Topic: Migrating E-Smith Servers

[David Moore]

Can someone please point me to a reference/document that explains how to migrate from one physical E-Smith server to another E-Smith server.  In my case, I have an older physical E-Smith 5.x server and have recently put up a new P4 5.5 server.  I want to migrate all accounts and settings from my older physical E-Smith server to my new P4 E-Smith server. Since I'm not a LINUX buff, I was wondering how to accomplish this without loosing anything.  I am running virtual domains!  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[Arkman]

Believe it or not, but the best way to do this is to use the backup function from the server-manager-panel on your old server and then use the restore function on the new server.
Some caveats....software that you have added to the server that isn't templated or in an ibay/user dir will not be backed up. Make sure you install the packages on your new server! Also, the size restriction of the backup file might be a limitation.

[Michael Smith]

What I would do here is use Norton Ghost 2002 to copy the e-smith install to the new hard drive, then upgrade in place to 5.5 without ever having booted the drive with the old 5.1.x.  This should preserve everything and adapt to the new hardware.

[Derek]

Does the size restriction of the backup file, (when doing backup to desktop), still happen even when backing up to an NTFS or ext3 partition?

[David Moore]

The Ghost 2002 method sounds like it would be pretty easy...  My old E-Smith server was a multip proc while my new E-Smith server isn't.  I also implemented software RAID on my old E-Smith build and I don't want to do this in my new E-Smith build since hardware RAID will take care of the RAID functions.  Is this method still recommended?

[David Moore]

The backup method...is that via floppy or tape?  I don't have a tape drive in my old E-Smith Server but do in my new E-Smith Server

[Michael Smith]

I dunno, try it!  The ghost process doesn't change the source hard drive, so it shouldn't be any big deal to put it back the way it was, since you're copying to a new drive.  As for the hardware RAID, my understanding is that's a bit iffy for SME at this point.

[Ray Mitchell]

David
I think this thread re backups may also be of use to you (& others).
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=15411.msg59192#msg59192
Regards
Ray Mitchell

[David Moore]

Thanks everyone for the help!

[marco]

Bonjour

 I read all the above  but i  have  one question  whats about  the mysql database??

does someone try  just plugin the HD (ide) to the new server?And does this work?

Sorry for my english...
Marc

[Ray Mitchell]

For the information of all:
From FAQ at
http://www.e-smith.org/faq.php3#8q24

What does the SME Server backup do?

The backup to desktop will compress the following directories to a file named smeserver.tgz:

/home/e-smith
/etc/e-smith/templates-custom
/etc/e-smith/templates-user-custom
/etc/ssh
/root/.ssh
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group
/etc/gshadow
/etc/smbpasswd

The backup to tape will backup all filesystems, however only the files and directories in the above list will be restored. The tape backup does a level 0

• backup using a program called flexbackup.

Both methods will backup MySQL data.

• Level 0 backups of "all" assume a new tape - this will trigger tape retension and erasure.

Regards
Ray Mitchell