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How to install and use Clonezilla on Ubuntu 20.04

Clonezilla is a suite of open-source, disk cloning programs used for bare metal backup and recovery and also used during system deployment. Clonezilla server edition uses multicast technologies to deploy a single image file to a group of computers in a local area network.

In this tutorial guide, we are going to explore how to install and use Clonezilla on Ubuntu 20.04.

# Types of Clonezilla

  • Clonezilla live. This is suitable for single machine backup and restore. It allows you to use the CD/DVD or USB flash drive to boot and run clonezilla
  • Clonezilla lite server. Suitable for massive deployments. Ity allows you to use clonezilla live to do massive clonnning.
  • Clonezilla SE (server edition). Suitable for massive deployments

Clonezilla only saves and restores only used blocks in the hard disk, therefore, increasing the clone efficiency.

# Features of Clonezilla

  • It supports many File sytems such as ext2, ext3, eiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, btrfs, f2fs etc
  • It support both MBR and GPT partion formats of hard drive are supported.
  • One image restoring to multiple local devices are supported
  • Images are encrypted in the process
  • AES-256 encryption is used to secure data access, storage and transfer
  • Multicast is supported on Clonzilla SE which is suitable for massive clone.

# Prerequisites

  • X86 or X86-X64 processor
  • 256 MB of RAM
  • Boot devices
  • Ubuntu 20.04 server

# Install Clonezilla in Ubuntu 20.04

# 1. Run sytem updates

First, run the update command to update package repositories in order to get the latest package information.

$ sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

When updates are complete, you can now begin the installation.

# 2. Install Clonezilla

You can now run the installation program with the following command on your terminal. The program will install all the dependencies as needed by clonezilla.

$ sudo apt install clonezilla -y

Sample Output

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  dialog drbl ipcalc mtools nilfs-tools partclone partimage pigz syslinux syslinux-common wakeonlan
Suggested packages:
  cifs-utils udpcast sshfs floppyd
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  clonezilla dialog drbl ipcalc mtools nilfs-tools partclone partimage pigz syslinux syslinux-common wakeonlan
0 upgraded, 12 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

To begin using Clonezilla, type Clonezilla on your terminal.

$ clonezilla

You will get the following from your terminal.

Clonezilla interface

Clonezilla interface

If you choose device-image you will get the following:

output
Every 3.0s: ocs-scan-disk                                                       ubuntu: Mon Dec  6 08:22:33 2021

2021/12/06 08:22:33
You can insert storage device into this machine now if you want to use that, then wait for it to be detected.
Scanning devices... Available disk(s) on this machine:
===================================
Excluding busy partition or disk...
===================================
Update periodically. Press Ctrl-C to exit this window.

# Conclusion

We have completed steps on how to install Clonezilla on Ubuntu 20.04. I hope you have learned something new in the process.