Hot Copy (hcp) - Universal Disk Snapshots for Linux

R1Soft Hot Copy (hcp) is the answer to taking online point-in-time disk and volume snapshots in Linux.  Use the hcp command line utility to take an instant snapshot of any mounted file system on almost any block device!

Windows administrators use Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).  On Linux servers before Hot Copy nothing equivalent existed.  R1Soft created Hot Copy so every Linux server has a universal disk snapshot that is fast and easy to use.

Why Hot Copy is the Answer to Linux Disk and Volume Snapshots

• Works on any server-based file system or block device
• Install without rebooting
• Eliminates LVM pre-requisite
• Requires no pre-allocation or pre-configuration of storage
• Uses existing free space on your disk to maintain snapshots
• Outstanding performance compared to LVM snapshots
• Works on most High-Availability and Shared Storage
• Specialized performance awareness for: Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, and Reiserfs3
• Snapshots are readable and writable
• Keep multiple snapshots of each disk or volume

What you Can Do With Hot Copy

• Add point-in-time open file backups to your existing backup scripts for free e.g. tar and rsync
• Check your disk for errors with fsck without rebooting and without unmounting your file system!
• Test scripts and programs in an instant snapshot of your live environment before you use them on real data
• Keep instantly recoverable snapshots available by taking periodic snapshots via cron

See the R1Soft Hot Copy tips page for example uses of Hot Copy