The problem with doing a clone on the file-system level is that it takes way too much space. You might have a system that has 300G file system and has only 5G of useful data. Even compressing the file system image will not save you that much space (unless you write zeros to the unused space on the file system before you archive and compress it).
Doing cloning via tar or cpio on the file level is much more economical. Only space that is used will need to be archived and compressed. This kind of approach will let you restore to not exactly the same system. Let's say that the new system has two smaller drives instead of one big one. This approach can work around that. Or maybe the destination drive is a bit smaller than the source drive but all data will fit, this approach can work with that too. Doing things on the file system level has quite a few restrictions? Maybe there is a way to shrink down the file system before it was archived and expand it to needed size during the restore process. -Georgi -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael DeHaan Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:56 To: cobbler mailing list Subject: Re: More details on system imaging -- livecd based proposal > > All that said, I am perhaps not the target for cobbler; the > increasing power of cobbler et al is far beyond my needs, as I've not > really changed how I've been doing things since 0.3.3 when I started > using it. > > It seems as you are talking about tar you really don't understand the use case we are trying to solve. Think about arbitrary cloning of arbitrary operating systems, at the filesystem level, not "tar". > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > cobbler mailing list > [email protected] > https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler > _______________________________________________ cobbler mailing list [email protected] https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler _____________ The information contained in this message is proprietary and/or confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (i) delete the message and all copies; (ii) do not disclose, distribute or use the message in any manner; and (iii) notify the sender immediately. In addition, please be aware that any message addressed to our domain is subject to archiving and review by persons other than the intended recipient. Thank you. _____________ _______________________________________________ cobbler mailing list [email protected] https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
