[kwlug-disc] linode - vm backups & backing up? [Was: Re: Any experience with vpsville.ca?]

[unsolicited]

Chris Irwin wrote, On 01/15/2012 4:07 AM:
> On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 10:33:57PM -0500, Andrew Sullivan Cant wrote:
>> So vpsville.ca has a hosting option at $10, they are in Toronto, but
>> their reviews are inconsistent. Some glowing and some damning.
> 
> I ended up with linode. It is in the USA, which is unfortunate. But they
> have a pretty good features, including ssh to serial console, rescue
> environment, etc. They came somewhat recommended from some chats on IRC.
> 
> They also allow you to have multiple VMs (though you can only run one at
> a time). It makes building a new server (or upgrading) nice and easy as
> you can keep your previous machine around.

I'm confused on this. If you can only run one at a time, how can you
bring the second one up (temporarily), be it for migration, redundancy
(off-line backup?), establishment of a new vm (paid), or any such thing?

I can see this 'backup' as a copy of the current that you beat up on
for, say, an upgrade trial / attempt before making it production, but
other than that, I must be missing something.

.
.
.
> Also worth noting is that backups are an additional addon. I simply grab
> a copy of the entire server via rsync on a weekly basis. I prefer to
> have copies of everything anyway.

[Not specific to linode - backups generally:]

Hold on, are you saying if I 'cp remote:/ local:/' ('sp?'), then put
local:/ in another machine, I have an exact and functioning duplicate?

i.e. No backup issues of in use files, copy /proc, etc. is OK, all is
happy, etc., etc.?

[Surely, even in Linux, 'disk duplication' / pop it in different
hardware, isn't that simple?]