Back-up SATA rootfs without dismount the disk.

Hollo everyody.
I have read all the wiky for the back-up but I have not found a wicky for a Backup rootfs using tar command from SATA to USB without dismounting the HD (there is a similar one for cloning but I would prefer a tar file).

Before to make the wrong thing I would like to ask if this will work:

1) boot as normal with last u-boot from SATA rootfs
2) change rootfs LABEL to SATA_rootfs
3) power-off
3) insert a USB drive with preinstalled rootfs
4) switch on and boot from USB rootfs (sata should be disreguarded because of different label)
5) cd to SATA_rootfs disk
6) time tar -cjf /srv/nsa325/my-rootfs.tar.bz2 . &
7) re label SATA_rootfs --> rootfs
8) power-off
9) unplug USB rootfs
10) reboot as normal from SATA rootfs

The idea is to use USB rootfs boot to backup by SATA rootfs on the NAS hd mounted in /srv/nsa325

WIll this work ?

Thanks



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2022 01:51AM by miazza.

No, it won't work. Point 5 will fail, as you'll first have to mount it. But it isn't necessary to use another rootfs, you can simply backup the running roofs:

tar -cjf /path/to/backup_of_rootfs.tar.bz2 --one-file-system /

I've seen you anwer too late, I forgot to tick the e-mail for reply :)

Yes, of course I need to manually mount sata-rootfs before to tar.

I'm doing it right now and it seems to work... tar process running and bz2 file is growing in the destination.

Indeed can I make a live tar as for your post without having any problem during the tar process ?

Quote

Indeed can I make a live tar as for your post without having any problem during the tar process ?

What Mijzelf show above should work fine. That tar command will exclude everything, only the rootfs is archived (things such as user's /home will be excluded).

You can even use cp to copy the live rootfs, but you'd need to make sure to prepare a few things before running the cp command.

-bodhi
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Thank you to all.
I tried both and they both have worked fine.

miazza