Disk to disk cloning a server is a really old way of cloning. Insert a new disk of similar size, boot an independent OS eg Live CD, Ubuntu or Knoppix to clone from old to the new disk.
Except that the CD drive is not working and I cannot power down the really old server. So it is single-user mode time.
Single user mode is when the OS is shut down, leaving a bare minimum and everything runs off RAM so there is no worry about the state of the disks.
Before going to single-user mode, print out the configuration of the disks from mount, fstab and format (Solaris) or fdisk (Linux)
mount
/ on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic/dev=800000 on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008 /proc on /proc read/write/setuid/dev=3a80000 on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008 /etc/mnttab on mnttab read/write/setuid/dev=3c40000 on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008 /var/run on swap read/write/setuid/dev=1 on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008 /tmp on swap read/write/setuid/dev=2 on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008 /java on /dev/dsk/c0t9d0s6 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic/dev=800046 on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008 /stuff on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic/dev=800003 on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008 /stuff1 on /dev/dsk/c0t8d0s7 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic/dev=80003f on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008 /stuff2 on /dev/dsk/c0t9d0s7 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic/dev=800047 on Wed Jun 22 22:22:22 2008
more /etc/vfstab
#device device mount FS fsck mount mount #to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options # # /dev/dsk/c1d0s2 /dev/rdsk/c1d0s2 /usr ufs 1 yes - fd - /dev/fd fd - no - /proc - /proc proc - no - /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1 - - swap - no - /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 / ufs 1 no - /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s3 /stuff ufs 2 yes - swap - /tmp tmpfs - yes - /dev/dsk/c0t9d0s6 /dev/rdsk/c0t9d0s6 /java ufs 2 yes - /dev/dsk/c0t9d0s7 /dev/rdsk/c0t9d0s7 /stuff2 ufs 2 yes - /dev/dsk/c0t8d0s7 /dev/rdsk/c0t8d0s7 /stuff1 ufs 2 yes -
format
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS: 0. c0t0d0 /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/sd@0,0 1. c0t8d0 /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/sd@8,0 2. c0t9d0 /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/sd@9,0
In single-user mode, run the dd command to duplicate block by block from old to new.
dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t08d0s* of=/dev/rdsk/c0t011d0s*
* this is not a wild card, it means run the dd command 8 times for value 0-7. Make sure the slice numbers are in sync!
Note the OF points to the new disk not listed in the above config.