Bind ubuntu to hard drive.

[TwinZ Ubuntu Mailing List]

Hello Matthew and thank you for your prompt reply,

For starters, I am familiar with the ubuntu philosophy and actually this is
the basic reason why it was chosen to be our system. Now, it may be that the
OS and software that comes with it is open source, but that doesn't mean
that its settings and other data have to be open to the public, right?
Please bear with me as I explain...

We have switched our mail and web gateway from Windows Server to Ubuntu
server just a month or so ago. We are very pleased since all went fine with
the switching process and we got this working with only just a day or two
(actually nights) of googling and going through the Ubuntu forums.

The previous server had a mirrored raid pair of SATA drives. One is in the
box and the other one is actually two hard drives on removable 5,25" bays
that are round-robinned every 24 hours (except weekends and holydays) for
backup. One of the drives is placed on the box while the other is kept in a
fireproof safe. After the second drive is being round-robbined, RAID rebuild
procedure takes place, thus keeping the internal drive's contents in sync
with the removable disk. So, at each time we have a pair of mirrored drives
working and the previous day's backup intact within the safe in case we have
a fire on the building or something.

I am the only one that has physical access to the server cabinet, but not
the only one that has access to the safe, since other important objects and
hard-copies of documents are also kept there plus it is not a combination
safe, just a fire proof cabinet with only a handle on its door. Is it clear
now why I am looking for a way to bind the installation to the drive's
serial (or something)? Because if somehow someone manages to get their hands
on the backup kept in the safe and make an image of it, they'd be able to
access info such as passwords and network settings plus data that should be
kept within the company.

I've figured out that if I could somehow implement full hard drive
encryption (since I am a newbie in the Linux world I was about to follow the
guide provided here:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=293299&page=2) it would be hard
for someone to just plug the drive to another system and take a look at
config files or data stored within. Right?

Now, what if someone didn't plug the drive in another system, but actually
used it as a main drive in another server box similar in hardware to ours? I
think that the system would load normally (haven't tested it myself), right?
So, if I could find a way to bind the OS to the drives serial (just an
idea... it could be something else, that’s why I am asking for suggestions
here) the cloned drive would not boot. Right?

Looking forward to your remarks/thoughts on this situation, or maybe you
could suggest a different approach to it (hardware solutions crossed my
mind, but it is not an option until I prove that there doesn't exist a
software one).

Thanx once again,
Greg.


-----Original Message-----
From: ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com
[mailto:ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of Matthew Flaschen
Sent: Κυριακή, 25 Μαρτίου 2007 04:44 πμ
To: Ubuntu user technical support,not for general discussions
Subject: Re: Bind ubuntu to hard drive.

ubuntu at twinz.gr wrote:
> Hello from Greece,
> 
>  
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions as to how to bind an ubuntu
> installation to a certain hard drive (by using the hard drive's serial for
> example)? I am looking for a way to prevent people that would copy the
whole
> drive to another ending up with a working duplicate of my system.

I think this is actually the case by default in Edgy, because of the
UIDs in fstab.  However, this can easily be corrected to get back to a
working system.  I'm unclear why you would want to do this.  Ubuntu is
(mostly) based on the principles
(http://www.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntustory/philosophy) of free and
open source software, which hold (among other things) that this kind of
reuse is desirable.  I don't see anyway you could reliably do this.  If
you're worried about people stealing your drive content (including
personal data), you should look into physical and electronic security
measures.

Matthew Flaschen

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