Can you migrate an installation of Ubuntu Server from one volume to another?

Apparently, this question might be subjective (though I don't know how).

Essentially, here's what I have in mind:

I'm going to be building a NAS and am considering Ubuntu for the OS due to some of the features I am looking for. Now, I am planning on using ZFS to manage the actual disks in my NAS. I'm not worried about that as I know Ubuntu has support for ZFS volumes.

However, I'm going to be buying the components bit by bit so what I'm thinking is I'll install the environment I wish to use on a spare 1TB drive I have and then clone that drive to my new array once I've set up my zpool.

My question is simple: Is what I'm considering possible? Or is there some fundamental flaw in my plan?

dougoftheabaci

Posted 2011-10-28T10:10:22.173

Reputation: 502

How exactly are you planning to use ZFS with Ubuntu? FUSE or ZFS on Linux, or something else?

– sblair – 2011-10-28T11:44:59.883

I was actually looking at using this:
https://launchpad.net/~zfs-native/+archive/stable/

Though, I'm looking and they're saying it's not advisable to boot from a ZFS volume. Must look into that.

– dougoftheabaci – 2011-10-28T21:41:04.547

Answers

Linux is different to windows when it comes to moving it around. It is far more straightforward. You can just copy the files over to the new drives using rsync once you have created the new volumes.

You may need to install grub into your new boot sector, and modify fstab if the partition structure or volume names are different.

Paul

Posted 2011-10-28T10:10:22.173

Reputation: 52 173

AFAIK, this sounds reasonable. To actually clone the OS (if you haven't already got a plan of attack), I would use clonezilla, as it can replicate an entire partition table / boot sector etc and it will all work fine (even a windows install) on the other end.

http://clonezilla.org/

Used it before to rescue windows installations from damaged laptop drives over an sftp connection to my desktop - it's absolutely brilliant for this stuff. You can clone whole drives or only a single partition, it's very flexible and I love it :)

jammypeach

Posted 2011-10-28T10:10:22.173

Reputation: 160