I have a production Linode on a 1 year plan which doesn't end for many months. I want to rebuild the server, from the distro up. I need to keep my downtime to a minimum. I'm willing to get a extra Linode for a month to do the configuration work. But I don't see any way to transfer disk images from one Linode to another, once the new one is up.

And generally it would be handy to be able to "clone" or backup a server, by copying the whole disk image to a different Linode, or to a totally different computer.

Is there any way to load disk images from a different Linode? Or perhaps load images from something I set up here on my home PC?

I'm flexible on the new distro, but am leaning toward Ubuntu.


Any clues appreciated...

Any of those options would work. You can copy disk images from another Linode just through the network (scp, rsync, etc), or we can do it for you -- just open a ticket.

You can also load your own distribution onto your Linode from elsewhere by using a small distro install or Finnix to bootstrap the process. A few simple Linode-specific modifications are required and are outlined here:

http://www.linode.com/wiki/index.php/Cu ... stribution

-Chris

Chris, thanks for the quick response, and for making all these great tools available!


I'm still fairly confused by the process. I'm not a real guru, and haven't used Finnix. I've only used the Linode Shell about twice.


It sounds like Finnix is what I need to learn here. What I'm having a hard time with is understanding what /dev/udbb really is. Is this a file I can replace? Or is it simply that I can replace the contents of /dev/udbb from within Finnix, so when I boot my main configuration, it has new files?


Let me check my understanding of the process.

1) Create a custom boot profile, which boots into Finnix, as documented, http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1971

2) Configure my disk partions to be available to Finnix. Since Finnix is using /dev/ubda, so my Disk Image to Device mappings will be a little off. I guess I will fix that via /etc/fstab in finnix?

3) Boot the custom Finnix profile. So now my Linode is running Finnix.

4) Log into Finnix, via raw Linode Shell.

5) Now I'm in Finnix, with access to my disk partitions.


I know how to copy files around with scp, but I'm confused about the nature of /dev/udba. Is this just a big giant file I can replace? Like, literally just "cp my-new-stuff /dev/udba" ? Somehow I doubt it works that way ... Perhaps I make a giant tarball of my home distro, upload it, and un-tar it? How would file ownership get dealt with in this case? So I need to update /etc/passwd so the user and group numbers match up?

6) Before I do any of this, I need to create my custom distro. I could do it from the contents of a different linode. But I'd really like to take my time, and set something up here at home. Can I create my distro inside MS Virtual PC? (I know, Microsoft! But hey it is free now, and I can easily manage a Linux box from w/in it.) Once created, can I just make a tarball and upload it?


Generally, can you be a little more detailed about how to use Finnix to replace the distro on my Linode? I'm sure others would benefit as well.

re: http://www.linode.com/wiki/index.php/Cu ... stribution
I run this script once booted into Finnix?


Questions abound ...

This isn't a complete response to all your questions, but I think the following will clarify most of your confusion:

You're missing a step -- You need to create an empty ext3 disk image, into which you'll upload your distro onto.

While you're configuring your Finnix profile, you'll want to add the empty disk image onto /dev/ubdc (for example) to the config profile. Those dev nodes are just the places that the currently booted config profile will use to reference the disk images that you've placed into the corresponding spot (confused yet?).

Boot into Finnix, run "mount /dev/ubdc /mnt", which will mount the empty disk onto /mnt. You'll then transfer your files directly into /mnt/.

After that, you'll want to create a NEW configuration profile, select our latest kernel (Latest 2.6, most likely), and place the disk image with your goods on to /dev/ubda. It should boot just fine, if you've followed the instructions in my post above.

-Chris