Creating a CentOS appliance

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nerdoftech
Posts: 2
Joined: 2014/04/22 13:09:08

Creating a CentOS appliance

Post by nerdoftech » 2014/04/22 13:14:03

I tried posting this on serverfault but I dont seem to be getting much help there.

I am trying to make a CentOS VMware appliance for my opensource project but want to make sure I properly clear out all data. So far I have done the following -

Cleared all logs files.
Cleared bash history files for all users.
Deleted all SSH keys. SSHD will create new ones on startup.
Deleted Udev rules so user can have new NIC.

Can anyone think of anything else I need to do ? Just trying to make sure I cover everything.

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Super Jamie
Posts: 310
Joined: 2014/01/10 23:44:51

Re: Creating a CentOS appliance

Post by Super Jamie » 2014/04/23 12:50:07

I don't think "appliance" is the right word.

You sound like you want to make a clean "template" image for cloning new virtual machines from?

If so, you want sys-unconfig

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/redhat-rhe ... g-command/

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TrevorH
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Joined: 2009/09/24 10:40:56
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Creating a CentOS appliance

Post by TrevorH » 2014/04/23 15:34:07

Might want to run `yum info libguestfs-tools.x86_64` and see if one of its utils does what you want. Save rolling your own.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

nerdoftech
Posts: 2
Joined: 2014/04/22 13:09:08

Re: Creating a CentOS appliance

Post by nerdoftech » 2014/04/23 22:23:34

Super Jamie wrote:I don't think "appliance" is the right word.

You sound like you want to make a clean "template" image for cloning new virtual machines from?
Well, it would be an appliance in the sense that it would be a prepackaged server running a python app, Apache and PHP. Anyone could then download it from my project page and load it into VMware. The only thing left for them to do would be to run an interactive config script that would set IPs, DNS, timezone, NTP, reset crypto keys. Then they can fire up a web browser and start using the app.

I'm basically trying to make this a turnkey appliance that does not require any linux skills.

This is my project BTW - https://sourceforge.net/projects/f5configbackup/

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