[mdlug] is it possible to dd a remote & live drive?

[Dan Pritts]

The simplest way would be to get someone with hands&eyes to boot it
into a livecd for you, set up networking, etc.

presumably that's not easy but thought i'd mention it.

if all you have is access while the system is running, i'd suggest
shutting down all services except ssh, and doing a dump/tar/rsync
backup of the machine.  That'll give you a very good copy to work
with.

Next time, get yourself a co-lo site with hands & eyes and/or full
serial console access.  (or perhaps virtual server)

good luck.

On Mon, Jun 08, 2009 at 09:05:40AM -0400, Clinton Weiss wrote:
> I have a server which I can not physically reach at this time, and I 
> need to run some major upgrades on it.  I've been a bit lax and hesitant 
> to do this, since I don't have access to the machine's keyboard/screen 
> if something were to go wrong.  I currently access the machine via ssh.
> 
> What I would like to do is create a dd image of the server's drive and 
> work on the things I need to change in a virtual machine.  This way, if 
> I screw something up, I'm not hosing a live server.
> 
> Can anyone here give me some advice or recommendation on this, if it is 
> at all possible?
> Clinton
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danno
--
dan pritts
danno at umich.edu
734-929-9770