Topic: New hardware for the server...

[spook]

My server is running on a pile of leftover hardware, scavenged from other machines that I have come across. Now I would like to move it to another desktop pc, but how do I do that the smart way?

Move the 2 harddrives from the old to the new?

Make a clean install on the new box, then load a backup from the old one?

Make a clean install on the new box, and start from scratch?

If option #2 is the way to go, then how do I do it best? A tape drive will be mounted in the new box, but can i add one to the old box?

Any help is appreciated!

Sorry for any spelling and/or grammar errors, I'm Danish (as in the nationality, not the pastry )

[spook]

Aw come on... no ideas, anyone? I cant possibly be the first one attempting to move the server to new hardware. When I changed the NIC, it was just a matter of running a simple command, and all was good. Could it be just as simple when swapping the motherboard? (thinking about the move-the-two-harddrives scenario here).

As before, any help, thougts, comments or pointers will be appreciated!

[crazybob]

The problem you may encounter has to do with the chipsets on the new motherboard. Especially the disk controller. If is not the same as the old motherboard, it will probably cause a kernel panic.

A little depends on how much data you are talking about. If it under the 2 GB limit, I would just use the built in backup to workstation function, then move the drives and attempt an upgrade from cd. If the upgrade did not work, then re-install, and do a restore from workstation.

[spook]

We´re talking about ~60gb of data... So the backup-to-desktop option isn´t really the way to go.

I´m speculating about just trying to move the disks, fingers crossed. If its good, then its good. If not, I should be able to just move them back - or what?

[raem]

spook

> ~60gb of data
> I´m speculating about just trying to move the disks...

Are your 2 disks currently configured as software RAID1 ?
If so move only one disk to the new hardware, and see if it runs as is.
If not then try running the install from the CD but do an upgrade rather than a new install. It should configure a degraded RAID array but keep the data intact.

If you have any problems and trash the disk, then you can rebuild the array on the old machine to get back to where you were.

If you need to go via the backup and restore path, then install the backup2 contrib to backup your whole server to a workstation disk, build the new server, (ideally a fresh install -you can use 1 disk in degraded software RAID1 for fallback protection), and then restore from the backup.

Restoring that amount of data will take a long time.

You might consider the restore from disk technique outlined in the sticky post about upgrading from sme6 to sme7 at the top of these forums. That should also work for sme7 to sme7 restores and will save you a lot of backup time.

Make a good & verified backup before you do anything.

[Rory]

Spook

If you have two running systems on your network, you can putty into the original box and run an rsync command to sync your data to the second box through an ssh tunnel.  The example below is what I use to backup my website to another sme server on my network.  Just make sure you have ssh running and accepting system commands, you can configure that from the server-manager

rsync -avz --delete -e ssh  /home/e-smith/files/ibays/Primary root@192.168.0.3:/home/e-smith/files/ibays/

[bcliburn]

Would this work?
Install SME on the new hardware with only 1 harddrive, then power off and install the second drive and mount it, copy the contents from the old servers harddrive to the new one, then unmount it and then add the unmounted drive to the raid array?

[spook]

spook

> ~60gb of data
> I´m speculating about just trying to move the disks...

Are your 2 disks currently configured as software RAID1 ?
If so move only one disk to the new hardware, and see if it runs as is.
If not then try running the install from the CD but do an upgrade rather than a new install. It should configure a degraded RAID array but keep the data intact.

If you have any problems and trash the disk, then you can rebuild the array on the old machine to get back to where you were.

If you need to go via the backup and restore path, then install the backup2 contrib to backup your whole server to a workstation disk, build the new server, (ideally a fresh install -you can use 1 disk in degraded software RAID1 for fallback protection), and then restore from the backup.

Restoring that amount of data will take a long time.

You might consider the restore from disk technique outlined in the sticky post about upgrading from sme6 to sme7 at the top of these forums. That should also work for sme7 to sme7 restores and will save you a lot of backup time.

Make a good & verified backup before you do anything.

I think this would absolutely be the smartest AND easiest way to go. Let me just see if I understand you correctly:

1) Backup harddrives (Im thinking ghost images here)
2) Move harddrives to new hardware
3) Boot new hardware from SME server 7.0 cd
4) Make an "upgrade" install.

That should not mess up my data, accounts or configs, right? If that is the case, it should be doable in a couple of hours  

[raem]

spook

> That should not mess up my data, accounts or configs, right?
> If that is the case, it should be doable in a couple of hours  

That sounds OK, but you didn't answer a very important question.
Are the two drives currently in a software RAID1 array ?
If so you only need to move one drive initially and keep the other as a backup (as I suggested if you re-read my comments), and when the system is happily running without problems you can install the second drive and select the admin console option to rebuild the array.
Preferably delete all partitions on the second drive before you install it prior to rebuilding the array.
Of course you can move both drives initially if you wish.

I'm assuming too, that you are upgrading from sme7 to sme7, not from sme6 to sme7.

If your drives are a single operating system drive plus a mounted data drive or some other unsupported arrangement other than software RAID1, then you will have problems transferring the two drives and trying to do an upgrade from CD. It just won't work.

[spook]

Current setup is non-raid. Only one harddrive was installed during the initial SME installation. Then the other was added & mounted. Aka "drives are a single operating system drive plus a mounted data drive or some other unsupported arrangement other than software RAID1".

But how about this scenario then:

1) Use Ghost to make a backup of entire system disk (40gb). Store someplace safe, and VERIFY!

2) Transfer data from storage disk (250gb), to desktop, manually over the network.
Verify that everything is arrived ok & working. Spent hours ripping my CD-collection to Mp3, and would not want to mess them up. (Again...)

3) Move both harddrives to new server.

4) Boot new server from CD, do an "upgrade" install.  

This should utilize both the 40 and 250gb disk - making a software Raid 1, right?

That would (theoretically, anyway) create a "new" install of SME server 7.0, preserving all configs, users and ibays - but on the "290gb" Raid 1, spanning both disks, instead of only the 40gb disk. The 250gb disk will be wiped, but since I took the backup in step 2, this will be ok.

Am I right?

Oh, and yes, I am running 7.0 now

[chris burnat]

For cloning purposes, consider using dd, its reliable and proven in the linux environment.

"This should utilize both the 40 and 250gb disk - making a software Raid 1, right?"

 At the moment, for reliable operation, you need two disks of similar size and geometry.  Check FAQ.   I just went thru a similar exercise moving 90GB of data from one sme7 box to another.  Ray Mitchell advice is good advice.  Install SME7 onto new drives - you still will have you old drives intact if something goes wrong.  Consider restoring your config, users and ibays from disk onto the new system using the disk restore method suggested by Ray, it works fine.  Then mount your large drive - there are howtos around for this with SME7. This should not be a problem, except that you single drive with mp3 etc will not be included in the RAID array.   My preference would be to use TWO large drives to start with - in this way, you could have all of your data in the RAID array.

That would (theoretically, anyway) create a "new" install of SME server 7.0, preserving all configs, users and ibays - but on the "290gb" Raid 1, spanning both disks, instead of only the 40gb disk.

Nope. Even if it could be done, all you will have at the end of the proces is a 40GB RAID.

[spook]

For cloning purposes, consider using dd, its reliable and proven in the linux environment.

"This should utilize both the 40 and 250gb disk - making a software Raid 1, right?"

 At the moment, for reliable operation, you need two disks of similar size and geometry.  Check FAQ.   I just went thru a similar exercise moving 90GB of data from one sme7 box to another.  Ray Mitchell advice is good advice.  Install SME7 onto new drives - you still will have you old drives intact if something goes wrong.  Consider restoring your config, users and ibays from disk onto the new system using the disk restore method suggested by Ray, it works fine.  Then mount your large drive - there are howtos around for this with SME7. This should not be a problem, except that you single drive with mp3 etc will not be included in the RAID array.   My preference would be to use TWO large drives to start with - in this way, you could have all of your data in the RAID array.

That would (theoretically, anyway) create a "new" install of SME server 7.0, preserving all configs, users and ibays - but on the "290gb" Raid 1, spanning both disks, instead of only the 40gb disk.

Nope. Even if it could be done, all you will have at the end of the proces is a 40GB RAID.

Aw crap.

Well, here´s a thought: How about using ghost to move the entire contents of the 40 gig drive, onto the 250gb drive, and then doing an upgrade install? Shouldnt that work?

Problem is, I dont have 2 large harddrives. And I dont want to spend money on this project either... (Hence the server made entirely of scavenged hardware)

[spook]

Holy crap, my brain just kicked in: (I think, but I have been wrong before)

How about this scenario:

1) Backup all data from the 250gb drive to desktop. Just copy the crap over the network, burn onto DVDs and move along.

2) Delete _everything_ from the 250gb drive.

3) Unmount the 250 gb drive (Ill need some help on this!)

4) Do a standard backup from the server-manager.

5) Install the clean 250gb drive in the new pc/server/box

6) Do a fresh install of SME server 7.0

7) Restore the backup made on the old server, onto this one.

How about that solution?

[raem]

spook

> 5) Install the clean 250gb drive in the new pc/server/box
> 6) Do a fresh install of SME server 7.0
> 7) Restore the backup made on the old server, onto this one.

That will work, and as you now have a standard drive configuration, it will survive future upgrades without manual intervention.
Another advantage is that sme7 will configure that single drive as a degraded RAID1 array, and if you acquire an identical 250Gb drive in the future you can add it in and create a software RAID1 array with two drives, giving you better data storage reliability.
Just rebuild the array with the admin console menu.

[spook]

That will work, and as you now have a standard drive configuration, it will survive future upgrades without manual intervention.
Another advantage is that sme7 will configure that single drive as a degraded RAID1 array, and if you acquire an identical 250Gb drive in the future you can add it in and create a software RAID1 array with two drives, giving you better data storage reliability.
Just rebuild the array with the admin console menu.

Great!

I will do just that - now all I have to do is enjoy copying 50+ gigs of data over the LAN, then burn it onto DVDs. Maybe later, I´ll go watch paint dry.

Thanks a bundle for the help - You guys have been great!