[vox-tech] Cloning LVM volume over network

[Alex Mandel]

On 05/29/2012 11:36 AM, Brian Lavender wrote:
> On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 09:16:24AM -0700, Wes Hardaker wrote:
>> Alex Mandel <tech_dev at wildintellect.com> writes:
>>
>>> I'm looking for the most efficient way to clone an LVM volume 50GB from
>>> one physical machine to another. Both machines must stay up, so that
>>> rules out clonezilla. I'd also like it to be more efficient that dd, so
>>> more similar to partimage or partclone where it skips the empty space
>>> and only copies the filled part.
>>>
>>> Anyone have examples that show how to do this?
>>
>> I'd typically use rsync...  Fast and efficient :-)
> 
> Assuming the lvm volume is mounted on both sides and you tunnel rsync over ssh. 
> If you are in an internal network, you could do it over rsh and avoid the crypto
> overhead.
> 
> cd /mnt/local
> 
> Then use the the following from the rsync man page, clipped below. 
> rsync uses the -e option for ssh, but I don't quite have a machine to test it.
> 
>  To synchronize my samba source trees use the following: 
> 
>                    rsync -Cavuzb . remote_machine:/mnt/local/
> 
> It is clipped from where Tridgell talks abut syncing his samba shares using
> a Makefile and samba source code for CVS commits.
> 
> brian
> 

I think the tricky part here is that the lvm volume may contain multiple
partitions (I think it does have a / and a swap since it's a virtual
machine disk), and I need the partition information, including the boot
flags.

Yes it is local network, same rack, I even have a private subnet between
the machines.

This seems to be the foolproof way
http://www.alethe.com/brad/2008/04/move-an-lvm-based-virtual-machine-to-another-host/

Was just hoping I could figure out how to do it faster, clonezilla seems
fancier than just partclone though. I think I need something that dumps
the partition information too.

Thanks,
Alex