From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Feb 5 1:25:14 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 219AB37B401 for ; Wed, 5 Feb 2003 01:25:12 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (ns0.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4723F43F75 for ; Wed, 5 Feb 2003 01:25:10 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (localhost.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1]) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.6/8.12.6) with ESMTP id h159OuFu039559 for ; Wed, 5 Feb 2003 09:24:56 GMT (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost) by happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.6/8.12.6/Submit) id h159Op6a039558 for freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG; Wed, 5 Feb 2003 09:24:51 GMT Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 09:24:51 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Second Drive Bootable. Message-ID: <20030205092451.GA38913@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Seaman , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG References: <004701c2ccae$f8a628d0$6a01a8c0@grant> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <004701c2ccae$f8a628d0$6a01a8c0@grant> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.3i X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.2 required=5.0 tests=IN_REP_TO,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT,REFERENCES,SPAM_PHRASE_05_08, USER_AGENT,USER_AGENT_MUTT version=2.44 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Tue, Feb 04, 2003 at 07:38:55PM -0500, Grant Peel wrote: > Hi all, > > I have a frsh install of freebsd 4.7. > > I have a second drive exactly the same geometry as the first. > > I have dumped and restored all the filesystems from the first to the second. > > Is there a way, short of rebooting, that I can check and see if the second > drive is bootable? > > (I am looking to use the second as a 'mirror' drive). The second drive won't provide you with a fully functional replacement system as-is. You'll need to decide how you want to use it: i) As an exact copy of the primary drive. That means that in the event of the primary drive failing, you've got to open up your machine and swap your backup drive in in-place of the original primary. ii) As an alternate disk you can boot from at will. In this case, you'll need to make some modifications to at least /etc/fstab in order to mount partitions from backup disk. If you want option (ii) you will also need to set up the boot blocks on both disks using boot0cfg(8). It's exactly like the dual boot system Giorgos describes in http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=976599+0+current/freebsd-questions In short, you'll need to do: # boot0cfg -v -B /dev/ad0 # boot0cfg -v -B /dev/ad1 This will give you the ability to switch easily to booting from the other disk. Unfortunately, no one can guarrantee that it's going to work until you test it. Also I don't think it is possible to configure the system to automatically reboot from the other disk, should the first disk fail, without having someone present to reconfigure the system BIOS and hit the buttons in response to the boot loader prompt. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message