How to get a bootable Linux clone/restore?

Hi,

I did a period of testing using ATI-10 and a trial ATI-11 last year and was, for the most part successful. However, I did incur difficulty in making a clone of a Linux image using the Restore function in conjunction with the Rescue Disk. I'd made a Full Backup image of a Linux Drive (LILO) and then did a "restore" to write that image onto a new drive. I've been tasked with going the next step and will be spec'ing a PC to be used as a cloner running Acronis.

The problem I had was that the cloned Linux drive wouldn't boot. I had to make a Linux boot disk for the kernel the drive uses, boot to it, do a "vmlinuz" and go tell the drive/os where/what its kernel was. Though it worked, in a work/business/lab scenario, this is time consuming and less than desirable. Windows drives have no problems as they are just one big partition and work right off the bat. Obviously/apparently, ATI is doing SOMETHING to the first of the 3 partitions typical to a Linux install to the point the OS doesn't know its kernel until you tell it. The drive being imaged is in a different port than it would be when installed as the boot disk since my C drive is the only drive in the pc we were using and it also contains the ATI full backup image file(s). It was also installed to the different port when the backup was made as the C drive - WinXP Pro - is what runs ATI.

There, MAY be multiple versions of the kernel on this image as it is an upgrade provided by our customer to go from a single to a dual-core CPU and also probably some USB upgrades and I DID notice that the kernel named in the bootup text actually points to a different, correct one - probably a "cut and paste" thing they did or maybe for backward compatibility - but this shouldn't affect the ability of the clone to boot if it is an EXACT copy.

We have a true cloning machine here made by Greystone, the DF5, that clones these Linux drives with no bootup problems at all and I need to duplicate this using Acronis. The reason is that we want to create an archive of all of our different Windows and Linux images that we can image onto either new, blank or used drives in the lab here. The Greystone requires that you already have a master drive....that noboby dropped down the stairs or took home for the weekend to work with and "the dog ate their homework" and it got misplaced - lol. An archive of images offers long-term protection from losing images to failed master drives.

OK, so after a probably TOO thorough description of the scenario, does anyone have any tips as to how to clone a Linux drive such that it is bootable from the git-go without having remind it where its kernel lives?

Thanks!
Rick

 

Hello Rick,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

The issue usually takes place if you resize the destination partition during the recovery. Have you resized the partition?

Thank you.

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Oleg Lee

 

Hi - Thanks for the help. No, I didn't resize the partitions. "Manual", no resize. The drives were the same size and vendor part number. In order to boot the clone, I have to install it into the port where the source drive had been, boot with the aid of a Linux boot disk I'd made, and then navigate to a terminal and tell it, "/sbin/LILO". I show in my notes that I'd also zeroed the master boot record of the target drive as well before cloning as it had previously had a different - possibly Windows - image on it. We'd like to be able to have these Linux drives boot without having to go through the extra steps.

The end product of all this will be an archive hard disk with a number of different, "full backup", .tib images on it that we can select from and "restore" to a target drive.

Thanks!
Rick

 

Hello Rykks,

Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

Have you tried to perform sector-by-sector backup and restore?

Contact Acronis support and submit technical request using this link or contact us via Live Chat describe the issue in details and our support team will do the best to solve the issue.

Best regards,
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Dmitry Nikolaev

 

Sorry for the late reply - other tasks here at work intervened.

Yes, I have been successful in doing a Restore of an archived Full Backup of a Linux (ext3 - lilo) image onto another drive. I DID see some difficulty when restoring an image of a 160GB drive onto a 40GB drive in that it seemed I had to tell Acronis not to copy the Master Boot Record/Track 0 sectors in order to get an immediately bootable drive.

What I have NOT been able to accomplish is to CLONE a Linux image directly from one drive to another without having to boot the cloned drive from a Linux boot disk and get a terminal and tell it where/what its kernel is - the "vmlinuz" -- "/sbin/lilo" bit. Acronis 10 does complain and warn that the disk will not be bootable. This is the result when cloning to either a blank/brand new drive of the same size/vendor/model or when trying to clone to a drive with an image already on it. Is there any way to clone Linux with Acronis and not have to do the extra steps to make the clone bootable?

Thanks!
Rick

 

Hello Rick,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

Actually, Acronis True Image Echo Server for Linux should be applied in Linux environment. All troubleshooting tools were created for Linux and this version of Acronis software. Therefore, we are unable to help you in this case.

Thank you.

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Oleg Lee