SUMMARY: Q: dd'ing a boot disk

From: Kwok.Che.Tang@chase.com
Date: Wed Jul 22 1998 - 05:40:38 CDT


Apologies for the late summary and many thanks for all those who replied...

Here's my original question and find below the answers...

> Hello Sun-Managers,
>
> Has anyone dd'ed a boot disk under Solaris 2.x and booted off it? Does it
> copy the boot sector? Are there any restrictions, e.g. does the new disk
> have to be the same/larger?
>
> Thanks, I will summarize the responses.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kwok

Answer:

Yes...it is possible to dd across a whole boot disk (using Slice 2) and you
don't need to install the boot block as well. :-)

However, a couple of points were raised...a) ideally the disks should be
exactly the same (since the disk geometry is also copied) and b) having
spoken to a Sun engineer about this, they don't like people doing this and
may even refuse to support a system which has been setup by this. :-( The
Sun recommended way of copying disks is to use the ufsdump and ufsrestore
commands. The best way being in the man page for ufsrestore, e.g.

SunOS 5.5.1 Last change: 29 Mar 1996 2

ufsrestore(1M) Maintenance Commands ufsrestore(1M)

     f dump_file Use dump_file instead of /dev/rmt/0 as the
                    file to restore from. Typically dump_file
                    specifies a tape or diskette drive. If
                    dump_file is specified as `-', ufsrestore
                    reads from the standard input. This allows
                    ufsdump(1M) and ufsrestore to be used in a
                    pipeline to copy a file system:
               example# ufsdump 0f - /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 | (cd
                    /home;ufsrestore xf -)

Of couse, you will need to installboot afterwards for the boot block.



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