[nflug] copying a backup OS parition

[Cyber Source]

Boice wrote:
> Michael James wrote:
>   
>>> If I have a linux system, and want to create an exact backup on
>>> another machine...is it as simple at tar the root dir and subdirs,
>>> transfer tarball to a newly installed linux system (assuming same
>>> version) and untar the tarball at the root level?  I have a
>>> production system that beginning to act up hardware wise, so I'd like
>>> to have a spare in reserve.  This is not a real time backup, as in
>>> replication or clustering.  I just need to duplicate the original
>>> linux system to a different box without spending hours or days
>>> reconfiguring  or reinstalling the system or software.  Are there
>>> certain directories that shouldn't be overwritten?  Any caveats?
>>> Suggestions?
>>>
>>> Michael R. James
>>> jamesm at thundertux.org
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nflug mailing list
>>> nflug at nflug.org
>>> http://www.nflug.org/mailman/listinfo/nflug
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>> You could grab an extra hard drive of at least the required size and
>> then "dump" it to the new hard drive. Recreate your partitions, mount
>> both the original and new partitions with a rescue cd of some sort (or
>> other ways too). Then tar one to the other. We do it here to replicate
>> our "tweaked" OS's, saved tons of time. Let's say you have the
>> original mounted at /mnt/orig and the new at /mnt/disk. To transfer it
>> over with tar, you could do this "tar -cf - .|(cd /mnt/disk && tar -xf
>> -)". You would then have an exact copy of what was on /mnt/orig on
>> /mnt/disk. Edit fstab's accordingly, create new initrd and your good
>> to go.
>>
>>     
> Hello, Michael.
>
> Another way to do it that has worked out for me is to use the dd
> command. For example, if you have already set up partitions equal [or
> larger] on the second drive, you get into the CLI as root and type:
>
> # dd if=/dev/hda1 if=/dev/hdb1 bs=32256
>
> . . .assuming you want to copy all the contents, byte-for-byte from hda1
> to hdb1. Obviously, it is better to do this from a Linux Live CD since
> none of the partotions you are messing with should be mounted. I usually
> use Mepis, but Knoppix or any of the others ought to be fine, too.
>
> I have even moved a bootable Windows 2000 partition this way and it ran
> fine in it's new location!  For Linux, you will need to adjust the fstab
> and GRUB or LILO menu to make things work right, but the new partition,
> PROVIDED IT HAS ENOUGH ROOM, will have identical data to the one from
> which it was copied.
>
> Email me if you have any questions, & I'll do my best to answer.
>
> --John G. Boice
> evrgreen at netsync.net
> _______________________________________________
> nflug mailing list
> nflug at nflug.org
> http://www.nflug.org/mailman/listinfo/nflug
>
>   
you've got a typo in there, the second part would be "of="
_______________________________________________
nflug mailing list
nflug at nflug.org
http://www.nflug.org/mailman/listinfo/nflug