how to prepare disk for dump/restore

[PJ]

Polytropon wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:59:51 -0400, PJ <af.gourmet at videotron.ca> wrote:
>   
>> I would like to just partition, label and newfs the disk; livefs wants
>> to waste my time by installing other stuff like the kernel & man pages
>> etc that I have not even selected;
>>     
>
> Just don't go through the whole installation cycle; from the
> sysinstall main menu, select "Custom" and perform slicing
> (setting disk active, adding standard MBR) and partitioning
> (creating partitions, format them with "w" or "z"). Then
> leave the menu and use the shell. You can get to the "Fdisk"
> and "Label" through "Configure" in the main menu, too.
>
>
>
>   
>> and if I use postinstall
>> configuration, that doesn't do anything. Or should I use fixit and then
>> do the manual thing?
>>     
>
> You can use sysinstall from the Fixit CD, too. That's the way
> I'm mostly doing this kind of thing: Preparing the disk with
> the sysinstall tool, then dropping to CLI for the restoring
> process.
>
>
>
>   
>> Sysinstall requires already being booted... ???
>>     
>
> No. You can execute it even on a running system.
>   
That's what I meant. :-)
>
>
>   
>> Or do I do it manually as per Polytropon's recipe of fdisk, bsdlabel,
>> newfs  mount, dump/restore and use/play? ;-)
>>     
>
> This method is quite usable when you completely understood what
> you're doing; furthermore, it enables scripting automated
> processes, which is very handy especially when you want to
> provide larger numbers of cloned systems.
>
> In any case: Be sure which device you're operating on, and keep
> in mind that it may (!) be a different device when in the place
> where it should go.
>
> For example, if you intend to prepare a disk to be ad4 in the
> target system, let it be (if possible) ad4 in the source system,
> and boot your source system from ad12. From this running system,
> perform the cloning. If everything is done, check references
> for ad12 and change them to ad4 (even *that* can be scripted);
> eyes on /etc/fstab. After you've done everything, shut down the
> running system, unplug ad12 and let the system boot from ad4.
> Everything should be alright now. Extract ad4 and take it to
> its new system.
>   
I think i'm at the stage where my stumbling is beginning to get
straightened out... ;-)