Opensuse 11 disk to disk cloning with ghost

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

I have Opensuse-11 install
on a front loading Dell scsi disk server.

I have Opensuse-11 install on one hard drive.

What I like about this setup is that
I cant put a second identical drive and
do a Ghost disk to disk sector by sector clone.

I then put my clone drive in place of my original
drive and reboot.

I am then shure that my backup is OK and
I keep running my sever from the new clone drive
and the old drive is the backup.

I can do that with opensuse-10.2 but
starting with opensuse-10.3 and now with
opensuse-11, I cannot reboot.

The “Opensuse install” is now taking some kine of a serial number from the first install hard drive
and refuse to boot from a the clone drive.

My perfect backup is now impossible.

What can I do to correct this.

Best regards
Jacques

2

This is happening because openSUSE by default now uses the partition’s “Device ID” instead of the “Device Name”. The Device-ID is more dependable because it is unique to that disk/partition, while Device-Name (e.g., /dev/sda) can change when disks are added/subtracted/moved. This has been useful particularly for machines with SATA drives.

All you need to do is change /etc/fstab to use Device-Name again, and do the same in /boot/grub/menu.lst. It may also benefit you to not install grub to the MBR; instead, use YaST to install the “generic boot code to MBR”, install grub to your root partition, and mark that partition as “active”. That should do it.

3

Hi,

Could a next release of
opensuse give me the choice between
“Device ID” or “Device Name” at install.

Best Regards
Jacques

4

Jacques,

OpenSuSE 11 most certainly does give you this option. It is in the disk configuration stage of the install. If you don’t dive in to the advanced settings, you will never see it, as it truly is an advanced option that casual installers will not understand the ramification of changing.

If you would have clicked “Edit Partition Setup” on this screen:
Installation/11.0 DVD Install - openSUSE
you would have found it. :slight_smile:

Enjoy,

-Fordboy0

5

Perfect I’ll check it out

Thanks

Jacques

6

hi,

for fix your problem you can easyly repair your system with the install dvd so it automatically repair the /etc/fstab file with your new hard-drive information

7

Hi,

Did a fresh install of opensuse-11 using
advanced disk option

My Ghost disk to disk clone works great

Thanks for your help

8

Great! Glad to have been of help. :slight_smile: