HOWTO create a LiveDVD/USB from a custom build of CentOS 6.2
Posted: 2012/03/18 15:11:55
I have a build DVD that is highly customized vs of CentOS 6.2. Id like to turn that build DVD into a LiveDVD/USB somehow. Is this possible, and if so how?
I have been looking all over google, but my google-foo has failed me today. Everything is either how to create a bootable USB for installing the OS, or taking a Live.iso and making a bootable USB device.
I have been successful at the later, dont care about the bootable install from the USB as that will not meat my goals.
The long and short is to create 2 partitions on the USB, or just a LiveDVD, that I can access a LVM that contains an encrypted tarball of our sfotware database for our customers.
This is for backups. 95% of our customers run Linux servers. With there backups either on DVD+RW, some form of USB device or a few NAS devices. Currently if their hardware fails we have to move them temporarily over to MS Windows until we get them replacement hardware. This process can take between 2-6hrs depending on the quality of their backup, the performance of their windows system. etc... This is a huge amount of downtime for the customer.
My desire is to take our highly customized kickstart DVD (we do not use default pathing as the original software was created in unix and ported over to linux. when they did that they did not remake it so we have to customize the OS big time) and turn it into a LiveDVD/USB that we can just run from on either the server, if it is not a power supply, NIC, or other vital bit of hardware outside of HDD/Raid controller, or on a MS Windows workstation until they get replacement hardware up and running.
I have succeeded in following http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_USB for creating a live Fedora USB to access the LVM I am working on to replace the current model of using /dev/sdX that is prone to fail for so many reasons. The issue with LVM is there is absolutely no way to access that data from MS Windows without the LiveUSB/DVD/CDs. The customer in the field typically knows less about computers then your average grandma. That is starting to ask a lot of them to setup ssh, open the firewall, get us the IP address, etc... so we can then get into the system to recover the data.
If I could create a LiveOS from our kickstart, then at least the customer would be faced with a look and feel they are already comfortable with thus cutting down their anxiety a bit while we get things setup so we can have remote access to complete the conversion.
When I attempted to follow http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD directions I ran into a situation of CentOS 6.2 not having access to livecd-tools. So I attempted to grab them from a Fedora 16 page, but that rpm failed to install. Yes I know you will want to see the errors, I will have to get them for you tomorrow when I am back at work and have access to the system I am testing on.
Many thanks in advance for the help, guidance, and directions for this task.
I have been looking all over google, but my google-foo has failed me today. Everything is either how to create a bootable USB for installing the OS, or taking a Live.iso and making a bootable USB device.
I have been successful at the later, dont care about the bootable install from the USB as that will not meat my goals.
The long and short is to create 2 partitions on the USB, or just a LiveDVD, that I can access a LVM that contains an encrypted tarball of our sfotware database for our customers.
This is for backups. 95% of our customers run Linux servers. With there backups either on DVD+RW, some form of USB device or a few NAS devices. Currently if their hardware fails we have to move them temporarily over to MS Windows until we get them replacement hardware. This process can take between 2-6hrs depending on the quality of their backup, the performance of their windows system. etc... This is a huge amount of downtime for the customer.
My desire is to take our highly customized kickstart DVD (we do not use default pathing as the original software was created in unix and ported over to linux. when they did that they did not remake it so we have to customize the OS big time) and turn it into a LiveDVD/USB that we can just run from on either the server, if it is not a power supply, NIC, or other vital bit of hardware outside of HDD/Raid controller, or on a MS Windows workstation until they get replacement hardware up and running.
I have succeeded in following http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_USB for creating a live Fedora USB to access the LVM I am working on to replace the current model of using /dev/sdX that is prone to fail for so many reasons. The issue with LVM is there is absolutely no way to access that data from MS Windows without the LiveUSB/DVD/CDs. The customer in the field typically knows less about computers then your average grandma. That is starting to ask a lot of them to setup ssh, open the firewall, get us the IP address, etc... so we can then get into the system to recover the data.
If I could create a LiveOS from our kickstart, then at least the customer would be faced with a look and feel they are already comfortable with thus cutting down their anxiety a bit while we get things setup so we can have remote access to complete the conversion.
When I attempted to follow http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD directions I ran into a situation of CentOS 6.2 not having access to livecd-tools. So I attempted to grab them from a Fedora 16 page, but that rpm failed to install. Yes I know you will want to see the errors, I will have to get them for you tomorrow when I am back at work and have access to the system I am testing on.
Many thanks in advance for the help, guidance, and directions for this task.