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<title>Gentoo Linux 
  Documentation
-- 
  Making clones of Sun Sparc machines via network boot</title>
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<br><p class="dochead">Making clones of Sun Sparc machines via network boot</p>
<form name="contents" action="http://www.gentoo.org">
<b>Contents</b>:
    <select name="url" size="1" OnChange="location.href=form.url.options[form.url.selectedIndex].value" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10"><option value="#doc_chap1">1. Introduction</option>
<option value="#doc_chap2">2. Utilization</option>
<option value="#doc_chap3">3. I've booted the tftpboot image, how 
  do I clone the disk?</option>
<option value="#doc_chap4">4.  What is the difference between this, and the vanilla Gentoo Sun Sparc tftpboot package?</option>
<option value="#doc_chap5">5. How do I build my own tftpboot image?</option></select>
</form>
<p class="chaphead"><span class="chapnum"><a name="doc_chap1">1. </a></span>Introduction</p>
<p class="secthead"><a name="doc_chap1_sect1">About this guide </a></p>

<p>
  This is a guide to making disk clones 
  of Sun Sparc machines using a Gentoo tftpboot image, with Udpcast.
  The source for these materials are with the various projects utilized.
  This guide is simply glueing together the very useful contributions 
  of Udpcast and Gentoo's experimental tftpboot images.
  You can either use the ready-made tftpboot image, or download
  a modified and updated package based on the Gentoo tftpboot
  file generator (by Jason Wever).  The tftpboot-udpcast package
  includes updated versions of the kernel and tools,
  and adds Udpcast binaries and lzop binary.
</p>

<p class="chaphead"><span class="chapnum"><a name="doc_chap2">2. </a></span>Utilization</p>
<p class="secthead"><a name="doc_chap2_sect1">How would it be used? </a></p>

<p>
  Suppose you want to make a disk clone 
  of a Sun Sparc machine, perhaps in building a cluster, or simply to have a complete 
  backup of a Sun Sparc machine's drive. With this tool set, you could boot the Sun Sparc
  machine from the network ('boot net' at the prom prompt), and enter a Linux 
  environment running completely in RAM memory. From here it is possible to use 
  a Udpcast command, and have it send or receive the disk image. Another machine 
  on the network, perhaps even an x86 box, can run the complimentary instance 
  of Udpcast, and store or send the disk image as a file.
</p>

<p class="secthead"><a name="doc_chap2_sect2">What do I need to use it? </a></p>

<p>You need to know how to set up a network 
  boot image for a Sun Sparc. Gentoo provides a good how-to <a href="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-sparc-netboot-howto.xml">here</a>. 
  Although parts of the instructions are oriented for Gentoo, I think any seasoned 
  Linux user would be able to use the instructions to make <span class="emphasis">rarpd</span>,
  <span class="emphasis">tftp</span>, and friends work on Debian, Slackware, 
  etc. 
</p>
<p>You need to know a little bit about 
  Udpcast - both the concept of how it works, and what command line options are 
  available. The project site for Udpcast is <a href="http://udpcast.linux.lu/">here</a>.
</p>  
<p>
  You need a tftpboot image which includes 
  the Linux kernel, busybox, Dhcpcd, raidtools, and e2fsprogs, and also
  the Udpcast programs.  You can obtain a ready-made tftpboot image
  for network boot of a Sun sparc64, containing these disk imaging
   tools, by downloading this file:
   <a href="gentoo-sparc64-1.4_rc4-20041112.tftpboot">gentoo-sparc64-1.4_rc4-20041112.tftpboot </a>
  (tftpboot-able).  It includes Linux kernel 2.4.27, busybox 1.0, and
  Udpcast 20040531.  If you need specific kernel features compiled, 
  see below on how to make your own tftpboot image file.
</p>
<p>
  The original package for generation of a tftpboot image was obtained 
  from a Gentoo developer, Jason Wever.  It can be found 
  <a href="http://dev.gentoo.org/%7Eweeve/tftpboot/">here</a>. 
  In the tftpboot-udpcast package (see below to download),
  the versions of kernel and software have been updated, and a couple
  of packages have been added that would assist the imaging of disks
  with Udpcast: <span class="emphasis">udp-sender</span>, <span class="emphasis">udp-receiver</span>, and <span class="emphasis">lzop</span>.
</p>
<p class="chaphead"><span class="chapnum"><a name="doc_chap3">3. </a></span>I've booted the tftpboot image, how 
  do I clone the disk?</p>
<p class="secthead"><a name="doc_chap3_sect1">Zero unused sectors of the master drive </a></p>
<p>
To create a disk image, first fill the unused portions of the master disk with zeros.
This allows it to compress much better. Here is an example:
</p>
<a name="doc_chap3_pre1"></a><table class="ntable" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr><td class="infohead" bgcolor="#7a5ada"><p class="caption">
            Code listing 3.1: Zeroing unused sectors</p></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#ddddff"><pre>
# <span class="input">mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo</span>
# <span class="input">dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/gentoo/zero.bits</span>
# <span class="input">rm /mnt/gentoo/zero.bits</span>
</pre></td></tr>
</table>
<table class="ncontent" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td bgcolor="#bbffbb"><p class="note"><b>Note: </b>
Only zero writable file systems (reiser, ext2, ext3, etc.).   Do not attempt to
zero swapfile partitions and other types of partitions.
</p></td></tr></table>

<p>
When all file system partitions have been zeroed like this,
you can image either partitions, or the entire disk. The following
examples assume we are cloning the whole disk.  
</p>
<p class="secthead"><a name="doc_chap3_sect2">Step 1 - make the disk image file. </a></p>
<p>
On a remote/server machine (any machine where udpcast applications can be run and where
you will store the image files), run the receiver:
</p>
<a name="doc_chap3_pre2"></a><table class="ntable" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr><td class="infohead" bgcolor="#7a5ada"><p class="caption">
            Code listing 3.2: Receiving the disk image on the remote/server machine</p></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#ddddff"><pre>
# <span class="input">udp-receiver --file sundiskimage.lzo</span>
</pre></td></tr>
</table>
<p>On the Sun Sparc machine to be cloned, boot the tftpboot image (boot net from the prom)
and then run the sender:
</p>
<a name="doc_chap3_pre3"></a><table class="ntable" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr><td class="infohead" bgcolor="#7a5ada"><p class="caption">
            Code listing 3.3: Sending the disk image from the Sun Sparc</p></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#ddddff"><pre>
# <span class="input">udp-sender --full-duplex --pipe "lzop" --file /dev/sda</span>
</pre></td></tr>
</table>
<table class="ncontent" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td bgcolor="#bbffbb"><p class="note"><b>Note: </b>
If you get an immediate error from udp-sender on the tftpboot'ed client,
it may mean the network is not up.  Try running <span class="emphasis">dhcpcd</span>
</p></td></tr></table>
<p> This will produce a image file on the receiver machine of the entire
first SCSI disk on the Sun Sparc machine. You can adjust the command accordingly
for what disk you are imaging.  lzop is used to compress the image.
gzip could also be used here, but I found lzop was a lot faster and
only slightly larger image file size.
</p>
<p class="secthead"><a name="doc_chap3_sect3">Step 2 - recreate the disk copy on a new machine or disk </a></p>
<p>
On the remote/server machine, run the sender:
</p>
<a name="doc_chap3_pre4"></a><table class="ntable" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr><td class="infohead" bgcolor="#7a5ada"><p class="caption">
            Code listing 3.4: Sending the disk image on the remote/server machine</p></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#ddddff"><pre>
# <span class="input">udp-sender --full-duplex --file sundiskimage.lzo</span>
</pre></td></tr>
</table>
<p>
On the Sun Sparc machine to be created from the disk image, run the receiver:
</p>
<a name="doc_chap3_pre5"></a><table class="ntable" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr><td class="infohead" bgcolor="#7a5ada"><p class="caption">
            Code listing 3.5: Receiving the disk image on the client</p></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#ddddff"><pre>
# <span class="input">udp-receiver --pipe "lzop -d" --file /dev/sda</span>
</pre></td></tr>
</table>
<p>
This will write the disk image to the entire first SCSI disk on the Sun Sparc machine.
</p>
<span class="comment">
The disk must be identical size and geometry. If working with only partitions
(e.g. /dev/sda4) the partition must be the same block count as on the original
partition that was imaged.  If the same geometry is not possible, but is
close (.e.g., both are different models of 18GB disks) , ensure that
the master disk image leaves a few blocks unpartitioned at the end
of the disk to improve the chance of partition size compatibility
across disk makes and models.
</span>
<p class="chaphead"><span class="chapnum"><a name="doc_chap4">4. </a></span> What is the difference between this, and the vanilla Gentoo Sun Sparc tftpboot package?</p>
<p class="secthead"><a name="doc_chap4_sect1">How this package is unique </a></p>
<p>
The original make script has been updated and enhanced, so that 
it downloads source and compiles the lzop compression utility and Udpcast. 
The primary focus of the Gentoo tftpboot environment was for installing Gentoo. 
In the tftpboot-udpcast project, the focus has been to create a network
boot environment that can be used for cloning disks and disk partitions.
If you are curious how the tftpboot-udpcast building script differs
from the Gentoo script, look at
<a href="make_tftpboot.sh">the updated <span class="emphasis">make_tftpboot.sh</span>
script</a>
</p>
<p class="chaphead"><span class="chapnum"><a name="doc_chap5">5. </a></span>How do I build my own tftpboot image?</p>
<p class="secthead"><a name="doc_chap5_sect1">Generating a tftpboot image on a Sun Sparc </a></p>
<p>
The full tftpboot-udpcast package is available for building your own tftpboot
images.  It works very much like the original from Gentoo, adding the packages
for lzop (and it's required lzo library), and udpcast prior
to building the tftpboot image.
<a href="tftpboot-udpcast.tar.gz">Download tftpboot-udpcast.tar.gz</a>
</p>
<p>To use the package, extract it, and run </p>
<a name="doc_chap5_pre1"></a><table class="ntable" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr><td class="infohead" bgcolor="#7a5ada"><p class="caption">
            Code listing 5.1: Generating tftpboot image</p></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#ddddff"><pre>
# <span class="input">sh make_tftpboot.sh</span>
</pre></td></tr>
</table>
<p>
See the folder configs/kernel for the kernel configuration.
</p>
<table class="ncontent" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td bgcolor="#bbffbb"><p class="note"><b>Note: </b>
This has been tested on sparc64 only - if you have another platform or you need
other kernel options enabled, you may need to tweak the kernel configuration.
</p></td></tr></table>
<p>
Questions or comments? <a href="mailto:dteed@artistic.ca">Ask 
  me</a>.
</p>
<p>
This document maintained by Donald Teed.
</p>
<br><tt>
  The contents of this document are licensed under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0">Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike</a> license.
</tt><br>
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                  Updated Nov 17, 2004</td></tr>
<tr><td><img src="images/line.gif" alt="line"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="alttext">
    <b><a class="altlink" href="mailto:dteed@artistic.ca">Donald Teed</a></b>
<br><i>Researcher, Author</i><br><br>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><img src="images/line.gif" alt="line"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="alttext">
<b>Summary:</b> 
This guide will help you create disk images of Sun Sparc machines from a network boot 
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      Copyright 2004.
    </td></tr>
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