Topic: Migrate from Win2K Server to SME

[dave]

I have a Windows 2000 Server setup at home that I would like to move to SME.  It is the domain controller, it provides DNS and DHCP services to local users on my network.  I know SME can do these things and after using SME on my 'gateway' box for the last 1 1/2 years or so, I've decided I want to move away from MS on all my servers.

BUT: here's the problem.  I have about 150GIG of drive capacity on this server, about 60% used. 1 30 GIG IDE drive - nearly full, an old 1.2GIG IDE as temp/swap and a 3 drive RAID 5 array is the rest.  The mother board is an older intel dual PII XEON board, 768meg RAM (I had a DIMM fail recently or it'd be a GIG) - should be compatible with SME but how do I keep the data during the xfer?  Is it possible to convert the file system without loosing the data?  This is a home system and I've used it largely to become familiar with Windows networking but over the years I've acquired quite a list of downloaded files, I've got a large collection of MP3's and family pictures that I don't want to give up.  

Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

[Graeme Fleming]

Basically the answer is no!

SME wipes any and all disks connected at install and preps them for use by itself and its native Linux filesystem.

Only simple way I can think of is to get a 200MB HDD into your w/s (assuming it can take it) and copy everything across the network.

BTW - loose the old 1.2GB disk as the oldest item it is the closest to its expiry date and you don't need the space anyway.

Make sure of your driver situation re the RAID5 controller before you try to install SME.  Many people like to install SME to a single drive (or even s/w raid0) then mount the RAID afterwards as /home so all the stuff that tends to grow is on the 'other' drive.

You may wish to experiment with the latest SME6B2 to maximise your potential for driver support.

HTH

[Maggard]

dave wrote:
>
> I have a Windows 2000 Server setup at home that I would like
> to move to SME.



First you really need a backup of your files.

That's a large part professional paranoia but then it's also saved me any number of times. Like last month when a disk defrag utility scrambled half a XP partition at home I was able to get reinstall & restore everything back to 100% in about two days. Thank goodness for backups!

There's a couple of strategies for backup.

First off is burning to CD. At 700MB/CD (figure 2x compression so 1.4GB/CD avg.) it's gonna be awhile and you're gonna need a spindle or two, sit there swapping in & out every few minutes, scribbling labels.

Next is the classic: Tape. Buy a cheap tape drive, perhaps used on eBay or the like, some fresh tapes ($$) and an hour later you're golden. Good part is that you'll be able to find tape management packages on both platforms, tape is fairly fast, very reliable, and requires much less swapping in & out then CDs.

To Hard Drive is becoming more popular. Buy a new HD, pop it into your machine and copy over to it. Or copy over to it a compressed image (I like Powerquest's "Drive Image" but YMMV.) Or put the drive into a client machine and copy over the network to there. Or put the drive into an external case, USB2 or 1394, and pop that onto your network.

OK, enough of my backup obsession. Just keep in mind what is valuable to you and how you'd feel the day a drive fails catastrophically; invest in some insurance now (and use it regularly!)

There *is* a way you could convert and *very* *likely* keep all of your data.

Win2K drives are partitioned in FAT32 or better yet (speed/security/stability-wise) NTFS. SME now runs on EXT3 which is just EXT2 with a journal file added (so it's spectacularly compatible with EXT2.)

Move around your files so your smallest drive is empty (the 1.2GB apparently) so you can sacrifice it. Next use a tool like Powerquest's "Partition Magic" or "Server Magic" and convert the other drives to EXT2 or EXT3. This keeps the raw data, loses the OS-specific settings.

Now take the converted drives out (because I've had SME wipe unintended drives, take them OUT!), install SME onto the 1.2GB drive left in. Remember you should have gotten everything of value off 'cause it's gonna be re-formatted in the process of installing SME.

Install SME.

With SME nicely installed and running put those converted EXT2 or EXT3 drives back into your system and have SME mount them. Run a search here in the support phorums for specific directions on "adding a second drive". There. You should now have an SME system with all of your old Windows data brought over.

Or a terrible tragedy. Sorry if something hiccuped and went horribly wrong.

Back to my obsession: Backups. Invest some money in a tape drive or a new hard drive. With the new HD you could simply install SME to that and then copy from your old drives (perhaps now installed in a client) and use their their space for future backups.

FWIW I spent US$30 on an external USB2 drive case last year. I put a 'spare' large drive in it and attached it to a client. Every night a copy of "Unison" runs (there's a e-smith rpm of Unison which makes this trivially easy) and the drive gets updated with my data files. I also synch over my cable modem to another SME server I've got at my other house just-in-case and because I travel back and forth a lot. When I go on the road the external drive goes with me too, nothing like having all of one's files handy anywhere needed.

Anyway, good luck.

[dave]

Thanks for the response guys, looks like I'm going to have some work ahead of me...  

I'm so tired of having issues with the Win2K server.  It's probably configuration issues, it's WAY more than I need for a small network: 2 servers and 4 workstations, plus 1 junk box that I reload with different OS's about every other week.

I understand the concerns about the older drives, I have a system volume backup stored on the array so if I loose it I can recover.  The really small volume is swap file only, no data goes there - if I loose it, I have 2 spares.  Part of the reason I went with a RAID5 array was so I could have a 'safety net' in that if one drive dies, I can still run - I have a spare one of those drives too so it should be able to survive a failure.  Everything is on UPS also so power surges shouldn't cause problems - I had some recent problems with a UPS but have since picked up a single 2500 watt unit to put everything on - a decent ebay deal.  

That's good info about Partition Magic/Server Magic.  I've never used it but if it can directly convert the filesystem, that's great!  

Thanks again for the responses.  I'm definitely going to make the move, I'll post here and let you know how it went.

Dave