Contributors wanted / PBS as an alternative to Clonezilla

[ojaksch]

I'm going to switch to PBS as an alternative to Clonezilla when storing images. The system is complete (but not finished) and is working fine, even I've to do some tasks by console which is totally fine for me. The setup consists of a Debian Live system (Debian Live Manual) and a handful of scripts which can be easiely extended and, when finished the build, booted by a team of DHCP/TFTP/iPXE (or by CD, USB medium, ...).

Advantages (in contrast to Clonezilla):

• More and smaller clones of a complete disk/device
• Mountable backup
• More compatible to newer/complexier systems (by using more (non free) firmwares)
• (I'm sure there are more but forgot 'em)

Disadvantages (so far):

• Seems to be a bit slower than Clonezilla, but the more you clone a disk the faster it will be cloned
• Less flexible as the only supported target is PBS

Missing parts are some magics on code (ie. to detect and select non standard devices, like nvm's) and some simple GUI's to guide one when doing tasks manually or when restoring automagically.
So if anyone's interested in contributing ideas, codes and russian rocket science, I'd be glad the share my work I've done since then.

 

[RolandK]

what about using borgbackup for that ? should be easier doable wrt integration, as you simply would need the borg binary and not a "server instance". you can also have zstd compression and dedup with that.

https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/deployment/image-backup.html

 

[ojaksch]

what about using borgbackup for that ?

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, borgbackup is a fantastic thing and cloning a device is supported as well, but what I have in my mind is a similar thing to clonezilla (and borgbackup), but pbs based for those men with hats who already using pbs in their environment.
BTW: My setup mentioned at #1 is complete and working now. I'm doing some testing and measuring times now and this weeks to achieve a comparison (to clonezilla).