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Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:57:35 +0200
From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
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Cc: PJ <af.gourmet@videotron.ca>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: backups & cloning
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On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:49:01 -0600 (MDT), Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote:
> So usually I back up /, /var, and /usr to files 
> on a USB disk or sshfs.  Then I switch to the new target system, booting 
> it with a FreeBSD disk and doing a minimal install.  That makes sure the 
> MBR is installed, gives me a chance to set all the filesystem sizes, and 
> newfses them.

Similar here. In most cases, the FreeBSD live system is completely
sufficient: run sysinstall, slice, boot loader, partitions, drop
to shell; mount USB stick, restore from files located there.

For automated cloning, there are good examples around that let
you boot from DVD or USB stick / USB hard disk and automatically
prepare the source disk, then restoring from files. This is a
common method especially via SSH, so a local media is needed only
for booting and maybe for preparing.



> Then I restore from the dump files created earlier, over the running 
> system.  First /usr, then /var, then /.  On reboot, it's a clone.

This means you bring up the minimal (installed) system first, then
do the restore? Why not do it right after the basic steps of
preparation right from the install CD?


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...