Transfer OpenBSD from one disk to another

       364 words, 2 minutes

For some reason, I need to switch my main (and only) disk running OpenBSD. As it is a production machine, I want to do it fast and painless.

The system will go from the internal SSD disk to an external USB FlashVoyagerGT stick. Yeah, quite weird, but this is temporary :) Anyway, here are the directions.

Connect the second disk to the machine, check its name, initialize the MBR, create the partition and the filesystem(s):

  # fdisk -i sd1
  Do you wish to write new MBR and partition table? [n] y
  Writing MBR at offset 0.
  
  # disklabel -E sd1 
  Label editor (enter '?' for help at any prompt)
  > a c
  (...)
  > a b
  (...)
  > w
  > q
  
  # newfs sd1a
  /dev/rsd1a: 15287.9MB in 31309568 sectors of 512 bytes
  (...)
  
  # shutdown -h now
  Shutdown NOW!

Now boot your system in single-user mode and clone the data from the initial disk to the second one:

  boot> boot -s
  (...)
  Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for sh: /bin/ksh
  
  # mount /dev/sd1a /mnt
  # mount_mfs -s 4096m swap /tmp
  # cd /mnt
  # dump -0f - /dev/sd0a  | restore -rf -

Another option is to use the tar command:

  # mount /dev/sd1a /mnt
  # tar cpzXf - / | tar xpzf - -C /mnt

Note that, in some case, you may get an error such as “tar: Link name too long for ustar usr/local/lib/GNUstep/SOGo/(...)”. AFAIK, this is a limitation of the OpenBSD tar implementation which limits a filename at 100 characters.

We can now check that both disk have the same content and reboot (to install the MBR) properly:

  # df -h
  # shutdown -h now

Reboot the system and, in the OpenBSD loader, force to boot on the secondary disk:

  boot> boot hd1a:/bsd -s
  (...)
  Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for sh: /bin/ksh
  
  # /usr/mdec/installboot -n -v /boot /usr/mdec/biosboot sd0
  # shutdown -h now

The primary disk can now be removed and the system will boot on the previously “secondary disk” ; as soon as the bios is configured to ;-)

If everything went well, you now run the system from the new system.

Source: Adding extra disks in OpenBSD

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