Cloning a running Linux OS

[John Miles]

The data is not a factor at all in my scenario.
This would be more of a "transplant" operation, where sick server #1
maintains it's /home. It is brought online with a LiveCD OS, and then server
#2 donates it's living OS tissues to the other.

So I suppose what I am doing is simply extracting an image from a running
system, and putting it onto a dead one.

I'll just need to make sure the donor server is not abby.normal

: )

John Miles




On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 3:44 PM, Tyler Aviss <tjaviss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> What's the chance that you could manage a mysqlhotcopy on just the
> databases and sync the rest of your data?
>
> On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 9:15 AM, Lennart Sorensen
> <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 09:17:49PM -0400, John Miles wrote:
> >> I would like to do it on an operating OS.
> >> Essentially, I've put off creating an Autoyast file for a group of
> shared
> >> development servers we use - 71 of them - and, one had a slew of updates
> >> applied, getting it out of sync with the rest. These machines are so
> heavily
> >> used, and the negotiated down time this weekend is barely enough time to
> >> perform the maintenance they all need, let alone install a new one.
> >> So.... I was thinking of experimenting with the concept of grabbing a
> clone
> >> image from a running system.
> >>
> >> I am thinking that rsync might just do it, then I can dd the mbr to a
> file
> >> and copy that over.
> >
> > rsync won't place the files in the same place, so the MBR is of no use.
> > Reinstall the boot loader after the rsync on the target.
> >
> > Of course databases (if any) will most likely not be in a sane state
> > after an rsync if they are open.  You might get lucky, but most likely
> > you won't.
> >
> > Of course with a few rsync runs in a row, and hopefully not too active a
> > set of changes, you might actually end up with something relatively
> > sane.  And make sure it is rsync 3.x, since it is much faster for large
> > sets of files than rsync 2.x was.
> >
> >> However, after all is said and done, I probably will just have to rely
> on
> >> creating a reference Autoyast file from one of the machines, and then
> strip
> >> out the stuff that does not travel well.
> >>
> >> Clonezilla though, is pretty darn cool looking.
> >> We are presently implementing a solution that the Borg, has created,
> >> therefore the Borg inisist us to use - namely (ready for this lovely
> product
> >> name...) Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Operating System Deployment.
> >>
> >> I am really starting to think that most open source tools that stick to
> >> common standards really just need a good web and scripting developer to
> >> piece them together - creating the ultimate solution - one that works
> >> exactly the way you need it to.
> >>
> >> I, however, can't script myself out a wet paper bag.
> >
> > --
> > Len Sorensen
> > --
> > The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Tyler Aviss
> Systems Support
> LPIC/LPIC-2
> (647) 302-0942
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
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>
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