From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 21 22:02:42 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4110516A41F for ; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:02:42 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bsd@unixforge.net) Received: from mail.sectornotfound.com (mail.sectornotfound.com [209.139.233.100]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E86FA43D45 for ; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:02:41 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bsd@unixforge.net) Received: from hannibal.int.sectornotfound.com (hannibal.int.sectornotfound.com [192.168.98.3]) by murdock.sectornotfound.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j6LM28lp029809; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:02:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bsd@unixforge.net) Received: from [192.168.3.212] (gw.activestate.com [209.17.183.249]) (authenticated bits=0) by hannibal.int.sectornotfound.com (8.13.1/8.12.10) with ESMTP id j6LM28hb070885; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:02:08 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bsd@unixforge.net) Message-ID: <42E01BB3.1040801@unixforge.net> Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:03:31 -0700 From: "Eli K. Breen" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (X11/20050101) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Elliot Finley References: <42DFF582.1050406@unixforge.net> <20050721211305.GC10821@aoi.wolfpond.org> <010f01c58e3e$28458b50$37cba1cd@emerytelcom.com> In-Reply-To: <010f01c58e3e$28458b50$37cba1cd@emerytelcom.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Francois Tigeot , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Machine Replication X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:02:42 -0000 I should point out, this is for replication in a running production environment. Machines cannot be taken down, and swapping hardware is not an option. I'm currently experimenting with a copy of the MBR, and the root partition on a CD, with enough tools to attach to the network to retrieve images of the rest of the partitions (which can be taken as current snapshots from various servers). This _should_ result in the following scenario: Boot new machine with CD partition drive(s) dump MBR dump root ssh foo@server 'dump -C 64 -0af - /sliceX'| (cd /usr; restore -rf -) [repeat above for all drives, could be automated] Seem reasonable? -E- Elliot Finley wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Francois Tigeot" > >>On Thu, Jul 21, 2005 at 12:20:34PM -0700, Eli K. Breen wrote: >> >>>Does anyone have a good handle on how to replicate (read: image) a >>>freebsd machine from one machine to an ostensibly similar machine? >> >>[...] >> >> >>>Now whether my details are a bit off, that's fine, I don't want this to >>>be diluted in to discussion of minute frivolous details (as these things >>>are wont to do), but what I _am_ looking for is a tried, tested and true >>>method of FreeBSD machine replication, specifically for the 5.3+ > > releases. > >>I have found the following paper to be incredibly usefull : >> >>http://www.pix.net/software/pxeboot/archive/SANE.pdf >> >>I used some of the ideas in it to clone machines in the 5.1-5.2 era. > > > You could also just mirror the drive with a Promise RAID 1 card. I've done > that a couple of times and it works really well. > > Elliot >