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    XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing)

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    xenserver 7.0 usb cloning virtualization xenserver
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    • DashrenderD
      Dashrender @Danp
      last edited by

      @Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

      @FATeknollogee It can, but not recommend according to this earlier post.

      There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

      DanpD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • DanpD
        Danp @Dashrender
        last edited by

        @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

        There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

        Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.

        BRRABillB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • BRRABillB
          BRRABill
          last edited by

          It would take forever to restore all your VMs using XO. It's obviously great for a backup, especially if you were to lose your SR.

          But if the SR is still there, just reinstalling XS is the way to go. XO would not be appropriate there IMO.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • BRRABillB
            BRRABill @Danp
            last edited by

            @Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

            @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

            There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

            Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.

            Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.

            Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.

            You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
            http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/

            DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DashrenderD
              Dashrender @BRRABill
              last edited by

              @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

              @Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

              @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

              There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

              Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.

              Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.

              Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.

              You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
              http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/

              Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?

              BRRABillB JaredBuschJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • BRRABillB
                BRRABill @Dashrender
                last edited by

                @Dashrender said

                Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?

                I don't know either, to be honest.

                But if you script it, you at least have more control over it.

                The console version leaves me questioning if it really worked.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • JaredBuschJ
                  JaredBusch @Dashrender
                  last edited by

                  @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                  @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                  @Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                  @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                  There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

                  Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.

                  Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.

                  Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.

                  You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
                  http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/

                  Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?

                  If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?

                  The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.

                  DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • DashrenderD
                    Dashrender @JaredBusch
                    last edited by

                    @JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                    @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                    @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                    @Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                    @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                    There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

                    Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.

                    Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.

                    Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.

                    You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
                    http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/

                    Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?

                    If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?

                    The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.

                    Then why bring up the point of being able to store the metadata someplace other than on the SR itself. Again, the metadata is only worth anything as long as the SR is still viable. That was my point.

                    JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • JaredBuschJ
                      JaredBusch @Dashrender
                      last edited by

                      @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                      @JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                      @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                      @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                      @Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                      @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                      There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

                      Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.

                      Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.

                      Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.

                      You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
                      http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/

                      Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?

                      If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?

                      The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.

                      Then why bring up the point of being able to store the metadata someplace other than on the SR itself. Again, the metadata is only worth anything as long as the SR is still viable. That was my point.

                      No one did. It was only mentioned that one of the tools available does a backup to the SR by default.

                      DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • DashrenderD
                        Dashrender @JaredBusch
                        last edited by

                        @JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                        @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                        @JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                        @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                        @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                        @Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                        @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                        There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

                        Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.

                        Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.

                        Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.

                        You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
                        http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/

                        Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?

                        If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?

                        The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.

                        Then why bring up the point of being able to store the metadata someplace other than on the SR itself. Again, the metadata is only worth anything as long as the SR is still viable. That was my point.

                        No one did. It was only mentioned that one of the tools available does a backup to the SR by default.

                        what? They did but they didn't? Yes, Bill mentioned using scripts or manually copying to someplace other than the SR - so I was commenting about that comment - geez, Just trying to have a conversation here.

                        BRRABillB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • BRRABillB
                          BRRABill @Dashrender
                          last edited by

                          @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                          @JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                          @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                          @JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                          @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                          @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                          @Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                          @Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                          There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.

                          Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.

                          Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.

                          Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.

                          You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
                          http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/

                          Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?

                          If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?

                          The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.

                          Then why bring up the point of being able to store the metadata someplace other than on the SR itself. Again, the metadata is only worth anything as long as the SR is still viable. That was my point.

                          No one did. It was only mentioned that one of the tools available does a backup to the SR by default.

                          what? They did but they didn't? Yes, Bill mentioned using scripts or manually copying to someplace other than the SR - so I was commenting about that comment - geez, Just trying to have a conversation here.

                          The mere concept of this thread makes him angry!

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • BRRABillB
                            BRRABill @scottalanmiller
                            last edited by

                            @scottalanmiller said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                            @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                            @scottalanmiller said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                            @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                            @scottalanmiller

                            Can we pick this discussion back up?

                            Maybe explain what you meant by:
                            "You have to copy what there is to where you want it. If the filesystem is on /dev/sda1 you don't want /dev/sda or you are copying the partitioning layer with it."

                            Correct. /dev/sda1 is a single partition. /dev/sda is a full device. If you dd /dev/sda, you are getting the entire device, including the partition table. If you dd /dev/sda1 you are only getting the contents of the one partition.

                            So...

                            dd /dev/sda /dev/sdb

                            would be what we are looking for to clone the entire USB device to anotehr blank one to allow it to be used for DR purposes?

                            Correct

                            So, back to this question.

                            Is there a reason this wouldn't work on a running machine?

                            It's just doing block by block, right?

                            JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • JaredBuschJ
                              JaredBusch @BRRABill
                              last edited by

                              @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                              So, back to this question.

                              Sorry. Cannot do that.

                              BRRABillB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • BRRABillB
                                BRRABill @JaredBusch
                                last edited by

                                @JaredBusch said

                                Sorry. Cannot do that.

                                Cannot do what?

                                JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • JaredBuschJ
                                  JaredBusch @BRRABill
                                  last edited by

                                  @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                                  @JaredBusch said

                                  Sorry. Cannot do that.

                                  Cannot do what?

                                  Get back to the problem

                                  BRRABillB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • BRRABillB
                                    BRRABill @JaredBusch
                                    last edited by

                                    @JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                                    @BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):

                                    @JaredBusch said

                                    Sorry. Cannot do that.

                                    Cannot do what?

                                    Get back to the problem

                                    You take your thread hating ... hate elsewhere!

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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