Is there a "online" 'dd'

[Basher52]

kinda related to http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=16401#16401

I wonder if there is a 'dd' utility that can be run when the server is up and running? I need to 'dd' the boot disk again it seems. Have gotten mails from "S.M.A.R.T." that there are some sector problems with the boot disk.
I had it offline last time and the 'dd' took 45 mins if I can recall that correctly and that is way too much.


and oh...no, think this is better in a new thread...

[Basher52]

Any thoughts of this?

[Void Main]

You can dd a running system but it's not a good idea. What you probably want to check out are file system "snapshots".

[Basher52]

If it's not a good idea then I'll do it offline
thx

[Void Main]

It's perfectly safe if you do it using an LVM snapshot:

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/snapshots_backup.html

[Basher52]

I don't use LVM, I use RAID5 trough hardware.
Just to be sure I'm gonna use the "offline" way
but I'll do that tomorrow I think