Cloning a Drive in Linux via Commands: Difference between revisions

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It's been a long journey. A lot of software and methods have been tried over the years. All of them work, but with varying degrees of difficulty.

Wait, let's back up (so to speak) and lay out the objective: A Bare Metal Recovery Methodology that allows for the complete backup of an entire Rocky Linux OS based on a 'live / running' Source Drive that can then be restored on a Destination or Target Drive.

Here we go...

=== Premise and Circumstances ===

None of this works unless the drive structure has been set up properly. In this instance, things are about as plain and simple as it gets. A single GPT Partitioned Drive with the ROOT File System as EXT4 on an LVM Partition (has to be on an LVM Partition to allow for 'SnapShots').

Below is the Example Drive;<syntaxhighlight lang="text">nvme1n1 259:2 0 238.5G 0 disk

├─nvme1n1p1 259:3 0 1G 0 part /boot/efi

├─nvme1n1p2 259:4 0 4G 0 part /boot

├─nvme1n1p3 259:5 0 128G 0 part

│ └─VG.NVMe.P3-LV.ROOT 253:0 0 64G 0 lvm /

├─nvme1n1p4 259:6 0 80G 0 part

│ └─VG.NVMe.P4-LV.Storage 253:1 0 60G 0 lvm /mnt/NVMEx1

└─nvme1n1p5 259:7 0 20G 0 part [SWAP]</syntaxhighlight>

=== The Steps ===

==== Step(s) 1 - BackUp ====

* BackUp the Source Drive Structure: <code>sgdisk --backup=nvme1n1.bak /dev/nvme1n1</code>

* BackUp each of the Partitions;

** nvme1n1p1:<code>dd if=/dev/nvme1n1p1 of=/BackUps/nvme1n1p1 bs=64M iflag=fullblock status=progress conv=noerror,sync,fsync</code>

==== Step(s) 2 - Restoration ====

~~BackUp the Source Drive Structure: <code>sgdisk --backup=WhatEverFileName.bak /dev/WhatEverSDx</code>~~

Restore to the Destination Drive: <code>sgdisk --load-backup=WhatEverFileName.bak /dev/WhatEverSDy</code>

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+It's been a long journey.  A lot of software and methods have been tried over the years.  All of them work, but with varying degrees of difficulty.
+Wait, let's back up (so to speak) and lay out the objective: A Bare Metal Recovery Methodology that allows for the complete backup of an entire Rocky Linux OS based on a 'live / running' Source Drive that can then be restored on a Destination or Target Drive.
+Here we go...
+=== Premise and Circumstances ===
+None of this works unless the drive structure has been set up properly.  In this instance, things are about as plain and simple as it gets.  A single GPT Partitioned Drive with the ROOT File System as EXT4 on an LVM Partition (has to be on an LVM Partition to allow for 'SnapShots').
+Below is the Example Drive;<syntaxhighlight lang="text">nvme1n1                     259:2    0 238.5G  0 disk
+├─nvme1n1p1                 259:3    0     1G  0 part /boot/efi
+├─nvme1n1p2                 259:4    0     4G  0 part /boot
+├─nvme1n1p3                 259:5    0   128G  0 part
+│ └─VG.NVMe.P3-LV.ROOT      253:0    0    64G  0 lvm  /
+├─nvme1n1p4                 259:6    0    80G  0 part
+│ └─VG.NVMe.P4-LV.Storage   253:1    0    60G  0 lvm  /mnt/NVMEx1
+└─nvme1n1p5                 259:7    0    20G  0 part [SWAP]</syntaxhighlight>
+=== The Steps ===
+==== Step(s) 1 - BackUp ====
+* BackUp the Source Drive Structure: <code>sgdisk --backup=nvme1n1.bak /dev/nvme1n1</code>
+* BackUp each of the Partitions;
+** nvme1n1p1:<code>dd if=/dev/nvme1n1p1 of=/BackUps/nvme1n1p1 bs=64M iflag=fullblock status=progress conv=noerror,sync,fsync</code>
+==== Step(s) 2 -  Restoration ====
-BackUp the Source Drive Structure: <code>sgdisk --backup=WhatEverFileName.bak /dev/WhatEverSDx</code>
 Restore to the Destination Drive: <code>sgdisk --load-backup=WhatEverFileName.bak /dev/WhatEverSDy</code>