Possible? "Cow" or reset-filesystem-on-reboot system?

[sebastiannielsen]

Im wondering if this is possible with FreeNAS (iSCSI)?

I wish to have one "master image", accessible with one ISCSI iqn, which will allow read-write access to the "master image".
This will be used to administer and/or update a Windows 7 installation belongning to 20 computers.

Then I want 20 "cow" images, each having a unique iqn, one for each PC, which should be associated with the master image. Once the client disconnects or reboots (I can prepare to have a HTTP signal sent on reboot if required), the cow image for that particular PC should be reset, thus resetting that PC to a pristine state for the next user. (so even if the previous user literally filled that Windows 7 PC with the worst malware ever on the internet, one reboot - and its gone)

Is this possible with FreeNAS out of the box or with a plugin?

 

[dlavigne]

If you weren't using FreeNAS, what application would you use to accomplish this?

 

[jgreco]

ZFS cloning for the win. Alas I have no advice about how to do this with FreeNAS...

 

[dlavigne]

The clone snapshot button under Figure 6.1c? http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Periodic_Snapshot_Tasks. I'm pretty sure you can snapshot zvols. Alternately, create a file extent on a dataset.

 

[jgreco]

How to automatically reset it is not likely to be feasible thru the GUI, sadly. This is more of a custom scripting thing, hence my previous reply...