The current Nexenta NCP 2.0 hardy-unstable repository has some broken bits that prevent a clean apt-clone dist-upgrade from working. A common question on the IRC channel is how to work around this, and I’ve answered it enough times that I thought it best to write up some basic instructions. Here’s an example of what happens: # apt-clone -v dist-upgrade This operation will upgrade your system using ZFS capabilities. Proceed ? (y/n) y <p>Updating APT sources .

Continue reading

NexentaOS has come a long way over the last year, and has recently released Nexenta Core Platform 1.0 which is considered stable. In doing so, the developers are providing a minimal core set of well tested packages somewhat akin to Debian’s netinst that can be used for building up servers or entire distributions. In fact, they’re encouraging this by providing a distribution builder. This opens up many possibilities for extending what you can do with the OS, and I hope to start experimenting with it soon to produce an updated XFCE4 desktop.

Continue reading

Nexenta currently lacks the ability to do automated network based installs via Jumpstart. The recent alpha6 version added KickStart ability, but it’s limited to CD based installs as far as I know. I am in the process of deploying multiple production machines at work and wanted to leverage my existing Jumpstart framework. I’ve managed to come up with a working solution that involves a Jumpstart begin script and debootstrap. All that’s really necessary for this is a standard SX:CR jumpstart miniroot, DHCP and TFTP server.

Continue reading