cloning running linux machine through network, strategy and tactics

[Tod Hansmann]

On 8/7/2012 3:27 PM, Joshua Marsh wrote:
> On Aug 7, 2012 2:49 PM, "Ryan Byrd" <ryanbyrd at gmail.com> wrote:
>> [root at CurrentlyRunningServer ~]$ rsync -ave ssh --delete /* root at NewServer
> :/
> --exclude={/etc/sysconfig/*,/dev/*,/proc/*,/sys/*,/tmp/*,/run/*,/mnt/*,/media/*,/lost+found,/home/*/.gvfs}
>> Then he'd just set up the new ip addresses on the new server, and WHAMMO!
>> web server #2.
>>
>> Good idea? bad idea? something better?
> You should check out tool like salt or chef. They were designed to do thing
> like this, but in a cleaner, more reliable manner.
>
>
Seconded.  I will also add that if you have a filesystem capable of 
doing snapshots, just copy the snapshot of the whole filesystem over 
instead of copying the VFS version.  I've heard of utilities that will 
monitor for file changes and keep copying over changes files, and I hear 
good things about Mondo, but I could be mistaken since I've never used it.

The way I'd personally do it if there wasn't a snapshot method available 
is: a) image copy the whole drive over or b) use this opportunity to 
build a "build process" that's possibly even scripted.  The salt/chef 
style setup may be good here.

-Tod Hansmann