On Sat, 17 May 2008 02:06:56 -0700, Jacky, Jack wrote:

> I am going to plan to make a backup with a old server. Previously, my
> guys told me that when using dd for clone like command to make the clone
> results in hard disk corruption. I am planning to work like this:

dd might work like a charm...

Had some controller issues on a Wintendo. Installed old and new disk in a
lab computer. Booted a Linux live CD. Used dd to copy the old 40G SCSI HD
onto a new 150G SATA. Created a new NTFS-partition for extra space for
home folders. Installed the SATA disk into the Wintendo box and booted. I
then moved the home folders, but that's another story...

> On the new machine:
> 1. Boot from live cd for else that supports networking. 2. Mount the
> local hard drive and format as ext3 (label: /) 3. rysnc the old machine
> root (/) to the new one.

4. Install bootloader. (man grub-install)
5. Check /etc/udev for rules that might change expected device names. (On
my workstation, changing /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules is
critical in order to make networking work from first boot)

> Two machine hardware configuration is identicial, I would like to ask,
> does it work?

YES..!


--
Regards/mvh Joachim Mæland

If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.
-Mario Andretti

Jacky, Jack wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I am going to plan to make a backup with a old server.
> Previously, my guys told me that when using dd for clone like command
> to make the clone results in hard disk corruption.
> I am planning to work like this:
>
> On the new machine:
> 1. Boot from live cd for else that supports networking.
> 2. Mount the local hard drive and format as ext3 (label: /)
> 3. rysnc the old machine root (/) to the new one.
>
> Two machine hardware configuration is identicial, I would like to ask,
> does it work?

I've done this.

* dd is, overall, fine, but takes a bloody loonger time to run and isn't
trivially resized to larger disks.

* rsync will not bring over the boot loader. For that, you may need to either
'dd' the boot loader and the '/boot' partition if you have a separate one,
which is easy to do, or boot with that live CD on the new box, mount the / and
/boot partitions, do a 'chroot' to the mounted /, and run 'grub-install'

On 5$B7n(B18$BF|(B, $B2<8a(B4$B;~(B39$BJ,(B, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> Jacky, Jack wrote:
> > Dear all,
>
> > I am going to plan to make a backup with a old server.
> > Previously, my guys told me that when using dd for clone like command
> > to make the clone results in hard disk corruption.
> > I am planning to work like this:
>
> > On the new machine:
> > 1. Boot from live cd for else that supports networking.
> > 2. Mount the local hard drive and format as ext3 (label: /)
> > 3. rysnc the old machine root (/) to the new one.
>
> > Two machine hardware configuration is identicial, I would like to ask,
> > does it work?
>
> I've done this.
>
> * dd is, overall, fine, but takes a bloody loonger time to run and isn't
> trivially resized to larger disks.
>
> * rsync will not bring over the boot loader. For that, you may need to either
> 'dd' the boot loader and the '/boot' partition if you have a separate one,
> which is easy to do, or boot with that live CD on the new box, mount the / and
> /boot partitions, do a 'chroot' to the mounted /, and run 'grub-install'

Great thanks guys.
Your help is highly appreciated. I will try all the suggestions.
Good luck to me. Thx. ^.^