Cloning a FreeBSD system

[Fbsd8]

Stephen Cook wrote:
> On 3/2/2012 11:57 PM, Shane Ambler wrote:
>> On 28/02/2012 03:24, Stephen Cook wrote:
>>> I have FreeBSD 9.0 installed as a VirtualBox guest, and I plan on
>>> cloning it repeatedly to set up a fake network for me to toy with (e.g.
>>> setting up clusters of replicated databases, web server pools, etc).
>>
>> Another option to look at is using FreeBSD's Jails. Handbook chapter 16
>>
>> Basically you can setup multiple jails on the machine that use the
>> kernel of the base system (so it's not an entire emulated machine) but
>> each jail has it's own environment, apps etc.
>>
> 
> I read up on jails and I am impressed, I had a vague idea about them but 
> they are apparently a lot more powerful than I thought. This will get 
> some use from me in the future when I'm setting up real servers.
> 
> However, for what I'm currently doing, I want to stick with a bunch of 
> VirtualBox VMs so I can simulate database failover by killing the VM in 
> rude way, dynamically throw another "machine" into the mix, etc.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -- Stephen
> 

Cloning or duplicating a running system using dump/restore
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=11680


You should check out the qjail port for simple jail cloning.
Only takes 30 seconds to clone a jail.
http://qjail.sourceforge.net/

Both vm's and jails are targeted by ip address, killing one results in 
same outcome on the network no matter which one you use. I don't use 
Virtual Box but if it does not have a dump/restore function then cloning 
at that level is not possible.