[CentOS] Best way to duplicate a live Centos 5 server?

[Emmanuel Noobadmin]

On 7/9/12, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:
> One thing that helps is to break it up into separate runs, at least
> per-filesystem and perhaps some of the larger subdirectories.
> Depending on the circumstances, you might be able to do an initial run
> ahead of time when speed doesn't matter so much, then just before the
> cutover shut down the services that will be changing files and
> databases and do a final rsync which will go much faster.

I did try this but the time taken is pretty similar in the main delay
is the part where rsync goes through all the files and spend a few
hours trying to figure out what needs to be the updated on the second
run after I shutdown the services. In hindsight, I might had been able
to speed up things up considerably if I had generated a file list
based on last modified time and passed it to rsync via the
exclude/include parameters.

> Also, have you looked at clonezilla and ReaR?

Yes, but due to time constraints, I figured it was safer to go with
something simpler that I didn't have to learn as I go and could be
done live without needed extra hardware on site. Plus it would be
something that works at any site I needed it without extra software
too.