Main reason I am using openSUSE currently is because my Windows system’s went bad. I haven’t been able to easily restore and will probably have to do clean windows install.
I want to make sure my entire openSuse system (application/OS setting/etc) backup so I can easily restore of it fast. Since this type of back takes awhile, I would preferably like do this while I am still logged into SUSE. I am where to disk cloning thing like clonezilla, but looks like I would need turn of my system entirely to get this done.
Currently my SUSE root and home are in a partition with another NTFS partition on my hard drive. I really don’t want to use ‘dd’ to clone the entire hard disk. I would much rather store of required partitions in other locations. Hopefully, there is easy to get this done without too much of effort and time.
Is there a special reason for wanting to stay logged on while doing the cloning?
When producing an image of a partition it is recommended to do so while the particular partition is unmounted to maintain a consistent state.
BTW: Whenever you have the chance, try to establish separate partitions for / and /home. To clone a /-Partition via Clonezilla takes about ten minutes.
Mainly, because I am almost always using the computer when I am home and would rather not waste a lot of time with it powered off. Clonezilla really take only 10 mins to clone a Partition, especially a large one (say 250 GB)?
Seems like for Windows there are large number of free tools to do this type of cloning while windows in still running. Like DriveImage XML, xxClone, or EASEUS Todo Backup. I am kind of surprised there isn’t much around for Linux systems to work with while turned on.
FYI: I already have separate mount points for /, /home, and /boot.
You could try dar which can dump by file system and can do both full and incremental backups as well as exclude things like /tmp. Depending upon what you are trying to do while running the backup, you could always try using LVM for /home and then use lvm snapshot to produce a frozen image for the backup. It is always a good idea to verify that you can restore your backup but for many people this is far from easy to do without putting their working system at risk
Show it to me: disk/partition replication in the order of 250GB in 10 minutes.
Let’s think out loud:
openSUSE defaults to putting /home (where all your data reside) on a separate partition. Writing the contents to another disk once, and auto-syncing it on a regular interval (f.e. every night) would be a solution for /home
some things are by default kept on the root filesystem, f.e. MySQL databases. These could be moved and set to reside outside the root filesystem, f.e. /home/DATABASES.
But: the most elegant, and IMHO most secure way is to spend some money on a disk and build a RAID. If one disk on the RAID breaks, the data are still on the other one. Loads of howtos on this.
> - openSUSE defaults to putting /home (where all your data reside) on a
> separate partition. Writing the contents to another disk once, and
> auto-syncing it on a regular interval (f.e. every night) would be a
> solution for /home
solution if nobody works on the computer at the moment, yes. If not
any open file will be unconsistent
> - some things are by default kept on the root filesystem, f.e. MySQL
> databases. These could be moved and set to reside outside the root
> filesystem, f.e. /home/DATABASES.
a rsync script wil do the job also, only if the database is closed
>
> But: the most elegant, and IMHO most secure way is to spend some money
> on a disk and build a RAID. If one disk on the RAID breaks, the data are
> still on the other one. Loads of howtos on this.
>
>
no.
this only prevent loss against hardware failure, not user or script fault