diff --git a/baremetal.rst b/baremetal.rst index b3c5d14..5fe24cc 100644 --- a/baremetal.rst +++ b/baremetal.rst @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ :Author: Tim Daneliuk (tundra@tundraware.com) -:Version: ``$Id: baremetal.rst,v 1.118 2014/08/23 20:09:11 tundra Exp $`` +:Version: ``$Id: baremetal.rst,v 1.119 2014/08/23 20:21:21 tundra Exp $`` Précis @@ -192,16 +192,39 @@ 1) You can use standard Linux commands to do imaged backups of your machine. - 2) You can use this to migrate an OS to a different-sized disk. + 2) It requires no software installation on the target machine. + + 3) It's simple and scriptable. + + 4) (In theory) It is OS and filesystem agnostic so long as + ordinary partitioning practices are used. + + 5) You can use this to migrate an OS to a different-sized disk. - Downside: - 1) You cannot do this while the machine is up and running so - imaging this way requires a machine outage. + 1) You cannot do this while the machine is up and running because + the blocks you're backing up may be changing during the backup + period. That means this kind of imaging requires a machine + outage. 2) Every block in the partition gets copied whether it is used or not. + 3) It's probably not as fast as imaging systems that understand + the underlying filesystem layout - at least for filesystems + that have a lot of unused space. + + 4) It requires you to boot from a CD. On consumer grade + equipment, this is pretty much always possible. But, in data + centers, this can be challenging because fewer and fewer + servers have optical drives on them. The good news is that you + can typically boot the target server from an iso image on your + laptop by connecting to the server's ILO or KVM console system. + In some cases, it may be necessary to create a bootable + thumbdrive of the ``Linux System Rescue CD`` if your server + only supports boot from USB. + - These tests were conducted on slow, consumer grade servers connected via 1Ge through an unmanaged switch. In an Enterprise class networking and NAS environment, we'd expect to see considerably