On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 1:06 PM, Stefan <netfortius@gmail.com> wrote:
I've been toying with Live distros (CD, then USB) for many years, in support of security toolsets, to which I kept adding my own stuff, or customizing existing components.
I am now trying to "build" a network toolset LiveCD/USB, but this time with a completely different purpose: I would like to put it in the hands of all remote offices we have on our network, and use it to have local systems boot out of it, and help us then run troubleshooting tools, from the central office, by SSH/X-ing into the remote live system (e.g. iperf, hping3, httping, tcping, mtr, tcpdump, voip tools, some "thin" clients/apps, synthetic transactions scripted to run at diff time intervals, and report back to us the "health" seen form the remotes, etc.). Has anybody used a "base" network tools Live CD/USB that they would recommend, having used as "basis" for such a "network probe" functionality?
NOTE: I assume *nix based (Linux or BSD flavors), not Windows ...
TIA, ***Stefan
I use Voyage Linux: http://linux.voyage.hk/ In several modes: - Bootable USB flash drive - On PC Engines ALIX boards from Compact Flash - And in a few instances on servers with spinning disks, and desktop with minimal window system The bootable USB stick has been used extensively for iperf + tcpdump + analysis from PCs are remote locations. We either have people copy an image to the USB stick, or mail them a stick. Then they can turn (almost) any PC into a network analysis tool. We have the system report it's IP address at boot time, and then we ssh in. Jon