DRBL vs Matchbox
DRBL
drbl.orgMatchbox
github.comSide by side
| Figure | DRBL | Matchbox |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · OS Deployment Software | 7.8 (#11) | 7.5 (#16) |
| Purpose | DRBL manages deployment of the GNU/Linux operating system across many clients from one server. | Matchbox matches bare-metal machines to profiles for PXE booting and provisioning clusters. |
Plans
In their own words
DRBL
DRBL deploys GNU/Linux from one server to many client machines. Clients can boot through PXE or etherboot in a diskless or systemless environment, so GNU/Linux need not be installed on each client drive. DRBL says clients can use distributed hardware resources while retaining full local-hardware access, and that other installed systems such as Windows remain untouched. Clonezilla is included for partitioning and disk cloning. Commands can change boot modes, copy files, manage user accounts and issue instructions across clients. DRBL uses PXE/etherboot, NFS and NIS for network services and supports network and multicast deployment. The free, open-source software is intended for Linux and self-hosted setups. Its installation guide supports Debian Bullseye and Buster, Ubuntu Jammy and Focal, CentOS 7, Scientific Linux 7.x and RHEL 7.x; other distributions or versions will not work. DRBL Live is available for CD/DVD or USB and hard drives in amd64, i686-pae and i686 formats.