[olug] Ghost SuSE?

[Rob Townley]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Kevin <sharpestmarble at gmail.com> wrote:
> Kelly, have you tested a restore from those images? It's not a backup
> until it's tested.
>
> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 11:14, Kelly Williams <kellywilliams81 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have used clonezilla before for imaging my Linux systems and windows
>> systems at a church to make recovery easier for them.
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Craig Wolf <CJWolf at mpsomaha.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Has anyone ghosted SuSE before??  Did it work?  If not, what option do I
>>> have to image a server to another box?
>>>
>>> Thanx!!
>>>
>>>
>>> Craig Wolf
>>> Linux Server Support
>>> Data Backups Administrator
>>> Desktop/Network Specialist
>>> Desk: (402)715-6283
>>> Cell: (402)510-0301
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0.)   Yes, i spent time cloning OpenSuse systems a few years back.
Now i wonder why. Always question old ways of thinking.   Sometimes my
heavy windows background prevents me from seeing my assumptions.
Consider that the impetus for cloning came about from the pain of
installing all those apps on ms-dos and windows and keeping them
up-to-date and identical.  Cloning is hard to sustain.    How many
24GigaByte and growing harddrive images can one reasonably keep?   Are
they secure?  No Anti-Virus vendor can tell me if it is infected by
Zeus.  Maybe i should spend a week rebuilding the image from scratch
yet again.  Insanity.

     Cloning is a must for windows.  But in most Linux / BSD
scenarios, cloning is _not_ necessary and often a hindrance to
untapping open source potential.  It is just that we have been using
redmond hammers for so long, we don't realize the penguin transcends
that need.

1.)   SuSe must have a Redhat like anaconda kickstart like installer
script so that the same config can be repeated infinitely.
Optionally, with fresh updates.  Secure.  Much more flexible.  Go back
to previous changes easily.  The harddrive "image" may be a single
small text file in git.   But if you want to clone because it is
fun...

2.) Single Disk systems -- Among many others, i have used Clonezilla
Live CD, CloneZilla Server, and drbl to image and restore from those
images many many times.  Mostly single disk windows systems.  i
recommend starting with the LiveCD as it can do p2p cloning using
multiple LiveCDs.  Put one LiveCD each in the old and new servers and
clone directly from one machine to another.   Just be careful which
one is the source and which one is the sink.

3.) Software Raid  --  None of them were software raid and i am pretty
sure Steven expressly says it can't be done with his CZ.  However, i
believe sf members claimed to have imaged software raid systems using
CZ - ymmv.

4.) Hardware Raid 1 -- break the mirror and put old drive in new
system.   Did that several times a month for 2 years until one of the
10+ year old machines died.

5.) Hardware Raid 5 -- haven't done it and don't know if it is
possible?  Anyone?  i suspect it depends on how smart the raid
controller is with electronic signatures and disk signatures.

6.) Love gmail threading, but wish gmail would bottom post reply by
default, not top post by default.