SystemImager Glossary

addclients

Tells your image server which image to install on your autoinstall clients. It does so by creating soft links to the master autoinstall script with the name of each host that will receive that image. It also allows you to populate the /etc/hosts file with sequential host names and IP addresses. This information in /etc/hosts is necessary for certain SystemImager operations.

autoinstall media

The media that is used to boot an autoinstall client in order to begin the autoinstall process. This media can be a floppy, a CDROM, the network, or the local hard drive of the autoinstall client.

autoinstall script

A unique autoinstall script is created for each image and is used by the autoinstall client as part of the autoinstall process. The names of autoinstall scripts begin with the image name and end in .master. For example: my_webserver_image_v1.master

daemon

This is not specifically a SystemImager term, but it really bugs me when people pronounce this word as "daymen". It is just another, more interesting, less evil appearing way of spelling demon. And just to be clear, in computer terms, a daemon is a program that lies in wait for something to trigger it into action. An example of this is a web server daemon waiting for someone to request a web page.

getimage

This command is run from the image server to pull a system image from a golden client.

golden client

A machine from which an image is taken. Golden clients are manually installed and customized to taste.

image server

The machine that will hold and distribute the images.

local.cfg

A configuration file that can be used for autoinstall clients in lieu of DHCP and the /var/lib/systemimager/scripts/hosts file on the image server.

mkdhcpserver

An easy way to create a SystemImager appropriate /etc/dhcpd.conf file. DHCP can be used to assign IP addresses to autoinstall clients.

mkdhcpstatic

Used to modify the /etc/dhcpd.conf file, adding static entries for autoinstall clients based on the IP addresses handed out to these clients by the DHCP server.

mkbootserver

A utility for configuring a network boot server. Currently just supports configuring PXE boot servers.

prepareclient

This command is run on the golden client immediately prior to running getimage on the image server.

updateclient

A command that is executed on client systems allowing them to be updated or synchronized to a new or updated image after the initial autoinstall. updateclient enables software and content distribution.