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

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Aaron Kulkis
> > 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?
> 
> If you can mount a partition, you can dd it.
> Use the same block device (/dev/drive_and_partition_spec)
> as you would to mount it

 If you don't give 'dd' the 'of=' argument, it'll write to stdout.
Combine that with netcat (and probably gzip, to reduce network traffic)
and you've got yourself a way to remotely image a partition.

 The downside is that you'll want to keep that partition from changing
while you do it. Ideally you'd want it to be unmounted, but in a pinch
mounting it read-only should be fine.

Here's some examples of using netcat:

 http://www.g-loaded.eu/2006/11/06/netcat-a-couple-of-useful-examples/

And hey, it includes exactly what you want to do, send a partition image
to a remote machine!

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                                  (313)
227-2317

 "The [Bush] administration has already established that it has engaged
in
 things like waterboarding, which is not just torture. We prosecuted
people
   after World War II for waterboarding prisoners. We treated it as a
war
  crime. And my God, what a change of fate, where we are now embracing
the
  very thing that we once prosecuted people for." - Jonathan Turley,
George
             Washington University Constitutional Law Professor
                   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15318240/
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