tests the best tools to get the job done without breaking into a sweat.
A disk cloning tool requires
quite a bit of hardware to be
tested effectively, particularly
hard disks. This is why virtual
hardware is ideal for testing
their capabilities. For this
Roundup we’re using several
virtual machines with multiple
hard disks of various sizes.
We’ll use them to image a
small disk to a large one, which
is one of the most popular uses
of a disk cloning tool.
Secondly, we’ll clone a large
disk with lots of empty space
to a smaller one with enough
room to accommodate the
used sectors of the larger
disk. The Clonezilla, G4L and
FOG Project tools have been
tested on Manjaro, Fedora
and Ubuntu installations.
WereSync was installed on
Manjaro and Deepin Clone
was tested atop a Deepin 15.9
installation for best results.
The network-based FOG
Project was installed on a
Ubuntu Server installation as
per its documentation.Roundup
M
how we teSted...