How to Clone a Disk (dd)

1. Make sure the source and destination disks have the same disk geometry.

2. Become superuser.

3. Create the /reconfigure file on the system so the system will recognize the clone disk to be added when it reboots.

   # touch /reconfigure

4. Shut down the system.

   # init 0

5. Attach the clone disk to the system.

6. Boot the system.

   ok boot

7. Use the dd command to copy the master disk to the clone disk.

   # dd if=/dev/rdsk/device-name of=/dev/rdsk/device-name bs=blocksize

   if=/dev/rdsk/device-name	Represents the overlap slice of the master disk device, usually slice 2.
   of=/dev/rdsk/device-name	Represents the overlap slice of the clone disk device, usually slice 2.
   bs=blocksize	Block size, such as 128 Kbytes or 256 Kbytes. A large block size value will decrease the time to copy.

8. Check the new file system.

   # fsck /dev/rdsk/device-name

9. Mount the clone disk's root (/) file system.

   # mount /dev/dsk/device-name /mnt

10. Edit the clone disk's /etc/vfstab to reference the correct device names.

    For example, changing all instances of c0t3d0 with c0t1d0.

11. Unmount the clone disk's root (/) file system.

    # umount /mnt

12. Shut down the system.

    # init 0

13. Boot from the clone disk to single-user mode.

    # boot diskn -s

    ---

    Note -

    The installboot command is not needed for the clone disk because the boot blocks are copied as part of the overlap slice.

    ---

14. Unconfigure the clone disk.

    # sys-unconfig

    The system is shut down after it is unconfigured.

15. Boot from the clone disk again and provide its system information, such as host name, time zone, etc.

    # boot diskn

16. Log in as superuser to verify the system information once the system is booted.

    hostname console login:

Example--Cloning a Disk (dd)

# init 0
ok boot
# dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 of=/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s2 bs=128k
# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s2
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s2 /mnt 
# cd /mnt/etc
# vi vfstab
(Modify entries for the new disk)
# cd /
# umount /mnt
# init 0
# boot disk2 -s
# sys-unconfig
# boot disk2