Running Slackware 9.1.0 with 2 macro 72.,8 GB drives in HP DL 380 G3. Don't know how to check the mirroring of root disk (if any).

# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 63G 11G 49G 19% /

# mount
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 on / type ext3 (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)

Need to clone the macro disk(72.8 GB) to micro disk(300 GB) and put it in HP DL260 G7 and bring up the server. Checked the dd commands. But, the old server have macro disks and the new server have micro disks.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Ramesh Yarlagadda

Hi,

I suggest you to do a fresh installation of a more recent version of Slackware.
If you can't you have to manually transfer all the things to the new server (you can use tar with archive option and netcat, write it in an hd then write the bootloader).
Be careful to exclude dev and proc directories

Hi,

I would like to install latest version of Slackware. But, we have radius running on Slackware 9.1.0. I need to have a second server for load balancing with exact OS version and radius version. So, if I can clone this server, that would be great.

Thanks!

Virtualization may help in this case, install the latest version of slackware on the new machine then install virtualbox. make a virtual image of the old server and run it under virtualbox on the new server, you will then have an identical copy running, you'll just need to change the ipaddress on the virtual server, then you could have the load balancing you need.

Maybe try partedmagic? It's a live dist. that has clonezilla built in you can use to make a clone. I use it a lot and it works well.

(cd $source && tar cf - .)|(cd $target && tar xvpf -)

You may have to tweak it somewhat to keep away from /proc and /dev and such ... (I believe 9.1 doesn't have /sys!!)
If disks are equal - there's nothing to beat good ole 'dd' :-)

Using dd is the best way in this case to get a perfect clone of the original root FS (with the exception of maybe using Acronis Backup & Recovery which is my preference).

The main thing with using dd is that you mustn't be booted into the running system when you clone it as you will be cloning the whole filesystem and in the time it takes to read it, the filesystem will likely change leaving you with corruption. Get/write a slackware boot disc and boot into it. Then use DD to image from the RAID volume to some other location that you'll need to mount into the boot environment, such as an NFS mount at /mnt/backup:

# dd if=/dev/cciss/c0d0 of=/mnt/backup/c0d0.img

I echo previous comments that there is little reason for retaining the 9.1 installation. It's a perfect opportunity to update the RADIUS and OS install especially as it's in a load-balance situation where you can bring up the new system and then also replace the first one when the second is taking the load. A fresh install of 14.0 with the RADIUS config from the 9.1 should suit you just perfectly.

Consider also that you are not only changing hardware but also OS configuration, so you're not going to be able to use a perfect clone. Since you can't use a perfect clone it starts to defeat the point of retaining other legacy aspects just so you can call it a perfect clone i.e. Unless you are setting up a cciss RAID on the G7 you are going to have to modify the OS just to get the clone to boot in /etc/fstab and lilo.conf at least, repointing from the RAID device nodes to raw disk nodes, or setting up a new software mirror etc.

Unless you've got some seriously good cause for the clone, it's probably going to be more trouble than it's worth when you can just setup a clean, up-to-date install for the job.

Hi,

Thanks for all your replies.

I would like to do what Zordrak uggested, "A fresh install of 14.0 with the RADIUS config from the 9.1 should suit you just perfectly."

After I install Slackware 14.0, how do I install or get my RADIUS config from Slackware 9.1 ? Just tar cvf / xvf and get it to 14.0 ?

I wasted much time by cloning the DL380 G2 Slackware 9.1 root disk with clonezilla. The cloning went ok. When I try to boot it from DL360 G7, the kernel panics with "kmod failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k block-major-104, errno = 2 vfs: cannot open root device "6802" or 68:02 kernel panic: vfs unable to mount root fs on 68:02". Tried many things like fsck.ext3, SystemRescueCD, sfdisk, etc. Not able to boot in DL360 G7. I think the CPU difference is one reason. Tried to copy /usr/src/Linux/.config file, etc.

After I install Slackware 14.0, how do I install or get my RADIUS config from Slackware 9.1 ? Just tar cvf / xvf and get it to 14.0 ?

Thanks to all again!
Ramesh Yarlagadda

It's maybe an error with the root device not being creted by udev, being a ealier version of slackware it probably wont be able to recongnise, or have support for a sata drive, or latest motherboards, which your new server would have in it. Been a while since I used slackware 9, so I cannot remember if it supports sata drives or not. One reason why I suggested using virtualbox, you might be able to get around some compatability issues that may arise with newer hardware.


All the best, hope you have it all sorted out soon