Diskless Remote Boot in Linux: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox software

{{Orphan|date=July 2006}}

| name = DRBL

'''DRBL''' ('''D'''iskless '''R'''emote '''B'''oot in '''L'''inux) is a [[NFS]]-/[[NIS]] server providing a diskless or systemless environment for client machines.

| logo = drbl.svg

| screenshot = Drblmenu.png

| screenshot size = 200px

| caption = Graphical boot menu of DRBL.

| developer = NCHC Free Software Labs

| released = {{start date|2004|4|1}}

| latest_release_version = 2.2.11<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/drbl/files/drbl_stable/|title = Diskless Remote Boot in Linux (DRBL) - Browse /Drbl_stable at SourceForge.net}}</ref>

| latest_release_date = {{start date|2016|5|31}}

| operating system = [[Linux]]

| genre = Disk cloning, Disaster recovery, Network boot, PXE boot

| license = [[GNU General Public License]]

| website = [https://drbl.sourceforge.net/ drbl.sourceforge.net]

}}

'''DRBL''' ('''D'''isklessDiskless '''R'''emoteRemote '''B'''ootBoot in '''L'''inuxLinux) is a [[Network File System (protocol)|NFS]]-/[[Network Information Service|NIS]] server providing a [[diskless client|diskless]] or systemless environment for client machines.

It could be used for

* cloning machines with [[Clonezilla]] software inbuilt,

* providing machines withfor a netnetwork bootableinstallation operationof systemLinux (e.distributions g.like DSLFedora, Puppy LinuxDebian, FreeDOS)etc.,

* providing machines via PXE boot (or similar means) with a small size operation system (e.g., DSL, Puppy Linux, FreeDOS).

Providing a DRBL-Server

It works on Debian, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS and SuSE. Unlike LTSP, it uses distributed hardware resources and makes it possible for clients to fully access local hardware. It also includes Clonezilla, a partitioning and disk cloning utility similar to Symantec Ghost.

* Installation on a machine running a supported Linux distribution via installation script,

==External Resources==

* [[Live CD]].

* [http://drbl.sf.net/ DRBL]

* [http://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/ Clonezilla]

ItInstallation worksis possible on a machine with [[Debian]], [[Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]], [[Mandriva]], [[Red Hat Linux]], [[Fedora (operating system)|Fedora]], [[CentOS]] andor [[SUSE S.A.|SuSE]] already installed. Unlikelike [[Linux Terminal Server Project|LTSP]], it uses distributed hardware resources and makes it possible for clients to fully access local hardware, thus making it feasible to use server machines with less power. ItDRBL also includes [[Clonezilla]], a partitioning and disk cloning utility similar to Symantec Ghost.

DRBL comes under the terms of the [[GNU GPL]] license so providing the user with the ability to customize it.

==Features==

DRBL excels in two main categories.

'''Disk Cloning'''

[[Clonezilla]] (packaged with DRBL) uses [[Partimage]] to avoid copying free space, and [[gzip]] to compress Hard Disk images. The stored image can then be restored to multiple machines simultaneously using [[multicast]] packets, thus greatly reducing the time it takes to image large numbers of computers. The DRBL Live CD allows you to do all of this without actually installing anything on any of the machines, by simply booting one machine (the server) from the CD, and [[Preboot Execution Environment|PXE]] booting the rest of the machines.

'''Diskless node'''

A diskless node is an excellent way to make use of old hardware. Using old hardware as [[thin clients]] is a good solution, but has some disadvantages that a [[diskless node]] can make up for.

* Streaming audio/video - A [[terminal server]] must decompress, recompress, and send video over the network to the client. A diskless node does all decompression locally, and can make use of any graphics hardware capabilities on the local machine.

* Software that requires real-time input - Since all input at a [[thin client]] is sent over the network before it is registered by the operating system, there can be substantial delay. This is a major problem in software that requires real-time input (i.e. [[video games]]). Diskless nodes run the software locally, and as such, do not have this problem.

DRBL allows one to set up multiple [[diskless node]]s with relative ease.

==Inner workings==

The client computer is set to boot from the network card using PXE or Etherboot. The client requests an IP address, and tftp image to boot from, both are provided by the DRBL server. The client boots the [[initrd|initial RAM disk]] provided by the DRBL server via tftp, and proceeds to mount an [[network File System|nfs]] share (also provided by the DRBL server) as its root (/) partition. From there, the client boots either the linux distribution on which the DRBL server is installed, Clonezilla, or an installer for various Linux distributions, depending on how that particular client was configured on the DRBL server.

All system resources reside on the local machine except storage, which resides on the DRBL server.

==System recommendations==

The main bottleneck in a DRBL installation is between the storage on the DRBL server, and the client workstation. Fast storage on the server (RAID), and a fast network (Gigabit Ethernet), are ideal in this type of environment.

==External Resourcesresources==

* [httphttps://drbl.sf.netorg/ DRBL]

* [http://clonezillawww.sourceforgeclonezilla.netorg/ Clonezilla]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

{{Linux-stub}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diskless Remote Boot In Linux}}

[[Category:Booting]]

[[Category:Network booting]]

[[Category:Provisioning]]

[[Category:Embedded Linux]]

[[Category:Linux software]]

[[Category:Operating system distributions bootable from read-only media]]

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{{Linux-stub}}