Topic: Server Migration (new hardware)

[robert]

Hi there,

I am about to migrate our sme5.6U4 server to a new machine.
I have done a couple of dummy runs to work out the best way to migrate and am still unsatisfied with the methods already in the forums (so yes I searched).

What is the best way to migrate in people's opinions? I have found that rsync is the quickest way to get data over to the new server but does anyone have a step by step (or even a general outline that I can flesh out) migration guide. ie. copy all the /etc/passwd /etc/shadow then do a signal-event upgrade?

I have about 30G of user data in both ibays and users so doing backup to ws is proving not so much fun.

Thanks Robert

[robert]

I think I have answered my own question.

if I rsync all these (from the backup faq)

#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

to the new server then do a signal-even post restore.

will that work?

[Kelvin]

Robert,

Do you have a workstation with enough hdd space to hold all the data of the SME server ? If so, might I suggest trying Darrell May's backup2ws contrib (contribs.org) ? If a single workstation does not have enough space, how about copying some or most of the files in an ibay to one workstation temporarily, remove the files that have been copied from the server, then do backup2ws to another workstation. Restore the backup to the new server (after which the ibays should have been recreated), then copy back the stuff from the other workstation to the ibay(s) ?

Kelvin

[Graeme Fleming]

Assuming you can take the orig server down for 30 mins then Ghost the HDD onto the new HDD (use bit for bit option otherwise Ghost copy won't boot).

If the underlying hardware is very different (ie VIA chipest mobo instead of Intel) then just run an upgrade install over the Ghosted copy; you may need to reapply Update 4.  This will also allow you to nominate which of the new NIC's you want to use for which purpose.