[WBEL-users] Disc cloning

[Andrew Vong]

Hi Benedikt,

If you don't mind forking out abt. USD 50 for this software called Acronis 
TrueImage, then it could be an option to look at. You can get it here --> 
http://www.acronis.com

I had 2 identical servers with the following specs:-

P4 - 3.0 GHz
1 GB RAM
IDE RAID 1
2x 160 GB HDDs

I had to install and configure them. The only difference between the 
servers were IP addresses, hostnames, etc... Basically, I had to set it up 
for the developers to work on.

So, to save time, what I did was setup & configure server 1 and test it to 
make sure that all was running smoothly and that all required updates were 
made and security holes covered, etc... Once it was "ready", I rebooted the 
server and placed the Acronis TrueImage Boot CD into the CD ROM drive and 
plugged in my USB 2.0 portable 80 GB HDD to Server 1.

The Acronis Boot CD booted up, recognised my USB HDD. I made a backup of 
the entire contents of the setup (on RAID 1). Then, I booted up Server 2 by 
sticking the Boot CD into the CD ROM Drive and connecting my USB 2.0 HDD. 
The Boot CD booted up and I proceeded to "restore" the contents of Server 
1's HDD (RAIID 1) contents onto Server 2. All went well. A reboot and I've 
got an exact clone of Server's setup & configuration. All I needed to 
change were the necessary network identification related configurations and 
I had 2 servers setup & configured in a fairly easy way.

It isn't entirely the same situation as yours but a second attached IDE HDD 
would work too.

Hope it helped.

Regards,
Andrew



At 04:48 PM 08/03/2005, Benedikt Carda wrote:
>Hey,
>
>for testing purposes I want to make a clone of my current 80 gig IDE 
>harddisc. What I have done so far:
>
>Connecting another 80 gig harddisc to the IDE controller, booting the 
>system with Knoppix (a linux version on CD-ROM) and entering the command:
>
>dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb
>
>It took about 2 hours then dd was finished. First it seemed to do the job 
>well, but the last partition on the new hard disc, which was hdb6 (/home) 
>was completely messed up. I guess this is because the hard discs are not 
>completely identical, they are both 80 gigs but from different vendors, 
>therefore probably different number of inodes etc.
>
>Any suggestions how to make a clone disc?
>
>Best Regards,
>Benedikt Carda
>
>
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