Hello, I'm new to CentOS Server.
I have to administer a few mail servers, a mail log server, 4 nameservers and a web server -all running on Centos 5 server distributions.
Now I have a task: to avoid accidental crashes on the production servers while installing updates, my boss asked me to do clones (these clones will all be VMware virtual machines) of the servers (EXCLUDING the actual e-mails and mail log contents) and then to run those clones on VMWare Server. This way, first I will install and test updates on the clones and - if they will be running without crashes - I will apply the updates on the real production servers themselves.

I have already installed VMWare Server 2.0
I have a few questions:
- How do I build the virtual machines to exclude the actual mail files and mail logs? Can I use VMware Converter for this purpose, or do I have to use another program?
- How do I actually do this cloning? Is there a tutorial on how to do this?Please remember that I'm a beginner

Hi,

Refer this link;

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/v...e-machine.html

Thanks prayag_pjs, but in fact I don't need to install a centos server from scratch.
The question is how do I copy the content of an entire centos linux mail server and put it in a virtual machine? How do I create this virtual machine in VMWare (it must have the same content and filesystem to that of the real mail server, except the e-mail files and logs)?
Is there an in-depth tutorial for this?

Ok fine,if you need the exact clone of current hdd then do this

Connect external hdd in main server

and do dd like this

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=512k

where sda is your original hdd and sdb is other one on which you want clone