Imaging a running Linux server

[blu-Z8efaSeK1ezqlBn2x/YWAg at public.gmane.org (Edward Ned Harvey)]

> From: discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org [mailto:discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org] On
> Behalf Of Bill Bogstad
> 
> I do NOT recommend imaging a mounted filesystem with dd from an active
> partition (and possibly a LVM snapshot of such a partition).   Even a
> LVM snapshot (by itself) does not guarantee that the "on-disk" data is
> in a consistent state.   

This is true, however, as long as you create a snapshot and then backup (via
dd or dump) then you'll be fine to the extent your system is able to survive
an unexpected power cycle or kernel panic.