How to copy a machine image to another system - solaris 8 1

[ghouliajoolia]

Hello,

Im not sure what the right search words are if this has been discussed already...so I apologize in advance if this has been covered. I cant seem to find what Im looking for or how to word the search term. I've tired cloning..or ghosting..is not producing what I need.

Basically I want to know the best way to copy an existing Solaris 8 system's image...I basically want copy an entire system to another machine so they will be exactly alike. The file system and all the apps and data need to be copied. I need an exact clone of the system. The systems have the same basic hardware.

I need to do this so we can take an existing production box and copy it so we can run tests on it. We want to make sure that everything is the same.

Can anyone please tell me how you would do it?

Thanks!!!

Julie

 

[nawlej]

Well, I know I use a jumpstart server to bring all of my sunblades up to speed. Procedures for creating one of those are here:

http://www.blacksheepnetworks.com/security/resources/building-jumpstart-server.html

___________________________________
[morse]--... ...--[/morse], Eric.

 

[ghouliajoolia]

I'll check that out..thanks. The first question that comes to my mind is can you make an existing server into a jumpstart server? On to search for the answer.

 

[nawlej]

oh yes, quite easy to make a jumpstart server out of existing, happens all the time. Just follow the instructions on that procedure in the link I sent you. SHould be fine. Let us know if you run into problems.

___________________________________
[morse]--... ...--[/morse], Eric.

 

[cndcadams]

ufsdump might be a quicker solution for you since you really want to copy all info from your server. You can dump entire partitions to another drive.

say you have a boot drive with usr on c0t0d0s4 and you want to copy a usr partition to another drive say c0t1d0s4
you can partition c0t1d0s4 with the same or more space than c0t1d0s4. newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s4
mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4 /mnt
ufsdump 0f - /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4 | ( cd /mnt ; ufsrestore xf -)
this will dump the entire partition to c0t1d0s4

Do the above for all partitions.

When you do the root partition you will need to reinstall the bootblk see example below for a drive with root ufsrestore to c0t1d0s0.
Once drive c0t1d0s0 is partitioned and newfs
mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 /mnt
ufsdump 0f - /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 | ( cd /mnt ; ufsrestore xf -)

Then
installboot /usr/platform/'uname -i'/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0

Once all partitions are done then you should be able to put the drive into the other system and boot.


***NOT POSITIVE BUT YOU COULD TRY THE FOLLOWING BELOW AND I BELIEVE IT SHOULD WORK HAVE NOT TRIED MYSELF.
since partition 2 really is the complete drive you should be able to just do the following

I will probably try it myself tommorrow
mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s2 /mnt
ufsrestore 0f - /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2 | (cd /mnt ; ufsrestore xf -)

after this completed you should umount /mnt

then mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 /mnt and install the bootblk.

installboot /usr/platform/'uname -i'/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0

you should then be able to put that drive in the other system and boot.



Thanks

CA

 

[SBSaikia]

I support cndcadams's solution.
Its easy to ufsdump & restore back the entire system on similar h/w model.
If you can't dump to a disk directly, take ufsdump to tape & restore bacck on the target system. To restore You have to boot from cdrom & then format the target disk so that they can accomodate the data. Then hv to build the bootblk on the / slice.

Actually the principle behind is same as that of cndcadams's.

-sbs

 

[ghouliajoolia]

Thanks to everyone for your ideas. Im glad I joined this forum.

The ufsdump option sounds like a good alternative..but I think maybe that jumpstart is probably more along the lines of what I need as I want even the partitions to be exactly the same. Since I can boot from the network, it can then as a client I have read that I can partition the client the same as the server get the boot image from the jumpstart server.

cndcadam I have done the procedure you suggested before to move data over
"mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s2 /mnt
ufsrestore 0f - /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2 | (cd /mnt ; ufsrestore xf -) ....etc"

It is a wonderful solution if you need to move your data to a larger drive.. it sounds a bit complicated dealing with the bootblock though....but worth a try.

I think I will try both ways ...why not...as I have some systems I can play with.

Thanks again for the ideas..I will let you know how it goes.

 

[dnormant555]

You might check out the flar suite too. I'tt make a clone image of the current system and you can install that image through a normal solaris install.