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Date:      Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:03:31 -0700
From:      "Eli K. Breen" <bsd@unixforge.net>
To:        Elliot Finley <efinleywork@efinley.com>
Cc:        Francois Tigeot <ftigeot@wolfpond.org>, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Machine Replication
Message-ID:  <42E01BB3.1040801@unixforge.net>
In-Reply-To: <010f01c58e3e$28458b50$37cba1cd@emerytelcom.com>
References:  <42DFF582.1050406@unixforge.net> <20050721211305.GC10821@aoi.wolfpond.org> <010f01c58e3e$28458b50$37cba1cd@emerytelcom.com>

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I should point out, this is for replication in a running production 
environment. Machines cannot be taken down, and swapping hardware is not 
an option.

I'm currently experimenting with a copy of the MBR, and the root 
partition on a CD, with enough tools to attach to the network to 
retrieve images of the rest of the partitions (which can be taken as 
current snapshots from various servers).

This _should_ result in the following scenario:

Boot new machine with CD
partition drive(s)
dump MBR
dump root
ssh foo@server 'dump -C 64 -0af - /sliceX'| (cd /usr; restore -rf -)
[repeat above for all drives, could be automated]

Seem reasonable?

-E-


Elliot Finley wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Francois Tigeot" <ftigeot@wolfpond.org>
> 
>>On Thu, Jul 21, 2005 at 12:20:34PM -0700, Eli K. Breen wrote:
>>
>>>Does anyone have a good handle on how to replicate (read: image) a
>>>freebsd machine from one machine to an ostensibly similar machine?
>>
>>[...]
>>
>>
>>>Now whether my details are a bit off, that's fine, I don't want this to
>>>be diluted in to discussion of minute frivolous details (as these things
>>>are wont to do), but what I _am_ looking for is a tried, tested and true
>>>method of FreeBSD machine replication, specifically for the 5.3+
> 
> releases.
> 
>>I have found the following paper to be incredibly usefull :
>>
>>http://www.pix.net/software/pxeboot/archive/SANE.pdf
>>
>>I used some of the ideas in it to clone machines in the 5.1-5.2 era.
> 
> 
> You could also just mirror the drive with a Promise RAID 1 card.  I've done
> that a couple of times and it works really well.
> 
> Elliot
> 



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