NFS Share as image directory

[Jack Levin]

Hi,

is there a way to say my CloneZillaSE to use a NFS share? I tried to add the absolute path I found in /etc/exports which were:

172.17.224.22:/vol/smithsbia/clonezilla172.17.224.201(rw,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

and in 2nd try

172.17.224.22:/vol/smithsbia/clonezilla]

The script completed both times successfully but my client failed when trying to access the NFS share for writing the image there. Any suggestions?

The only hint I read was

Please use absolute path, and do NOT assign it under /mnt/, /media/ or /tmp/

but actually I didn't used them… Didn't I use the absolut path?

Thanks in advance.
Jack

[Steven Shiau]

You have to use the user mode NFS service (on Debian, it's called unfs3) to replace the kernel mode of NFS service.

Steven.

[Jack Levin]

Hi Steven,

I think you'll advise me to change the NFS service on my NFS server. But unfortunately that won't be possible, because the NFS server is a filer owned by a Filer OS.

The CloneZilla (Ubuntu 9.04) mounts the NFS share from the filer. There is an entry in my CloneZilla /etc/fstab which mounts this NFS share permanently after a reboot to

/srv/clonezilla

. That works for root and my default user. Both can access, read & write to the directory.

I setup up CloneZilla (Ubuntu 9.04) to deploy no DRBL but CloneZilla Services. Now it works fine as long as the image repository is a local directory. Set in

/opt/drbl/sbin/drblpush -i

at the point

When using clonezilla, which directory in this server you want to store the saved image (Please use absolute path, and do NOT assign it under /mnt/, /media/ or /tmp/)?

Here I tried

<Filer IP>/vol/directory

and

/srv/clonezilla

. But both failed with the error

mount.nfs access denied by server while mounting <CloneZilla IP>:/<Filer IP>/vol/directory respectively <CloneZilla IP>:/srv/clonezilla

This is what striking me, because there is somewhere a string, which puts the local IP in front of the real NFS share. That's why it's not working. But I didn't find the conf file/setting so far… Do you have any suggestions on that issue?

Thanks in advance.
Jack

[Steven Shiau]

Another option is to try this:
http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-server-edition/use_clonezilla_live_in_drbl.php

You can assign the boot parameter ocs_prerun to mount your NFS server, e.g.
ocs_prerun="mount -t nfs $SERVER:/$PATH_TO_DIR/ /home/partimag"

For more info about boot parameter of Clonezilla live, check:
http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/fine-print.php?path=./99_Misc/00_live-initramfs-manual.doc#00_live-initramfs-manual.doc

Steven.

[Jack Levin]

Hi Steven,

somehow I'm in deep trouble with all that. I tried to use both of your advises.

Booting with CloneZilla
When I want to boot no CloneZillaSE services but CloneZilla live (clonezilla-live-1.2.5-17-i686.iso), my boot process stucks at the point where it shall find some Ethernet NICs. There it only finds one and then freezes. After this sequence:

Begin: Running /scripts/live-premount ... Waiting for ethernet card(s) up... If this fails, mybe the ethernet card is not supported by the kernel 2.6.32-5-686? Looking for a connected Ethernet interface ... eth0? eht1? eth2? eth3?
 found eth0.
done.
IP-Config: eth0 hardware address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:Xx mtu 1500 DHCP RARP

During drblpush -i set

* No diskless Linux for client is the system.
* Use Clonezilla live as the OS (Operating System) of clients when running Clonezilla job.
* The CPU arch for clients when running Clonezilla job: i686

Curiously exactly the same image gets booted without any error, when I download it and connect it to my PXE-Client.

Change of some system parameters
That's why I returned on debugging CloneZilla Service Mode. I changed the variable you mentioned ocs_prerun as advised. Additionally I defined the image repository as your suggested "/home/partimag". But the mount still doesn't appear. Even worse the image process didn't fail but created a directory on my CLoneZillaServers home directory writing the image directly back to CloneZilla instead of to my NFS.

I debugged further on the CLI. I found out, that all NFS exports on CloneZillaServer /etc/exports were mounted but my own NFS. So I tried to hack the /etc/exports file by making the entry "srv/filerxx <IP>(rw,sync,root_squash,no_subtree_check)" which is my mounted NFS share on CloneZillaServer. I thought I could create a redirection to my NFS. But failed as well. As best choice for performance reasons, it would be great to let the PXE-Client mount the NFS share directly.

According to the last issue: What is missing me is the information how CloneZilla puts its NFS information to the /etc/fstab it gives the PXE Client to mount. Somewhere there I hope to be able to add my NFS share. I hope this is somehow possible. Or is there another possiblity?

Thanks for your patience in answering my questions.
Jack

[Steven Shiau]

"IP-Config: eth0 hardware address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:Xx mtu 1500 DHCP RARP " -> Do you have 2 or more NICs in that client? If so, try to add live-netdev="eth1" (or eth2…) in the boot parameter, as described here:
http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/fine-print.php?path=./99_Misc/00_live-initramfs-manual.doc#00_live-initramfs-manual.doc
"it would be great to let the PXE-Client mount the NFS share directly. " -> Yes, you can. For Clonezilla SE, you can edit its /etc/fstab to make it.

Steven.

[Jack Levin]

Hi Steven.

I just wanted to say thank you for the assistance. Now it's working great. I have another question but because it's not thread related I would start a new thread.

Cheers,
Jack

[Steven Shiau]

No problem. Enjoy!

Steven.