Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:20:43 +0000 From: Alexander Best <arundel@freebsd.org> To: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> Cc: Xn Nooby <xnooby@gmail.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What is the best way to image copy a FreeBSD system? Message-ID: <20110215152043.GA30298@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <20110215150103.GC91208@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: <AANLkTinaPn50-vUigoj_d=optGqxj4NDFoN9=RvTxcpX@mail.gmail.com> <20110215150103.GC91208@gizmo.acns.msu.edu>
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On Tue Feb 15 11, Jerry McAllister wrote: > On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 01:53:44AM -0500, Xn Nooby wrote: > > > On Linux I use clonezilla, which understands the EXT3 filesystem, and > > it can skip unused space (I'm using about 3GB out of 1TB). > > > > On FreeBSD, I have to fill the 1TB drive with zero-filled files, then > > delete them, on each partiton, since CloneZilla uses DD+gzip on the > > entire drive. > > > > I like to make image copies of new systems, so I can revert back to my > > starting point in case I break it, but CloneZilla is taking 9 hours to > > image the drive. I can re-install a lot faster than that. > > My suggestion would be to do the slicing/partitioning on the copy > and then use dump/restore on each partition from the new drive to > the copy drive. > > > A dd image is not really all that good a way to do it. > > It just produces a sector by sector copy which is not efficient. > The dump/restore produces what you want which is an efficient runable system > on the copy disk. > > Once you get the dump/restore finished, you could use rsync periodically > to keep it up to date. Actually you could use rsync to do all the > copying on to the prepartitioned copy drive, but I would prefer dump/restore. > > > > I normally store my image copies on a Samba share on another system, > > they are stored as files. I am not copying to another raw drive. > > In that case, use dump(8) to create those files and store them > where-ever you wish. > > > > > Is there an image-copy backup program that understands the UFS > > file-system? Or perhaps there is a better solution on FreeBSD? > > As mentioned above, dump(8)/restore(8) is made for that. +1 i used something like "(dump -L -0f - /)|(cd /mnt/image ; restore -rf -)" to migrate my root partition onto a new disk. just be sure to *not* use pax(1). i fell for it once and ran into a lot of problems, because it doesn't preserve all data (such as chflags(1) e.g.). cheers. alex ps: if you still want to do a sector by sector copy, have a look at recoverdisk(1). it's really great in trying to recover every last bit on semi broken devices. > > ////jerry > > > > _______________________________________________ > > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" -- a13x
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