Topic: Installing, formatting and so on in regards to old data

[flywheel]

At the moment my server is running openSUSE but I'm considering migrating to SME Server. But first I have a few questions regarding the installation process.

My server contains a 40GB system disk (Devided into '/' and "/home") and a 120Gb datadisk (Mounted as "/mnt/Data"), all of them are ReiserFS formatted.

What I really would like is to avoid formatting the data-disk, since it is filled with data. Are there any problems regarding the user accounts with adding the disk later (Is ReiserFS supported ?) or am I forced to find some way to store the datafiles in a safe place while installing SME server ?.

Also I like having the user accounts separated from the rest with the '/' and "/home" configuration, is this possible or are the "/boot" and '/' forced upon you ?

Thanks, have a nice weekend  

[flywheel]

Will there be any problems deleting the I-Bay files, apple.desktop and html folders that are automatically created ? Are they used by the system for anything ?

[bpivk]

I think that you're going the workg way. Suse and SMe work on a different distribution. This is like comparing winxp and dos.

If you delete your ibay dir you'll have a problem because ibays are used for websites.

If you want to migrate backup sql data from suse and all the webpages.
Then install SME (with default settings) and move the websites to different ibays and restore sql data to mysql. Then all you need to do is setup new users and that's it.

You can't turn suse into SME if that's what you're thinking.

[flywheel]

Most of the functionality that I need, the SME allready got. The extra I need is to be able to offer user access to my datadisk via a samba-share.

My thought was, there are samba access to the I-Bays via Samba. I do not need the Web-access to the particular I-Bay,only the Samba access.
The idea was  - Remove the files, html and other folder. Mount the data-disk at the internal E-Smith folder.  and use the I-bay share as a normal Samba share.

If SME Server got reiserFS support build in (It doesn't seem like it) then I wouldn't have to empty the data-disks,reformat and all that jazz.

[bpivk]

Well this would be the simplest way. To use an ibay and transfer all the data to it.

You can't jut delete the whole e-smith dir it doesn't wokr that way. That's like deleting program files on M$ (why would i need it i just want to store files on my computer).

Backup the data and then use e-smith or stick with suse.

[flywheel]

The idea was not to delete the directory but to use the directory as a mount-point for mounting the data-disk. (Should be possible via fstab).

The I-Bay Samba share seems to work just fine without the .AppleDesktop, CGI-BIN, files and HTML directories - but would it mess things up with the management system ?

[idp_qbn]

Flywheel, Bpivk is correct. SME has been designed to work a certain way. Part of its idiot-proofing is to delete changes (at reboot) you make unless you make them in the proper way. That way you get restored to a known, operational configuration after reboot.

You could create a directory in an ibay then mount your data disk as that directory ....  but it is possibly overwritten in an upgrade or reboot (maybe, maybe not...I am not sure).
The designed way of sharing data with SME is to use an ibay....copy your stuff across from your data disk to your ibay.

BUT - if disk space is your problem, try what you suggested. Read this first:
http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/mblotwijk/HowToGuides/AddExtraHardDisk.htm#homedir
Don't format your data disk...it is already formatted and full of data. Use fstab to automount it to your already existing ibay directory. (it might even be possible to use the "files" Directory of the ibay as the mount point. [***if your data disk uses rieserfs, then you may have a problem....I think SME uses EXT2/3 and not reiser***]

If it works, test it after a reboot to see if it keeps on working.
After all, if it works, you are ahead. If it doesn't, you should still have your data disk intact.

However, the best way to do this is to get two large disks of equal size (identical disks is best) and load SME and your data and let software raid handle redundancy. You can even implement backup to a USB disk or to a Windows workstation or whatever.

Good luck
Cheers
Ian

[dmay]

In an e-mail to the opensuse-factory mailing list Jeff Mahoney has detailed some of the problems SuSE has run into with ReiserFS:

http://pcburn.com/article.php?sid=1824

Even though it 'could' be done with unsupported Centos kernels, don't try to use ReiserFS on SME.

Darrell

[flywheel]

Great - thanks Ian, I'll give the guide a go - I've just borrowed a few smaller disks which will be used as temp storage.

I know that ReiserFS is a thing of the past (In January I removed the last ReiserFS partition on my desktop computer, in favour of Ext3) - the server is runnong SUSE 10.0