From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 20 13:53:44 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C23DC106566C for ; Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:53:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from donald.teed@gmail.com) Received: from yx-out-2324.google.com (yx-out-2324.google.com [74.125.44.28]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7EFAA8FC20 for ; Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:53:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from donald.teed@gmail.com) Received: by yx-out-2324.google.com with SMTP id 31so222066yxl.13 for ; Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:53:43 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to :subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; bh=znRfbvXCrtzYtv3wR8AY6Q5YRG7yf1XdTw/wxH34aSI=; b=lbxH6bcaXogEmdz9PDJ1zbpKYOnmlb+1SsBAW+tF9FCrVR+5vq4oXilzfRk72wDaNw k94qmscAtz+wFXQ4oBaaV0/L+R42vk8ohXsiiyzO/xnRb9il81wpFZJYPf+SvP8QhCtz M4MKN1utfIJ/tzOMg+yk5gyltbe7yGItlMlnI= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:references; b=oxqpYfXyeDoph85I892I/ajOfYqMcJsSkWj9dUrscLtKQkat5C4jm4LhsJ0l5kN4rY f1tYerD7LKXHqY4vifAsVybMVPJ7EcE+a7/FyDA6PUwd0bcI9BA56/ZRUcTV4pRlLXEq Q4kzy6egjdO2HId47e9NNdKPiPHbIfPr5nd1U= Received: by 10.142.240.9 with SMTP id n9mr1196440wfh.79.1213968516151; Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:28:36 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.177.11 with HTTP; Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:28:36 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:28:36 -0300 From: "D G Teed" To: "Brad Mettee" In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20080619115705.02c0f750@mail.agoron.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <4.3.2.7.2.20080619115705.02c0f750@mail.agoron.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: clone a drive, no raid involved X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:53:44 -0000 On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 1:08 PM, Brad Mettee wrote: > I'm setting up a pair of machines with almost identical OS config, and > completely identical hardware. One is a primary DNS server, the other is > secondary. NS1 will also serve web, NS2 will be a mail server. Both are low > volume/loads. > > It looks like I can use DD to copy an entire drive, but it's a 500G drive > and that's going to take a really long time (especially since it's brand new > with no data besides base OS). > > My question: Is there a better way to duplicate a drive including boot > info? You've got lots of useful answers on duplicating the system other ways, but I thought I'd mention that dd's performance can be enhanced by providing a blocksize. You might want to time some reads and writes with a set of numbers that divides evenly into the byte count of your disk. Years ago I found I could write a 40 GB laptop (4200RPM) disk in 21 minutes rather than one hour. --Donald