[clug] Help with cloning an old Debian system please

[Stephen Hodgman]

Interesting idea that I had not thought of.
However, my primary goal is to be able to have a backup of the
disk/partition that it runs from.  This will save me from hardware failure.

So, if I dd the partitions then I think I need to run lilo on the disk
to make it boot the correct partition.  This is where I am unsure of the
details.  I am still reading lilo man page...


Andrew Janke wrote:
> Hi Stephen,
> 
> If indeed this will only run on 2.2 (and from what you say I imaging
> it does). Why not just play it safe and run the entire thing in a
> virtual machine? (using VirtualBox). There are means and methods to
> turn an existing partition into a vm.
> 
> At least once it is in a VM environment then you can checkpoint it and
> the likes as a safeguard.
> 
> Mind you if there are complex peripheral requirements (Serial
> multipliers for terminals) then this might not be the best option!
> 
> 
> a
> 
> 2008/8/19 Stephen Hodgman <steve at namsys.com.au>:
>> Gday All,
>> I have an old Debian 2.2 system that is running a critical application.
>> This is being upgraded but the upgrade is taking some time and I want to
>> have contingency in place.
>>
>> The application is an old SCO binary that I am running using the iBCS2
>> emulation. I have done a bit of research on the net but it seems that
>> the iBCS2 or  linux-abi as I think it became is no longer supported.
>> Well I cannot see it for recent kernels beyond 2.4.21.  If anyone can
>> help with getting this to work on say a recent CentOS 5 I would be
>> interested.
>>
>> Alternatively, I would be happy to clone the existing disk.  This would
>> give me a backup strategy until the upgrade is complete.
>>
>> Now it is a long time since I have done this so I would like some
>> confirmation that what I propose is correct.
>> I was planning to install a separate disk and create equivalent
>> partitions on it.  Then dd the contents of the running system to this
>> disk.  I am not sure what else would be required but memory says I need
>> to do something to get the disk to boot.
>>
>> Can anyone help with this please?
>> Thanks for your time.
>> --
>> Stephen Hodgman
>> Namadgi Systems
>> +61 (0)407 182 355 (mobile)
>> +61 (0)2 6285 3460 (Office)
>> +61 (0)2 6285 3459 (Fax)
>>
>> --
>> linux mailing list
>> linux at lists.samba.org
>> https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/linux
>>
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Stephen Hodgman
Namadgi Systems
+61 (0)407 182 355 (mobile)
+61 (0)2 6285 3460 (Office)
+61 (0)2 6285 3459 (Fax)

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