System Image of Ubuntu Systems

DeaconFrost

DeaconFrost

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I've been using Macrium Reflect on a bootable flash drive to make system images of my Windows computers, but I don't know if Macrium supports Linux OSes. I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 on a laptop and a tower, and would love to find something bootable that will do the trick. Clonezilla didn't create the image file when I've tried it, so hopefully something more user-friendly, if possible.
 
I have used Clonezilla for almost all my imaging in the past, perhaps you missed something? But there are very simple methods of cloning Linux systems. DD comes with just about every Linux Live distro I have used.

Also it may help if we knew what the image is for? Are you just needing a compressed image of the drive to save as a backup and possibly restore later? Or are you trying to create a bootable image file?
 
I'm in the learning stages of my Linux career, so it would be nice to have a periodic full system image to restore from, in the event I bork the system.
 
Sorry to piggy back Deacon is there any cid/sid concerns needed or a sysprep equivalent needed for linux/ubuntu? or is a new hostname and mac address then you're good?
 
Also did you try the Clonezilla Live USB option to do images? You can also edit the Clonezill Live USB startup options and have it automate the entire process. I have done this for programs before, so all they have to do is put in the USB, boot the device and it will automatically image the system for them and reboot. I also have it setup so it will auto restore the image for them.
 
dd if=/dev/whatever_drive of=your_drive.img *This creates a image of the WHOLE disk block per block so the media has to be the Same as what you backed up from* Man DD for more options.

Just noticed NoOther's reply above.:)
 
Last edited:
ace102 said:
dd if=/dev/whatever_drive of=your_drive.img *This creates a image of the WHOLE disk block per block so the media has to be the Same as what you backed up from* Man DD for more options.

Just noticed NoOther's reply above.:)
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I've cloned an entire server through ssh/wan using dd once lol.
 
Has anyone ever tried the 'Create Disk Image' under the Disks Utility? I've never tried it. Just look at that, the size of my OS partition is 43GB and it's only about 2/3 full - There's 180GB there that I don't even use!

Pgzvub8.png
 
That is the Gnome Disk Utility for creating disk image... https://www.maketecheasier.com/backup-hard-drive-gnome-disk-utility/

I've used ghost4linux, clonezilla, and Fog project for cloning and imaging both windows and linux systems...
Clonezilla booted from live usb via UBCD/YUMI multiboot https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ works well for most cases. I have also setup a clonezilla server for imaging across the network.... it' is slower and does require some RTFM to go through the options, but I usually dont have issues. I have had some systems that wouldnt work and I've had to use an older version or switch to Easus or something else.

These days I just use the list of tools from YUMI if I need to clone a drive...

else it's just as fast to do new ilinux nstall and to save all ur setup scripts in a git repo that u can pull down and auto config.
I would second installing from scratch instead of imaging... create a git repo with all the scripts that u need to setup.... https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation-guide/i386/ch04s06.html
automated installs and configs save u tons of time and lets you rebuild as often as needed!
 
Mazzspeed said:
Have you ever used it though? I've never tried it.

Otherwise I'd just use dd, dd is downright fantastic. Rsync is another useful tool for file backups.
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I have not yet used it cause i usually dont boot into the system I'm imaging, but I'm adding it to the short list of things to try sooner...
maybe try that out on migrating ubuntu from hdd to ssd on a laptop... see if i can live boot an ubuntu usb and clone it... that would be helpful for the upcoming windows and linux upgrades post holidays...
 
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