Imaging a running Linux server

[me-5yx05kfkO/aqeI1yJSURBw at public.gmane.org (Matthew Gillen)]

On 08/27/2010 12:12 PM, Chris O'Connell wrote:
> Would one need to boot up with a live disk or can the dd command image a
> server that is up and running?

The system can be up and running.  A slightly better solution would combine
LVM snapshots and dd, in that you can do more to ensure filesystem consistency
(less of an issue with journaled filesystems):
 creat LVM snapshot
 dd the snapshot
 delete the snapshot

Here's more detailed tutorial:
http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_lvm_snapshots

> 
> On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 11:57 AM, Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> 
>> On 08/27/2010 11:45 AM, Chris O'Connell wrote:
>>> Hi Guys,
>>>
>>> I usually use Clonezilla for my imaging needs.  Sadly, Clonezilla is
>> having
>>> some trouble with the hardware on one of my servers.  Ideally I wouldn't
>>> want to take my server down to image it anyways.
>>>
>>> Can anyone recommend a tool to image a system while the system is up and
>>> running?
>>>
>>>
>> the dd(1) command can image a file system or an entire drive.
>>
>> --
>> Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
>> Boston Linux and Unix
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>>
>>
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