Image Format
Version 4 (Nikos Skalkotos, 11/23/2011 02:17 pm)
| 1 | 1 | Nikos Skalkotos | h1. Image Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 3 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | Right now we support 4 different types of images: |
| 4 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | * extdump |
| 5 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | * ntfsdump |
| 6 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | * diskdump |
| 7 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | * custom |
| 8 | 1 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 9 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | h2. extdump & ntfsdump |
| 10 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 11 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | Those two formats are raw copies (using dd) of partitions hosting Linux systems on ext{2,3,4} and Windows systems on ntfs filesystems respectively. |
| 12 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 13 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | Partitions hosting a Windows or linux system that are suitable for dumping should have the following properties: |
| 14 | 1 | Nikos Skalkotos | * Be the first partition in the filesystem |
| 15 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | * The OS they host shall not depend on any other partitions |
| 16 | 1 | Nikos Skalkotos | * Start at sector 2048 |
| 17 | 1 | Nikos Skalkotos | * Have a bootloader installed in the partition |
| 18 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | * Have the root device named through UUID in /etc/fstab (for extdump only) |
| 19 | 3 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 20 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | h3. Known Issues |
| 21 | 1 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 22 | 1 | Nikos Skalkotos | * For linux systems, having grub installed in the partition is fragile and things can go wrong when resizing the partitions, especially when shrinking. |
| 23 | 3 | Nikos Skalkotos | * Swap space is not supported. |
| 24 | 3 | Nikos Skalkotos | * More complicated partition schemes are not supported. |
| 25 | 3 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 26 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | h2. diskdump |
| 27 | 3 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 28 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | Diskdump is a newer format that overcomes most of the aforementioned issues |
| 29 | 3 | Nikos Skalkotos | |
| 30 | 4 | Nikos Skalkotos | _(expand)_ |