Mandriva Pulse 2 v1.3.0 - now with bare-metal disc imaging

[Fredo]

Hi everybody

Mandriva Pulse 2 1.3.0 is out, and now allows disk imaging.

The principle is quite similiar to CloneZilla and FOG

Everything is controlled using a clean web interface.

You might want to give it a try (it's a free and open-source product)

I think the product is of great quality and needs to be advertised

http://pulse2.mandriva.org

[Fredo]

I'm currently testing it, so far so good!

Setting up the server is a bit more work than FOG (but if you follow the installation guide to the letter it's all good)

My tests with the imaging module have been successful (WinXP clients. Did not encounter any MBR ou partition problems unlike with FOG's partimage clone mode) and it's quite fast (my network being the bottleneck).

Haven't tried multicast cloning yet.

[morganw]

Looks interesting. Can it automate the setting of workstation names and join the domain?

[Fredo]

Yes, the workstation name can be set automatically.

joining a domain could be done by adding a custom post-install script I guess.

[Iosoma]

It looks quite nice, but does it have any distinct advantages over FOG? Apart from being a lot prettier...

[morganw]

"Pulse 2 additionally integrates with other tools like OCS Inventory, GLPI. Nagios is also possible."

If you are using any of these then it can do stuff for you that FOG can't.

[Fredo]

It looks quite nice, but does it have any distinct advantages over FOG? Apart from being a lot prettier...

well, at least it works when FOG failed for me (mbr/partition problems when cloning)

[mmoseley]

well, at least it works when FOG failed for me (mbr/partition problems when cloning)

I *THINK* this will be addressed in version 0.30 of FOG, they have changed their Init Image to be based on BusyBox, which I think will address that issue.

[morganw]

I think 0.30 will also let you replace partimage with fsarchiver so really the entire imaging mechanism is getting replaced.

[Fredo]

Nobody wants to try?

Some more reporting and remarks after several months of using Pulse2 :

- I have encountered some cases (quite rare) with some computer models, where the network card was not being recognized when saving/restoring an image (due to the kernel version used in the pxe boot).

No big deal, just add another well supported network card and adjust the GRUB line by adding the keyword: revoeth1 (will tell the kernel to use the eth1 interface)

- the underlying partition saving/restoring tool is Partclone.

- No mbr/partition tables problems encountered (cloned Windows XP and Vista machines, but Seven should work too)

- still haven't tested multicast cloning nor package deployment, yet. So I can't tell. Maybe somebody could give it a try