Topic: transferring to new server

[Darren]

hi i have a 5.5 server single hard drive which runs a forum and hosts some websites it has a few mods installed sysmon,backup to ws .i have built a new server to run 6 with raid1 mirroring ,now my question what is the quickest  and easiest way to transfer all the data from the 5.5 server to the 6 server .thanks

[Klaus Eckert]

the quickest way is to do a "backup to workstation" and to restore it to the new server.

but i would advice you to use rsync to backup/restore your data or use tar.

cheers klaus

[Darren]

thanks for the reply. if i do a backup to workstation of my 5.5 server then a restore to the 6 server this wont cause any problems,conflicts with the later software? should i uninstall the mods i installed on the 5.5 server first?
Darren

[Craig]

I've heard people saying that the best way is to transfer to another server is to transfer across to the same version then do an upgrade.

[Darren]

that sounds like a good idea craig ,anyone else  have some options for me?,did 5.5 have the raid1 option when installing? if i went with this idea at least i would have a fall back option if the new server had problems with the upgrade,just put the old server back online
Darren

[Lloyd Keen]

Darren, I've gone through this process a couple of times. Almost 99% of everything will still work fine after the upgrade on the old box. The problem is at some point you have to RESTORE your data from one box to the other. The restore process only  restores mostly user information - it wont restore custom mods (things like gallery which may be installed under /opt) Unfortunately you cannot restore 100% of everything because hardware settings for your old box will break you new box (stuff like /etc/modules.conf). It probably doesnt matter which way you go (upgrade existing then restore to 6 box or restore to new 5.5 box then upgrade). If you have custom mods and are moving to a new box then unless the mods are installed in an ibay you will most likely have to re-install them. All versions of ESSG as far back as ver 4.0 supported Raid1. (as far as I can remember). HTH

[Darren]

Thanks for your input Lloyd.i think it will be better to install 5.5 to the new box,restore to it and then upgrade to 6  

Darren

[Alexander Ziemann]

Hi,
in every case you should restore to the same versions. Otherwise things are getting very complicated some times - i made good experiences with upgrading first to 6.0 (the "final version" is out now) and then

0. moving all ibay-contents somewhere else by simple filecopy
1. doing a full backup to ws via server-manager (and verify that backup)
2. installing the backup2ws contrib and doing a "desaster recovery backup" with that tool
3. do a fresh install of 6.0 on the new server
4. restore from ws via server-manager as described in step 1 to get back users and basic system
5. reinstalling the main contribs/RPMs.
6. doing a "desaster-recovery" via backup2ws (but watch out, there is a bug with that tool, put \homes twice in the "what to recover"-line)

The advantage of backup2ws is, that you can easily backup and restore almost everything. In my case i need the big spam-databases for my assp-installtion. These are located in /usr/local/assp and would not be backed up by default.

Also there is a "server-transfer-tool" as a beta out there (i forgot the name). I makes a disk-image in ISO format from the old server, that you can copy to a bootable CD. I already backed my home-server by that, but did not try a recovery yet.

I find it more difficult to customize an e-smith on new hardware (which NIC, all the hardware settings) than simply doing a fresh install and just restoring the data.

az

[%sig%]

[Darren]

Thanks Alexander for that info ,im having all sorts of problems trying to achieve this change over .i have installed 5.5 on mynew server using the raid1 mirroring that went fine and all is working .i went to restore a desktop backup to the new server but i keep getting the error the backed up file contains no data.i have backup2ws installed when i do a complete backup it says it completes successfully,i check file size of the rar file it looks right when i open the rar file all files contained within are zero files. i have tried numerous times ,with differnt backup jobs etc still no luck .maybe i should upgrade the old server to 5.6 then 6 reinstall backup2ws and try again? any comments welcomed

[elSpike (Patrick Tehvand]

I have written a howto for rsync backup. Give that a whirl.

By the sounds of things you are half way there.

elSpike out

http://tehvand.com/tehvand/index.cgi?opt=projex&project=rsyncmigrate

[Darren]

Thanks for that elSpike ,i have already installed 6 on the new server and setting it up  the same as the 5.5 and transfering i-bays etc manually,just have to install the forum then update and all should be good.shame i didnt have your howto earlier, i would have given it a go .thanks to all for your comments

[Mark]

I just printed elSpike's howto and I am planning on transferring to a new server. Currently I am running the latest SME 5.6 on an old Dell. I have set up a new Shuttle XPC with SME 6.0.

I don't have a huge amount of data but I do run FrontBase RDBMS in addition to MySQL. The server is very plain: seven users, five domains, a couple of PHP app's.

I am tempted to try to copy files from one server to another, although the idea of installing 5.6 on the new machine, restore from backup and then upgrade is appealling in its simplicity. I do like the idea of building a clean install, to be honest, and that holds me back.

Anyone care to share their thoughts?

[electroman00]

I do run FrontBase RDBMS in addition to MySQL. The server is very plain: seven users, five domains, a couple of PHP app's.

Anyone care to share their thoughts?

Hi Mark

Just wondering, are you running FrontBase on SME?

[albatroz]

In my case, what I will need to restore are usernames
and mailboxes content: unseen and read not deleted,
messages.

What would be the best way to do such?
I will move from 5.6 servers to 6.01 and 6.5 ones

[albatroz]

BTW in of such boxes I have ASSP installed, will I have to reinstall it after the upgrade from 5.6 to 6.0?