Copy installation

eduncan911 · 2015-06-21 21:57:57

I need to copy a specific installation from one machine to another. Specifically, I want to copy a VM I have created to a native installation on my Lenovo Helix tablet.

I've already installed Arch on the tablet; and, I've configured the kernel/modules/drivers in the VM the same way I did Arch on the tablet.

I'm not talking about syncing setups, even though I'll be syncing several files (I have tooling for that).

I'm posting this here to air out my thoughts to see if I am on the right track before I attempt it.

Can I just copy the entire partition(s) from the VM straight to a partition I have on disk? Don't worry about UEFI or MBR, I have those licked and the GUIDs as needed. I basically setup a dedicated /boot partition on both the VM and tablet to handle all of that. OT: I really have to thank all of you for "The Arch Way", as it finally taught me how to handle the MBR and UEFI booting and configuration processes. Thank you!

* Exclude /boot
* Exclude /dev ?
* Exclude /tmp ?
* Edit /etc/fstab, check.
* Edit hosts, check.
* Remove and create new ssh keys, check.
* Cleanup, like purge the pacman cache before copying.

Can I literally just copy VM's root / installation I have straight over ontop of the other partition? I don't care to keep anything on the tablet's Arch installation - except the MBR flag, which I can always fix if that gets erased.

Here's the steps I plan on taking:

1) Boot into Win8.1 on the tablet.
2) Attach the physical drive's ext4 Arch partition to the Arch VM I want to copy.
3) Boot the Arch VM on that tablet, with the physical ext4 partition attached.
4) Mount the physical ext4 partition within the VM.
5) Copy everything from /, except the noted directories above.

Am I on the right track?

I don't think I can do a straight image copy, since I use different UEFI (VM) and MBR partitions (Tablet I left as MBR for Windows 8.1's Touchscreen Boot Manager - yes, I have a touchscreen boot manager! I need to blog this...). So, I kept those /boot partitions as separate partitions.

I do plan on continue running the VM on the desktop, and the native Arch on tablet. I've previously copied that very same VM to another VM that I use for another client. All I did was change the hostname and everything is fine.

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by eduncan911 (2015-06-21 22:31:54)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-06-21 22:44:00

tl;dr

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mo … al_machine

Arch Linux

#1 2015-06-21 21:57:57

Copy installation

#2 2015-06-21 22:44:00

Re: Copy installation

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