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Howto Restore An Image By Clonezilla On Rapid.Space

Howto Restore An Image By Clonezilla On Rapid.Space
  • Last Update:2021-07-23
  • Version:001
  • Language:en

How to Clone A VPS By Clonezilla On Rapid.Space

This tutorial teaches how to restore an image by Clonezilla on Rapid.Space

Agenda

  • Prerequisites
  • Boot Clonezilla
  • Configure Network
  • Mount point
  • Restore the image
  • Verification

Prerequisites

To use Clonezilla on Rapid.Space, you are supposed to Deploy Clonezilla on the VPS where you want to restore the image.

The image of Clonezilla Live, you can find the stable live release (.iso) from Clonezilla - Downloads Page. You can also find MD5SUMS from the checksums list. 

A prepared image is required. You can clone your VPS by following  Howto Clone A VPS By Clonezilla On Rapid.Space or you can have the cloned image by following the official docmentation

Boot Clonezilla

Select Clonezilla as boot device by sending the corresponding number.

Please follow the offcial documentation: Clonezilla Live Doc to use it. 

Choose language and keyboard layout

Set Language and Keyboard to get started.
The default keyboard layout is US keybaord, therefore if you are using US keyboard, just press enter (i.e. use the option "Keep").
If you want to change keymap, you can choose "Change" then follow the dialog to change it.

Choose "Start Clonezilla"

Let's start clonezilla!

Choose "device-image" option

Pay attention to the hints, too. You might need that:
Note: From now on, if multiple choices are available, you have to press space key to mark your selection. A star sign (*) will be shown when the selection is done.

Choose "enter_shell" option

Here we will enter command line prompt to configure the network and mount the image directory to a SSH sever.
There are other options, e.g. ssh_server, samba, nfs or webdav, AWS S3 or Openstack Swift, you can use when network is available; local_dev when 2nd local disk is available.

Configure IPv6

Entering shell, you should be logged in as root of debian-based Clonezilla, if you are not as root, you can simply type $ sudo su - to be root.

To install IPv6 address for Clonezilla, you can refer How To Install IPv6 Inside The VPS:

$ nano /etc/network/interface

Type the information from your hosting subscription into /etc/network/interface. 

$ ifup ens4

Mount Clonezilla image directory

Here is the important command line to mount the image directory:

$ LC_ALL=C sshfs USERNAME@HOSTNAME_OR_IP:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY /home/partimag -p 22 -o noatime

Replace the username, hostname and remote directory with your server. /home/partimag is the local mounting point defined by Clonezilla. More information about SSHFS.

Once it's correctly mounted, you can exit the shell with ctrl + d or typing exit in the shell.

Choose "Beginner" mode to run wizard

Here we choose "Beginner" mode. 

If you choose "Expert" mode, you will have some chances to choose advanced parameters, e.g. imaging program, compression program, etc.. You can see more details here.

Save local disk

Now we can select "restoredisk" option.

Select image name

Choose the Clonezilla live image as source image.

Select destination disk

Select the destination disk "vda" we want to restore.

 

Choose to check the image integrity

Choose to check the image integrity before really restoring the image to disk vda.

It's recommended to check the image before restoring it. You will not know if the image is broken or not. If you are really sure about the integrity is OK, then of course you can choose "-scr" to skip checking.

 

Select the mode you want after the image restoring is done

By default we will choose later, but if you have decided, you can choose to reboot or poweroff the machine.

Restore the image

Clonezilla will prompt us the command to restore the image. This command is very useful when you want to create a customized Clonezilla live

Check the image

Since we have choosed to check the image before restoring, Clonezilla will now check the image.

Comfirm the action

Before starting to restore the disk image to disk sda, Clonezilla will ask you to confirm that TWICE:

Restoring the image

Clonezilla now is restoring the selected disk image to 1st disk (vda). The job is done by restoring:

  • MBR (by dd), and Boot loader (by grub)
  • Partition table (by sfdisk).
  • Data on every partition or LV (logical volume) (by partimage, ntfsclone, partclone or dd. It depends on the image of each partition or LV.)

Advanced extra parameters

When everything is done, Clonezilla will prompt you if you want to run it again (when something goes wrong or you want to choose different options),

  1. 'Stay in this console (console 1), enter command line prompt'
  2. 'Run command "exit" or "logout"'

Choose mode

Then you can choose to:

  • Poweroff
  • Reboot
  • Enter command line prompt
  • Start over (image repository /home/partimag, if mounted, will be umounted)
  • Start over (keep image repository /home/partimag mounted)
  • Start over (Remount subdir in medium of current repository)

Reboot

Here we choose Reboot, then when the shutdown process is done, it will ask you to remove the disk and close the try (if any) then press ENTER if you boot Clonezilla live from CD. If you boot Clonezilla live from USB flash drive, then there is no such prompt.

Verify the restored Image

After reboot, you will have your cloned imaged restored. The VPS is ready to use. You have to reconfigure the network.