rsync recovery of system backup to different Linux computer

[Paul Slootman]

On Mon 20 Oct 2008, Matt McCutchen wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-10-20 at 05:49 -0700, gldickens3 wrote:
> > 
> > I am very confident in both my backup and recovery rsync scripts, however, I
> > am uncertain if the new system would work once the rsync backup was
> > recovered since its a different piece of computer hardware.
> 
> Try it; you have nothing to lose.  I imagine how well the new system
> will work / how many problems you may have to track down depends on how
> significantly the new hardware differs from the old.  I have never done
> this kind of recovery so I don't have a point of reference.

I'd do it this way:

- Have a known-good kernel for the new hardware. Preferably as a distro
  package so it's easy to install.

- Boot off a live cdrom, or e.g. netboot the system if you know how.
  This way the filesystems are not used for e.g. your shell, rsync
  binary, shared libraries etc. while it's being overwritten.

- Mount the disk filesystems on a subdirectory. You may want to
  repartition and create new filesystems to match the old layout.

- Rsync the backup onto the new filesystems.

- Install the kernel, don't forget to setup grub or lilo or whatever.
  Using chroot can be handy here.

- Perhaps tune the /etc/fstab to match the present layout.

- reboot and hope for the best :-)


Paul Slootman