Hypothetical: DRBL, Clonezilla... over Internet?
 

Is it possible to remotely clone a computer over the Internet? I work for a computer shop and we have recently moved into the field of data preservation. Nobody seems to understand the word "backup," so we are taking it on ourselves to offer backup services.

I had a crazy idea: we set up a large RAID6 array on a linux server, load it with an implementation of DRBL and Clonezilla, somehow integrate this into our website, and ultimately clone clients' machines remotely. We charge $X/month to host updated images of their HDDs, in addition to Xgb of incremental backups of files. It would have to work with little or no interaction on the client side aside from a consent action from the customer.

I am not asking for a detailed howto, just a bit of advice. Is this feasible in the least? Has anyone done anything like this? Any suggestions, comments, criticisms? Thanks for your time and input!

I'm not sure you can "clone" a running system in the sense Clonezilla uses. I believe there are too many live processes that prevent you from cloning a system without shutting it down and using a live CD.

But you may be able to use something like Bacula or Backuppc over the internet...

Thank you very much for your input pljvaldez!

You are right about clonezilla and other live cloning apps. Interestingly enough, the program SelfImage can supposedly image the partition on which it is running. If this actually works, maybe I can just use logmeinrescue.com, selfimage and an FTP site to clone remotely.

Between this and backuppc for incremental file backups, we may have the solution I want. Thanks again, cheers!!

-Austin