Howto save an image of my alarm boot drive?

[silentcreek]

Hi,

I have a Pogoplug v3 with ArchLinuxARM installed on a 4GB usb flash drive (/dev/sda), serving as a backup device. Now, it would be a pity if I would have to do a complete reinstallation in case that usb flash drive fails sometime. Therefore I'd like to create system images that I can restore if the flash drive might fail.

Aside from the basic arch installation that was done according to the tutorial, I also created a swap file on the same flash drive (as a file, not partition).

I am wondering now, how I could make a backup image of my current installation from my usb flash drive to another external usb drive. I know the basic command is:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/EXTERNALDRIVE/archlinux.img')

However, I am wondering what precautions I have to take in order to create a proper image of my running system. E.g. do I have to unmount my swap file first? Do I have to switch to runlevel 1 before creating the image (I read that somewhere, but with ssh that might be tricky unless I can put all my commands into a shell script and let it automatically reboot after the image is completed)?

Are there any precautions I should take? Do I have to set any parameters to the dd command except if and of?

Thanks,

Timo

[sethjvm]

Try this. It should allow for a much smaller back up and theoretically a restore to any size drive bigger than the file size.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fu ... with_rsync

[silentcreek]

Thanks. I will give it a try when I have time. Would be nice to have a backup that doesn't include all the free space of my drive.

[silentcreek]

Thanks again, worked as described. I added my swapfile to the list of exceptions and ran the backup. It saves a lot of space and time

Timo

[sneasle]

Hey all

I hate to dig up an older thread, but I have a similar question.

I have a pogo running alARM and have finally gotten everthing I need installed. I am planning on putting together several pogos with this same exact software build and I would like to know if one of these methods can be used to make an exact copy of the one good drive I currently have so all these pogo's end up with the exact same build?