Re: [Xen-users] Creating a Xen image from HDD partition

["Nico Kadel-Garcia" <nkadel@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yoav Felberbaum wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I know that this is fairly straightforward & supposedly documented
> elsewhere, but damned if I can find the info using Google.
>
> I have a "stock" CentOS 4.4 installed on /dev/sda3 (with a RHEL
> install on /dev/sda2). How should I create a xen-usable loop image
> from the CentOS partition?
>
> Would the following (paraphrased) command work from RHEL ...?
>
> dd if=/dev/sda3 of=/path/to/file.img
This is the suckful way to do it. "dd" copies are inefficient, and rely on 
the new partitions or files being exactly the same size.
It's vastly faster and more efficient to use "dd" with skip commands to 
create a file that contains nothing you care about of the designated size, 
do a mkfs -t ext3 on that file, mount the file as a loop file system, mount 
the old partition, and do a "cp -a" or a "rsync" between the partitions. 
Then unmount them both and use the copy.
> I understand that certain directories, like /boot, /proc & a couple
> of others should NOT be in the image. Is there a full list?
>
> TIA for any help you are able to provide!
They won't be if you're not duplicating a live OS, but only a mounted 
filesystem. 

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users