Disk cloning

[Dimitri Yioulos]

On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:43:04 +0530, Paniraja_KM wrote
> Hi
> Cloning using dd is not a good option if the disk size is huge. This
> will take lot of time for completion.
> 
> Its better to use 
>  tar cvfz - * |ssh <user_name at server_name> tar xvfz \-
> 
> Thanks
> Pani
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com
> [mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] On Behalf Of Dimitri Yioulos
> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 4:28 PM
> To: linux-poweredge-Lists
> Subject: Disk cloning
> 
> Hello to all.
> 
> I hope it's OK to ask the following:
> 
> I've been asked by a company to remotely clone a working system. It's
> colo'd in Virginia (company HQ is in New York, I'm in Massachusetts).
> Physical access to the box, a PE 2950, I believe, is via "Remote Hands"
> only - colo personnel can do minor things, including disk swaps.  Down
> time is really not an option.
> 
> I've considered all of the various cloning tools, and it seems to me
> that dd and rsync are best-suited to the task.  It looks like "dd
> if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=4096 conv=notrunc,noerror" will accomplish
> the cloning (sda and sdb are of the same make, model, and size).
> 
> My questions:
> 
> 1.  Is the above dd command correct?
> 2.  After cloning, must sdb be disconnected so as not to cause booting
> problems?
> 3.  Do I have to do anything post-cloning to make sdb bootable?
> 4.  What rsync command would I use to keep the two disks synced?
> 
> If anyone has gone through this process, and can provide guidance, I'd
> appreciate it.
> 
> TIA.
> 
> Dimitri
> 

Thanks for the quick response!

I'm really not sure about the disk size yet, but will find out.  I thought that
adjusting "bs" would help with the speed issue.  I need a faithful reproduction of sda,
MBR and all.

Dimitri

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