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How to create an Airlock WAF Installation USB Stick

Affects product: 
Airlock WAF
Affects version(s): 
5.0 and later

Airlock WAF supports USB sticks (memory sticks) as an installation medium instead of using a DVD.

The following sections describe how to write the ISO image to a USB stick in Windows and Linux environments for server with UEFI and legacy BIOS.

UEFI

Windows Requirements

  • Airlock WAF ISO image
  • USB stick with a size of 4 GB or more
  • Administration rights on the local machine

 

Write image to the stick

  1. Plug in the USB stick
  2. Open a Windows command prompt and type the following commands:
    diskpart
    list disk
    select disk #                       (where # is the number identifying your USB stick)
    clean
    create partition primary
    select partition 1
    active
    format quick fs=fat32
    assign
    exit
    
  3. Open the Airlock WAF ISO and copy its contents to the USB stick
  4. Eject the USB stick using the Windows system tray icon.

 

Linux Requirements

  • Airlock WAF ISO image
  • USB stick with a size of 4 GB or more
  • Access as user "root"

Write image to the stick

  1. Plug in the USB stick
  2. If the stick was automatically mounted, unmount the stick.
  3. Search the device name that the system has assigned to the stick:
    # fdisk -l
    OR if hwinfo installed:
    # grep -Ff <(hwinfo --disk -short) <(hwinfo --usb --short)
    OR watch the system log when you plug in the stick:
    # tail -f /var/log/messages
    WARNING
    It is very important to use the correct device name. If you write the ISO to the wrong device (e.g. a hard disk), then all data on this device will be lost!
  4. Repartition the USB stick (replace [usb-device] with the correct device name) and create a new filesystem:
    
    # fdisk [usb-device]
    Command (m for help): p
    Disk /dev/sdb: 29 GiB, 31142707200 bytes, 60825600 sectors
    Disk model: STORE N GO
    Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disklabel type: dos
    Disk identifier: 0x6b8b4567
    Device      Boot Start       End Sector  Size   Id Type 
    /dev/sdb1   0     4767743 4767744     2.3G   0  Empty 
    /dev/sdb2   632 18231     17600         8.6M  ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
    
    # Command (m for help): o
    Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xbfcd8299.
    
    # Command (m for help): d
    Partition number (1,2, default 2): 1
    Partition 1 has been deleted.
    
    # Command (m for help): d
    Selected partition 2
    Partition 2 has been deleted.
    
    # Command (m for help): n
    Partition type
       p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
       e   extended (container for logical partitions)
    Select (default p): p
    Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
    First sector (2048-60825599, default 2048): 
    Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-60825599, default 60825599): 
    
    Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 29 GiB.
    
    # Command (m for help): t
    Selected partition 1
    Hex code or alias (type L to list all): 0c
    Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'W95 FAT32 (LBA)'.
    
    # Command (m for help): a
    Selected partition 1
    The bootable flag on partition 1 is enabled now.
    
    # Command (m for help): w
    
    The partition table has been altered.
    Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
    Syncing disks.
    
    # mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/[usb-device]1
    
  5. Mount the Airlock WAF ISO and the USB Stick and copy contents. Note that the umount command may take a while because it will sync the files to the install stick.
    
    # mkdir /tmp/airlock-iso /tmp/airlock-usb
    # mount -o loop /path/to/airlock_WAF.iso /tmp/airlock-iso
    # mount /dev/[usb-device]1 /tmp/airlock-usb
    # cp -L -R /tmp/airlock-iso/* /tmp/airlock-usb
    # umount /tmp/airlock-iso /tmp/airlock-usb
    
  6. Remove the stick and install Airlock with your new Airlock install stick.

  7.  

Server BIOS settings

  • If you get a black screen while booting from the USB stick, disable "Secure Boot" in the BIOS settings

 

Legacy BIOS

Windows Requirements

  • Airlock WAF ISO image
  • USB stick with a size of 4 GB or more
  • Administration rights on the local machine
  • USB-Writer (SourceForge)

 

Write image to the stick

  1. Plug in the USB stick
  2. Start USBWriter as Administrator using the context menu on the exe file.
  3. Select the Airlock WAF ISO.
  4. Select the target USB stick.
  5. Click on the "Write" button and confirm the overwrite alert.
  6. Eject the USB stick using the Windows system tray icon.

 

Linux Requirements

  • Airlock WAF ISO image
  • USB stick with a size of 4 GB or more
  • Access as user "root"

Write image to the stick

  1. Plug in the USB stick
  2. If the stick was automatically mounted, unmount the stick.
  3. Search the device name that the system has assigned to the stick:
    # fdisk -l
    OR if hwinfo installed:
    # grep -Ff <(hwinfo --disk -short) <(hwinfo --usb --short)
    OR watch the system log when you plug in the stick:
    # tail -f /var/log/messages
    WARNING
    It is very important to use the correct device name. If you write the ISO to the wrong device (e.g. a hard disk), then all data on this device will be lost!
  4. Write the ISO image to the USB stick (replace [usb-device] with the correct device name):
    # dd if=/path/to/the/iso of=[usb-device] bs=1M
  5. To be sure everything is written completely, initiate a file system sync manually before you remove the stick:
    # sync
  6. Remove the stick and install Airlock with your new Airlock install stick.

 

Server BIOS settings

  • If you get an error message while booting from the USB stick before the GRUB boot menu appears, disable auto detection of USB media in the server BIOS. Select the media as "harddisk" instead.
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