How to clone a Linux box using netcat

Current Version: 0.01 $Date: 2003/08/22 14:52:15 $

Abstract

Many times it's necessary to have a clone of a linux box without modifying the original box. With a clone box you can have a backup or failover server, testing and developing new software solutions witho no trouble for the original services. The best way that I had found, was to use dd to clone the original hard disk to a new one. This solution take a lot of time with current large disks and requires, to work well, to be in single-user mode and to add and then remove the backup hard disk. This document describes an alternative solution of the problem that is more faster, works while the original box is working and it's no necessary to power off it because copy will be made to another box using netcat.

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