Duplicate Arch system?

matt_man22 · 2007-06-16 03:16:47

I have been looking around and think I have an idea how to do this, but I want to make sure before I take the plunge.

I am trying to have one partition that contains "/" (sda1) that I will use every day, like a normal install. But, I also want to create a root system on another partition (sda2) that I mirror off of the live partition to create a system backup at specific intervals. I would like to be able to boot to both of them, in case something happens to either one, and have them share the /home folder (sda3).

I would probably just do cp or tarball to copy the system partition. Is this possible, and how do I set up the backup partition to be able to boot and have no conflicts?

Thanks.

detox332 · 2007-06-16 03:32:56

seems strange to clone your normal install, wouldnt it just be easier to setup a cron job that would create a backup at a specific interval? the way it sounds, you would have to re-install arch on the separate /root partition and then manually upgrade it when you know that updates are stable. asaik you can't just cp a system to another partition and make it work.

i would suggest reading up on the cron job setup as it seems like an easier and less "work-intense" method.

matt_man22 · 2007-06-16 03:42:50

Thanks for the response.

I understand it would be much easier to back up the partition. I guess it's just my own crazy ways that I want to accomplish this setup. I figure it has to be possible without too much difficulty, possibly only have to mess with grub on /boot and fstab on the copied partition?

nikron · 2007-06-16 03:45:29

detox332 wrote:

seems strange to clone your normal install, wouldnt it just be easier to setup a cron job that would create a backup at a specific interval? the way it sounds, you would have to re-install arch on the separate /root partition and then manually upgrade it when you know that updates are stable. asaik you can't just cp a system to another partition and make it work.
i would suggest reading up on the cron job setup as it seems like an easier and less "work-intense" method.

Huh? I'm pretty sure you can just cp a / if you exclude /proc , etc. However, this is what people use rsync and incremental backups for. Honestly, I don't backup my / , just ~ because all the unique stuff is in my home.

matt_man22 · 2007-06-16 03:47:43

nikron wrote:

Huh? I'm pretty sure you can just cp a / if you exclude /proc , etc. However, this is what people use rsync and incremental backups for. Honestly, I don't backup my / , just ~ because all the unique stuff is in my home.

I understand ~ has the documents, but I'm looking to copy the partition and make it an identical bootable partition. So I could boot from sda1 or sda2 and they would be exactly the same after the backup.

gradgrind · 2007-06-16 04:11:35

Copying and getting it to work is no problem at all, but do it from a live cd, not from the system to be copied. You can use cp -a to do the copying. Then you just have to change /etc/fstab and add a grub entry.

If you want to synchronize the new partition with the old one after the old one has changed, that might be more difficult, but rsync can probably do it (probably again easiest using a live cd).

matt_man22 · 2007-06-16 04:36:24

gradgrind wrote:

Copying and getting it to work is no problem at all, but do it from a live cd, not from the system to be copied. You can use cp -a to do the copying. Then you just have to change /etc/fstab and add a grub entry.

Ok I will try this tomorrow and see if it works. I am assuming I can use the same /boot for both and just load the same kernel image...

gradgrind · 2007-06-16 14:15:33

matt_man22 wrote:

I am assuming I can use the same /boot for both and just load the same kernel image...

If /boot were on its own partition this would be trivial, but it sounds like yours isn't. I would just copy /boot along with everything else. Grub will still read the menu.lst from the original partition (unless you reinstall it), but you can add your new partition to that.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-06-16 03:16:47

Duplicate Arch system?

#2 2007-06-16 03:32:56

Re: Duplicate Arch system?

#3 2007-06-16 03:42:50

Re: Duplicate Arch system?

#4 2007-06-16 03:45:29

Re: Duplicate Arch system?

#5 2007-06-16 03:47:43

Re: Duplicate Arch system?

#6 2007-06-16 04:11:35

Re: Duplicate Arch system?

#7 2007-06-16 04:36:24

Re: Duplicate Arch system?

#8 2007-06-16 14:15:33

Re: Duplicate Arch system?

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