Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 18:32:10 +0100 From: Uwe Laverenz <uwe@laverenz.de> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Duplicate existing FreeBSD Server in VM Message-ID: <20071103173210.GA12558@laverenz.de> In-Reply-To: <003e01c81cf2$27ff3840$77fda8c0$@com> References: <003e01c81cf2$27ff3840$77fda8c0$@com>
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On Fri, Nov 02, 2007 at 12:46:09PM +1100, Terry Sposato wrote: > I have just installed a machine and have it setup running a web based CRM > solution. I want to have an exact duplicate of this machine running as a VM > for redundancy reasons. The best and easiest way I know of is using /usr/ports/net/rsync for this task. I often used it to move BSD or Linux systems to new hardware or transfer them into a VM. I usually make sure that the kernel supports all important hardware on the target machine and that /etc/fstab is correct. After that I start to transfer filesystem after filesystem with e.g.: # rsync -avxH --delete --exclude /etc/fstab / root@target:/ You might want to exclude other files (e.g. /etc/rc.conf) from being overwritten, I guess. The nice thing with rsync is that only diffs are transferred, so it would be easy and fast to keep your VM in sync with the source machine. Uwe P.S.: Yesterday I moved a FreeBSD 4.5 system from a Proliant 3000 (~7 years old) to a VMware Server VM using rsync. All I had to take care of was the use of a GENERIC kernel, a new /etc/fstab and a changed ifconfig line in /etc/rc.conf.
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