Disk drive image over network (linux, dd etc)

[Snaptastic]

I'm trying to make a dd image of a laptop's hard disk, and write it directly to disk on another machine over the network.
Basically I want to do this:

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/some/place/to/store/stuff/backup_image

But I instead want to pipe the data to a file on another machine. I have a machine that I can ssh into, but I don't know how to make it work. Something like this:

dd if=/dev/sda1 | scp ?standard_input? uname@machine:~/backup/backup_image

I couldn't see any standard input options for scp. Any gurus out there that can help?

[SledgY]

Try using nc (netcat). ie

on destination:

nc -l -p 12000 > output.img

on source:

dd if=/dev/sda1 | nc host 12000

This is only off the top of my head, read the man entry for more info.

/update
Note that you don't need a user as netcat doesn't do authentication it simply streams data from stdin across a network and streams it out stdout on the other end.

[Snaptastic]

Champion. Cheers for that.

[Snaptastic]

Ok, I googled for a guide that uses dd and netcat, and in the comments section I found a recommendation for doing it over ssh. I got it working using:

 cat /dev/sda | ssh user@host "cat > ~/image.img"

The article points out that ssh adds extra overheads compared to nc, but I couldn't get nc working on the laptop (it complained about there being "no route to host"). It's only a small partition anyway, so the speed isn't a big factor.
Thanks again for the help!
Edit: Just found a typo.

[Growly]

This thread is win, if only because you're using dd across a network.

+12 points.

[Snaptastic]

Yeah, if only I was really as l33t as the thread makes out.

[imdying]

Originally Posted by NetXCorporate

DD isn't the most reliable way in my experience...

Add a little more (like what your experiences were, and what you'd recommend instead) otherwise this is little more than spam.

[Snaptastic]

I've done this probably twenty times since starting this thread, and it has gone without a hitch.
To make the image:
cat /dev/sda2 | ssh uname@host "cat > ~/image.img"
To restore the image (need to be root):
ssh uname@host "cat ~/image.img" | cat > /dev/sda2
So no, not dd, but equivalent.

[whetu]

We're using Clonezilla at work (very cool with uni/multicasting), with a bit of Sun Jumpstarting... looking at throwing a Kace K-Box into the mix as well