Topic: restoring all data from an old sme7 install onto new server?

[chris burnat]

A friend of mine appears to have inherited a VS7.0RC1 server in Afganistan.  The system appears to be partly disfunctional , i,e,  qmail was disabled in db and has to be started manually each time a send is required, ssh access is allowed for one user only (not root I believe)  etc.  The system was upgraded to 7.0 final yesterday, but the problems still persist. TThere are some 90 users on the box - all members of an aid organisation.  

It may be that starting from a fresh install of sme7 final may be the best course of action.  Assuming that a spare drive can be found, users and data could then be restored using the Restore from disk feature in sme7.  Has anyone done this, any pointers or warnings?  given the location, there is no room for error.  Thanks for any suggestion/guidance.

[ldkeen]

Hey Chris,
I've used the procedure below a few times without any problems. Clean install smeserver onto the new drive and just set it up with all the defaults. Then shut down and connect the old drive to the system (make sure the system doesn't boot from the old drive). Then do the following.
1. cd /
2. mkdir /mnt/tmp
3. mount /dev/hdax /mnt/tmp (hdax will be the / partition of the old drive)
4. /sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop backup Program CopyFromDisk status enabled
5. /sbin/e-smith/signal-event pre-restore
6. /sbin/e-smith/signal-event restore-tape /mnt/tmp
7. /sbin/e-smith/signal-event post-upgrade
8. /sbin/e-smith/signal-event reboot.

If you are super paranoid about something stuffing up and trashing the old drive you could back it up to another drive using dd.

I'm not too sure that this may solve your problems though, if qmail has been disabled in the db then those db settings will probably be transfered across to the new setup. At the end of the day you may still have to sort out the db settings. Have Fun  
Lloyd

[jfarschman]

Burnat,

  If you can possible get a second PC together, or some place to store the data, I would recommend that you use the backup and restore on the server... or use Lazy Admin Tools (LAT) to make sure you don't dump data.

  LAT can be useful if you only want to recover the account and passwords because you only have a small amount of information........

  Sorry.... I've forgotten who I talking to.... you know all of this.  You really asked about the restore from the CD.  No... never tested it.

[raem]

burnat

> qmail was disabled in db and has to be started manually
> ssh access is allowed for one user only (not root I believe)
>  etc.  

Troubleshoot it !

config show qmail

qmail=service
    MaxMessageSize=15000000
    status=disabled

To enable
db configuration set qmail service status enabled
signal-event email-update


config show sshd

sshd=service
    MaxAuthTries=2
    PasswordAuthentication=yes
    PermitRootLogin=no
    Protocol=2
    TCPPort=22
    access=private
    status=enabled

Depending what it says will determine what needs to be done

Perhaps this is needed
config setprop sshd PermitRootLogin yes
signal-event remoteaccess-update

or maybe this if existing
 
db configuration delprop sshd AllowHosts
signal-event remoteaccess-update  
 

What does etc mean as far as other problems is concerned ?

[chris burnat]

Thank you all for responses and suggestions.  Ray, I do not have a lot of detail about the problem, and in fact have lost contact over past 12 hours with Kabul...  I will forward all of this to my friend there, including the URL for this thread.  Thanks again. chris.

[chris burnat]

Problem solved. Required doing email-update event after enabling qmail, and fixing an incorrect Allowusers entry in sshd_config.   All systems go, thanks Ray on behalf of my old mate Will.  Things are looking al lot better in Kabul...

[raem]

burnat

Good, that's a successful outcome.

> Things are looking al lot better in Kabul

Hope they keep getting better too !