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Copying a Disk Over SSH

Updated by Elle Krout

You can use SSH to copy a Linode’s disk to a system that resides on a different network. This is an effective way to back up your Linode’s disks to a personal computer or another server. In this guide, you’ll learn how to use SSH to copy a Linode’s disk to a local system.

Preparing the Receiving Computer

Verify that the receiving computer has SSH installed. (Most Linux/Unix-like systems have it installed by default.) If you’re running Windows locally, you may wish to set up the Cygwin compatibility layer to provide a reasonably complete Unix-like environment.

Starting Your Linode in Rescue Mode

Before you initiate the transfer, start your Linode in Rescue Mode and start SSH by following these guides:

  1. Start your Linode in Rescue Mode.
  2. Connecting to a Linode Running in Rescue Mode via LISH.
  3. Start the SSH server on your Linode.

Copying the Disk

Now that the Linode is running in Rescue Mode, you can transfer the disk from the Linode to the receiving machine over SSH:

  1. Enter the following command on the receiving machine. Replace 123.45.67.89 with the Linode’s IP address and /home/archive/linode.img with the path where you want to store the disk:

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    ssh root@123.45.67.89 "dd if=/dev/xvda " | dd of=/home/archive/linode.img

  2. The receiving machine will connect to the Linode. Type yes and press Enter to continue connecting:

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    The authenticity of host '123.45.67.89 (123.45.67.89)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 39:6b:eb:05:f1:28:95:f0:da:63:17:9e:6b:6b:11:4a.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

  3. Enter the root password for the Linode:

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    Warning: Permanently added '123.45.67.89' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@123.45.67.89's password:

    The transfer starts, and you’ll see output similar to the following:

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    4096000+0 records in
4096000+0 records out
2097152000 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 371.632 seconds, 5.6 MB/s
4096000+0 records in
4096000+0 records out
2097152000 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 364.002 s, 5.8 MB/s

    Copying your disk can take a while. Please be patient. If you receive a Write failed: Broken pipe error, repeat this step.

Verifying the Disk

Once the copy has completed, you can verify it by mounting the image on the receiving machine.

  1. Log in to the receiving machine as root by entering the following command and entering the root user’s password:

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    su

  2. Make a directory on the receiving machine by entering the following command:

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    mkdir linode

  3. Mount the disk by entering the following command, replacing linode.img with the name of the disk:

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    mount -o loop linode.img linode

  4. View the directories stored on the disk by entering the following command:

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    ls linode/

    You should see the directories on the disks, similar to the ones shown below, indicating that everything has transferred:

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    bin   dev  home  lost+found  mnt  proc  sbin     srv  tmp  var
boot  etc  lib   media       opt  root  selinux  sys  usr

You have successfully transferred your Linode’s disk to another host using SSH.

Uploading the Disk

Once you have a copy of your Linode’s disk you may want to upload that copy from your receiving machine to a receiving Linode in the future.

  1. Prepare your empty Linode by creating a new disk. Access your Linode through the Linode Manager and select Create a new disk:

    Create a new disk

  2. Input a descriptive name in the in the Label field, and be sure the Size is large enough to hold the contents of the disk you are uploading. CLick on Save Changes.

  3. Boot the Linode in Rescue Mode and start SSH

  4. From your receiving machine issue the following command, replacing /home/archive/linode.img/ with your disk image’s path, and 123.45.67.89 with your Linode’s IP.

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     dd if=/home/archive/linode.img | ssh root@123.45.67.89 "dd of=/dev/xvda"

    When the transfer is done, you will see an output similar to this:

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     49807360+0 records in
 49807360+0 records out
 25501368320 bytes transferred in 9468.878375 secs (2693177 bytes/sec)
 49807360+0 records in
 49807360+0 records out
 25501368320 bytes (26 GB) copied, 9462.12 s, 2.7 MB/s

    Copying your disk can take a while. Please be patient. If you receive a Write failed: Broken pipe error, repeat this step.

Verifying the Disk

As above, you will want to verify the disk by mounting it on the receiving Linode. Log in to your Linode through SSH.

  1. Make a new directory for the disk:

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    mkdir linode

  2. Mount the disk:

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    mount /dev/xvda linode

  3. View the directories in the disk:

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    ls linode/

    The output should be similar to below:

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    bin   dev  home  lib64       media  opt   root  sbin     srv  tmp  var
boot  etc  lib   lost+found  mnt    proc  run   selinux  sys  usr

Booting from the Disk

You will now need to create a new configuration profile on the receiving Linode to boot from.

  1. From within your Linode Manager, select your Linode and select Create a New Configuration Profile.

    Selecting the configuration profile

  2. Enter the name for the configuration profile in the Label field, and in the Block Device Assignment section set the /dev/xvda to the new disk you created earlier in this section of the guide. Set /dev/xvdb to the swap image. Save changes.

  3. Return to the Linode’s dashboard manager, and select the configuration profile that you just created. Click Reboot to start the Linode using the disk you just transferred.

This guide is published under a CC BY-ND 3.0 license.