Cloning a bootable disk as a system backup

I have a Sun M5000 System running Solaris 10. It has 4 slots in the face panel for removable drives. The 1st 2 slots are the ones we use, for the mirrored, boot file system. I don't have tape drives on this system, but I do want to be able to make system backups.
What I do have are more identical, removable drives that I can add to the 2 other slots. (and we have the 2nd IO controller module to make those slots active) It seems to me that the easiest "system backup" to restore after a disaster would be to somehow 100% clone the mirrorred boot drives to a 2nd pair, and remove them for safekeeping. This pair could then be put into a replacement system, and immediately boot as the old system.
Is this possible ? Is there a simple technique to do this ? Hopefully it can be done "live" and not need to be in single user mode, as this system is in use 24/7.
.

the no tape drive may hurt you in the long run if you update a lot of data on your existing mirror. you can use dd to do what you want, use meta* cmds or vxvm if thats what is the current env. note that if you update lots of data on your mirror, having the old boot volume usable may not help much or will result in lots of rebuild time anyway.

Similar Messages

Cloning a bootable disk drive

Hi.
I'd like to know if there's any way to clone my main disk drive (the one which contains the operating system) in order to have a backup of all my data to use it when necessary... I've been thinking about using a dd in single user mode, but I'm not sure if this will work, so I'd like to know if there's a better way to do this. I'd really appreciate any help, thanks in advance.

Hello,
As mentioned by mlhardwicke :
Ufsfump
/usr/sbin/ufsdump 0uf - $ROOT | (cd $BACKUP; /usr/sbin/ufsrestore ryf -)Install boot block on root partition :
/usr/sbin/installboot /usr/platform/`/usr/bin/uname -m`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk $BACKUP

How can I create a system backup in Solaris 10?

Hello,
sorry about my English.
I need to create a image of entire disk or a system backup. I think use "ufsdump" but I'm not sure. Can I create a backup of whole disk with "ufsdump" command? Are there any application to do it.?
I've got a Solaris 10.
Thank.
Alejandro.

If you want to create an image of the entire disk, then `dd' is an option. But you can also use ufsdump to create an image of a filesystem running on that disk, but you need to do that for every filesystem on the disk and please keep a copy of you vtoc for the future if you need to restore everything.
On the other hand you make me thing about someone who wants to clone machines and then a Flash Archive can also be an option. Please keep in mind to ask the question in the future instead of conformation of your answer ;-)

Rsync system backup to disk image

Hi,
I had quite 'small' HD ~60Gb and I backed up on ~1.5 Tb NAS with ext3 file system via DiskUtility - it was creating an exact copy of my hard drive in a .dmg file (and I can mont them, etc).
Now I have ~250 Gb HD, and some free space, but also a lot of data (=regular files like images, text, etc. that can be usefull even on PC). So I want to
1) backup only OS X system+applications to some bootable disk image - so that I could restore function in case my drive fail and get back all my programs and settings.
2) copy user data (some selected folders) to NAS and make them available on the local network.
So I tried TimeMachine, but it fails to create sparcebundle on the NAS and it fails to recognize one if I create it locally and copy to NAS (there are tips on how to make TM recognize network storage).
So I create sparceimage, 60Gb(enough for OS X+applications) on NAS and I can mount it fine over network on my MacBook. Then I try rsync (versions from OS X, RsyncX and Macports) but all fail with variouse error messages after copying fe Gb of data. Also they render sparceimage unreadable (no mountable file system). Example of errors:
rsync error: protocol incompatibility (code 2) at sender.c(562)
or
recv_generator: mkdir "/Volumes/blablabla" failed: Input/output error
or
rsync: rename "/Volumes/blabla" -> "blabla": Input/output error (5)
The commands I used
sudo /usr/bin/rsync --exclude-from /Users/me/user_data.txt -av --hard-links /Volumes/MacintoshHD/ /Volumes/Backup2012/
or (RsyncX)
sudo /usr/local/bin/rsync --exclude-from /Users/me/user_data.txt -av --hard-links /Volumes/MacintoshHD/ /Volumes/Backup2012/
or
sudo /opt/local/bin/rsync --exclude-from /Users/me/user_data.txt -av --crtimes --hard-links --acls --xattrs --fileflags /Volumes/MacintoshHD/ /Volumes/Backup2012/
Backup2012 has 1 HFS+Journaled single GUID partition in sparceimage format, with 60 Gb limit. I guess I am missing somethig. Any ideas?

Why aren't you using -E option to preserve extended-attributes ?
It is a good point. I have got 3 flavors of rsync (macports, RsynX and apple) and I was using --xattrs attribute, but I guess I dropped it somewhere.
Are you sure it's --exclude-from /Users/... and not --exclude-from="/Users/..." ?
Same thing here - it seems to work for some rsync, but I will check.
Have you set permissions on the mounted backup ?
Yes. Still thank you for reminding.
I thought about target mode, but it seems to be not the issue. Also I would not like to reboot for a backup. And I do not have to have 50Gb free on HD to make backup and then copy it - it is ridiculous.
Now I have Taurus LAN - truncated Linux box for 60€ which I can SSH to and do whatever to the Linux inside, but it will essentially drop all modifications on reboot unless I build my own installation and keep it on USB stick. It has no Mac compartibiliyty or backup, and I want bootable disc image to restore OS X from. Data (images, texts, etc) I can just copy there as is. So I just keep .dmg there and mount 1st Taurus LAN over smb (it shows itself on local network), then I mount .dmg and use it as if it was locally. I figured out I can create dmg over night, but now I just will do it on FireWire HD and copy - then I willtest rsync on .dmg and see if it performs better than on sparceimage.
CCC and 50 other alternatives http://www.lbackup.org/alternatives - yes, but I want some simple Unix way, or OS X way, so that I am not dependent on some stupid application beeing discontinued or something.

Using old file system backup for Cloning

I have taken an off-line backup of Oracle 11i (11.5.10.2) 15 days ago. Before taking backup of file system , I verified that all the latest Rapid Clone Patches are applied. No changes or patch work in APPL_TOP or DB has been done since that backup. Now I need to do cloning of this instance, how I can use this backup for Cloning.
Rapid Clone scripts create and generate some files/directories so I am not sure whether my Old backup of file system will work or not. What is the best way to use old backup for cloning , also what are the file and directories in addition to the old backup of file system which I need to copy to Target System.
Thanks for reviewing and suggestions.
Samar

Samar,
If you have run preclone before backing it up, your backup should be valid for cloning.
2.1 in the cloning doc has to be in the backup.
These doc's should clear out yours doubts on cloning.
Cloning Oracle Applications Release 11i with Rapid Clone
https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=230672.1
FAQ: Cloning Oracle Applications Release 11i
https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=216664.1

I have just made a clean instalation of Lion, with a bootable disk, and I planned to restore my files (music, photos, etc.), but Lion doesn't find my backup files. So, I'm about to loose all of my iTunes library, work docum The installation run perfectly,

I have just made a clean instalation of Lion, with a bootable disk, and I planned to restore my files (music, photos, etc.), The installation run perfectly, but Lion doesn't find my backup files. So, I'm about to loose all of my iTunes library, work documents (I'm a lawyer!!), my kid's photos.... How can I restore my files?? Help!!

Since you seem to be using a new disk for Lion, Time Machine will consider previous backups to be for a "different" computer. Try doing a control-click or click-and-hold on the Time Machine icon in the Dock, then choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks". This should allow Time Machine to see the previous backups.
In the worst case you should be able to open those Time Machine backups and copy your documents from there to your home folder.
By the way, you've been misled by poor field labeling on this forum into typing a large part of your message into the field intended for the subject. In the future just type a short summary of your post into that field and type the whole message into the field below that.

When trying to do a system backup to my remote LaCie hard drive, what does it mean when I get a message that says "waiting for volume LaCie disk"? While this message apears no back-up occurs. Is there a setting I need to change?

When trying to do a system backup to my remote LaCie hard drive, what does it mean when I get a message that says "waiting for volume LaCie disk"? While this message apears no back-up occurs. Is there a setting I need to change?

You can't do a backup of icloud to an external drive. In fact, does your post have anything to do with icloud (you're in the icloud forum)?
What kind of "system backup" are you doing? Are you using Time Machine?

Cant find system backup in Time machine disk

I use two Macs, one iMac and one Macbook Pro.
both are being backuped on the same Time Machine, but with different users.
Before changing disk on iMac I made full backup (700GB) and could see the files in the directory and I got no error messages when creating the backup.
I restarted the iMac with CmdR and I now find the Time Machine disks, one for the iMac and one for Macbook Pro. When choosing iMac (where I know there are files in the folder /timemachine imac/imac.sparsebundle/bands) it can not find any system backups and no backups to choose from! For the Macbook Pro backup I can find a lot of didfferent system backups to choose from!
Very annoying as I can see files in the backup folder for iMac in the Synology NAS 212j, Time Machine.
Please help me as I do not have access to my old disk (warranty disk from Apple)!
Greatful for all tips!
Thanks in advance!

Check Time Machine Preferences/Options to make sure nothing is being excluded.
You might want to look at D5
Time Machine Troubleshooting

Question about creating a bootable disk image in Leopard.

I have a Powerbook G4 that originally came with OS9, I upgraded to Tiger and recently upgraded to Leopard. The computer is running great but if it should go down what are my bootable options?
1) Boot from the install disk set then load tiger upgrade then load Leopard upgrade? then reload all my programs back on the G4?
2) Can I create a bootable disk image and save it on an external hard drive and then boot and reload everything at once? ( I guess by asking this question I really don't understand what the full scope of a bootable disk image is?) can someone explain...
Which option is better? I am also running __time machine__... what is the safest and easiest way to use time machine to get my software back together after I get the operating system up and running.
Thanks for the advice

Your best alternative is to create a bootable clone on an external Firewire drive.
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Of course you can use other software for cloning and backup:
Backup Software Recommendations
My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
8. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
9. Data Backup (Commercial)
For use with Leopard always be sure you use a version of the software that is compatible with Leopard.

Bootable tape/dvd/cd/network backup

I usually work with AIX based systems that has a feature called mksysb. It lets me make a on the fly system backup while system is in full production, to a tape, CD, disk, DVD of file.
The backup contains: the OS, boot information, kernel adjustments, user data (if I want to), device configuration, OS logical volume (slice/partition) and filesystem settings (like mirroring, location on disk and user modifications and additions on that matter including enlarged OS root filesystems and user created filesystems).
The backup is made by a very simple command line execution or a menu driven execution (can be done by somebody without any UNIX knowledge whatsoever).
The backup is used for a variety of things: like
- cloning a system to another system (whereby the target hardware does NOT have to be identical). The only thing that?s matter is that there should be enough disk space.
- Crash recovery a system from scratch to bring it back like the state it had during the backup. The system is usually recovered within 20 minutes (even if the hardware config and device config is totally different on disk, cpu, memory and network level).
- Defragment and optimize logical volumes and filesystems
- Reducing the size of logical volumes and filesystems to the exact use of capacity
- Creating Alternate bootdisks to test new maintenance releases
- Install systems (like jumpstart) over the network
The crash recovery restore process is as simple as the backup process (can be done without UNIX knowledge).
I have reviewed and tested the JumpStart but that does not offer what I want. First of all jumstart has to be maintained. If I change something in the OS on AIX it is automatically backuped up with the mksysb tool (bootable/cloneable backup). With Solaris I have to manually add the changes to the jumpstart configuration. Second it does not create a portable bootable backup on other media than a network so cloning a system in a remote area (without network) is impossible. Third it is not suited for creating day by day backups on the fly.
The other utils that Solaris offers to create backups like ufsdump and fssnap are way to basic.
So correct me if I'm wrong but I suspect there isn't such util like AIX's mksysb or is there?
Regards,
themissingfeature.

if you are looking for the bare metal recovery or cloning part of mksysb you can have a look at flarcreate. It can make an image to a streamer while the system is in production. To recover the image you need a Solaris installation CD. This is the best thing I found so far since I looked for something similar like HP's Ignite make recovery...

No Bootable Disk Error

I have had this computer since August 2012. I have recently been getting a "No bootable disk" error when starting/restarting. I hold down the option key, select the SSD, and it boots normally. The first time it happened I kinda freaked, now it just ****** me off. It is NOT something that should happen on a machine as new and pricey as this thing is.
Anybody else heving this issue?

Try to restart the system while holding down the OPTIONS key. This should allow access to the recovery partition. Select recovery and boot from that partition and use the disk utilities app to see if it can fix any disk error. after that try to reboot normally. If there is still a problem you might try to reinstall the OS fresh - I hope you have been making regular backups of your data with Time Capsule, a back up drive or cloud. These are the first steps I'd take, but then it might be a hardware failure of your drive. Use the Apple Hardware on your install DVD to check the drive. If the drive has failed, you can repace it yorself or take it in for Apple Service. I recently replaced my drive with a Seagate Blue 1TB 5400 RPM drive in my mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro (5,5) and it works great!

Time Machine will not complete a system backup and terminates with "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume. This follows a problem when Time machne terminated when the volume was almost full.

On 11/1/2011, Time Machine (TM) terminated with an error message I did not record. I noted that the drive was full and decided to do a separate complete bootable system backup using Carbon Copy Clone (CCC), before clearing the TM volume and trying to start it over clean. Part way through the full system backup CCC put up a message that there was a Physical Problem "Library/Application Support/Techtool Protection/McIntosh HD/Directory Backup 2011-11-01-16-28-16". That was about the time that TM malfunctioned, so I assumed they were related. After starting CCC over a couple of times, and getting the same error message, I let it go through to completion of the backup, which took three or four hours. I then ran tests using Disk Utility and verified that there was nothing physically wrong with both the internal hard drive and the TM volume. I also erased and reformatted the TM volume. However, every time I started Time Machine, it would record a few GB and terminate with "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume". I restarted the computer with no change in results. Note that prior to starting the CCC backup, I "Repaired Permissions", "zapped the PRAM" and "re-set the SMC", hoping to have a clean bootable system on the backup. I ran Techtool and no problems were found.
I'm running this on an Intel iMac under 10.5.8 and recording to a 500GB My Passport drive. My hard drive is only about half full at 246 GB. My assessment is that something happened at 16-28-16 on 11/1/2001 to screwup the Backup Directory in the file at "Library/Application Support/Techtool Protection/McIntosh HD/Directory Backup 2011-11-01-16-28-16". My question is, how do I fix it?
I had just completed writing everything above here, explaining the problems I had been encountering for the past 24 hours. I had the Time Machine window standing open on the desktop where I could see it, having recentlycleared it after the last termination. As I was proofing what I had written, I looked at the window and noted that the clock had started a new run for a full back up, since all prior efforts had failed and the TM volume was empty. As I watched and waited for it to fail again, as it had been doing at about 13 GB, it kept going and going until it just finished a complete backup, about 4.5 hours later, with my having done nothing. Now my question would have to be - what could possiibly have happened to make it perform this way? It will be interesting to see if it continue to operate normally, or if the problem will return, in a later backup run.

jcm21 wrote:
CCC put up a message that there was a Physical Problem "Library/Application Support/Techtool Protection/McIntosh HD/Directory Backup 2011-11-01-16-28-16"
You should not keep those files for long, and probably shouldn't back them up (if you need them at all -- since you do regular backups, I'm doubtful just how worthwhile that feature is).
"Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume".
One of Apple's maddeningly incomplete messages. Most likely, there's a problem with a file (quite possibly the one CCC didn't like). See #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details and instructions on finding and fixing it.
If you continue running the Directory Protection app, be sure to exclude your Time Machine drive from it (as it will just take up lots of room, and won't help repair your backups if there's a problem); and exclude the folders it creates from being backed-up by Time Machine (as they'll create large backups, and you probably can't use the backed-up folders anyway), per #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Quick boot question -- cloned a bootable drive in latest Tiger, can i.....

I cloned a bootable drive in latest Tiger version; if i install Leopard on my Powerbook will i still be able to boot from that Tiger drive?? in essence i guess i would have two different platforms running on my Powerbook -- doesn't seem like it would work the more i think about it....hmmmmm.
thanks appleheads!
e

e to the d wrote:
if i install Leopard on my Powerbook will i still be able to boot from that Tiger drive??
You can't install a second OS on your PB. However your clone should boot your PB from the disk it's on. Just connect that disk, then in System Preferences >> Startup disk, choose it and restart.
-mj

System backup

i am using mac os tiger but now i want to switch over to leopard..i have got the leopard uptodate dvd...
i also want to keep a backup of the tiger to avoid any inconvenience...kindly guide me about the system files that need the backup so that i may easily get back to tiger in case i face any problem..
i am going to use carbon copy cloner for this purpose..
thanks

is it possible that i just choose the important system files and program to create a backup file?
It's not possible and you are not creating a backup file with carbon copy cloner. You need a separate firewire connected external disk. As the program's name states you are making a carbon copy of a bootable disk. The copy will also be bootable. In the unlikely event that you wanted to go back to Tiger you would boot from the clone disk and use carbon copy cloner to copy the clone back to the disk in the MBP. However long the copy takes it is time well spent.

Is there eny kind of system backup like in windows ?

is there eny kind of system backup like in windows ?

Hello tiger:
Apple does employ journaling capability for disk operations which facilitates recovery:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107249
A good backup/recover strategy is, in my opinion, creating a bootable clone (on whatever frequency you desire) on an external firewire hard drive. In this way, you will be able to retreat to a working system if hardware or software problems occur. I use a little program called SuperDuper (www.shirt-pocket.com) - $20 for the full version.
Barry

Cloning a bootable disk as a system backup

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