How to Clone a Server with rsync

Cloning a server with rsync is a reliable way to replicate your Breeze configuration, files, and data to a new instance. It handles incremental transfers efficiently and preserves file permissions.

Prerequisites

• SSH access to both source and destination Breeze instances
• rsync installed on both servers (usually pre-installed)
• Sufficient disk space on the destination

Basic Full Server Sync

Run this from the destination server, pulling from the source:

rsync -aHAXvz --progress \
  --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found"} \
  root@source-ip:/ /mnt/clone/

The flags explained:

• -a archive mode (preserves permissions, ownership, timestamps)
• -H preserves hard links
• -A preserves ACLs
• -X preserves extended attributes
• -v verbose output
• -z compression during transfer

Sync Specific Directories

To clone only web and database directories:

rsync -avz root@source-ip:/var/www/ /var/www/
rsync -avz root@source-ip:/var/lib/mysql/ /var/lib/mysql/

Incremental Updates

Run rsync again before the final switchover to catch recent changes:

rsync -aHAXvz --delete \
  --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*"} \
  root@source-ip:/ /

Post-Clone Steps

• Update /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts with the new server identity
• Regenerate SSH host keys: sudo dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server
• Update network configuration for the new IP address
• Reconfigure any services that bind to specific IPs