[K12OSN] Backing up a server...best methods

Les Mikesell les at futuresource.com
Thu Nov 18 14:29:28 UTC 2004


On Wed, 2004-11-17 at 23:22, Robert Arkiletian wrote:

> I didn't know dd could actually clone the entire disk and not just the 
> partitions. 

Dd just copies whatever you tell it.  On unix, at some level
everything looks like a file, including the raw disk and
the partitions that have filesystem structures built on
them.  Dd doesn't know anything about the partition layout
when you do raw disks or the filesystems when you do partitions
so the target has to be the same size as the source and it
will waste some time compared to specialized tools because
it will copy the unused portions too.  It is possible to
use another tool to re-size the filesystem after the copy
if you go to a larger target.

However, no one has mentioned yet what I think would be the
best cloning method - and I've been too lazy to set it up
myself.  If you built your own RPM repository by cloning
an existing one, then added any custom setup in the form
of RPM's, you could install exactly the way you want
automatically with a kickstart file.  Then you would always
end up with up to date versions of everything instead of
having to build a current master and you wouldn't have to
worry about partition sizes or disk layout.

---
  Les Mikesell
    les at futuresorce.com





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