Topic: Migrate existing SME 7.5.1 onto Virtualbox 4.1.2

[damjan]

Hi,

I need to migrate existing but quite old SME 7.5.1. (Pentuim 4 HT, SW RAID. works as samba server ) into  quad core machine running Fedora. On the SME 7.5.1 there are lots of user accounts  with their data and common shares  which are working just fine. SME is also working fine and is regularly updated. So I plan  to transfer it onto VB and keep all the settings intact. On the other side I plan to open another VB instance with SME 8.06b for future development and testing.


Does anyone have some experience how to do migration of existing SME server on Virtualbox 4.1.2 ?

Which tool do I need  to made image file of existing server?

Thank you for an answer

D.

[guest22]

You may want to check out the vmware tools to migrate your existing server install. Once migrated, it can be imported into VB.

[BarryO]

You could move the old server around via backup or AFFA.  Don't know why not.

[brianr]

You can just backup the data to a USB drive, using the standard "workstation" backup, then restore it on the new VM.

[damjan]

Thank you for your answers.

Is there anyone who made migration into virtual environment with producer's  tools (vmware etc) considering the fact that SME is headless?

Will they work on SME or not? Can some issues occur or everything goes smoothly?
Can someone describe procedure how this can be done?


About backup:
IIRC backup have some size limitation doing it via browser. For doing backup via console (backup on USB device) I'm not sure that backup will be completed.

Is doing backup via console trusted ? Because I need to  backup complete machine ; among usual stuff also other directories including mysql database and custom scripts in /etc/rc.d/ for example?


I also maintain one server who have custom made  MySQL databases , phpMyAdmin, egroupware etc. I'm not sure that backup will keep everything intact after doing restore on fresh SME in VB .


To know how-to doing VB image of existing servers or have instructions how can that be made  can solve many problems doing migration on other servers and platforms . It can be easily migrated on other environments and/or SME can work as fundamental platform for VB :

http://wiki.contribs.org/VirtualBox

This can give SME another advantage over other solutions and easily extend life cycles of SME solution in IT environment.
To solve that task I'm just looking for solution which works best in many scenarios.


Thank you for your answers

D.

[Stefano]

damjan:

http://wiki.contribs.org/Moving_SME_to_new_Hardware
http://wiki.contribs.org/Affa

install the new server in VB
install all the contribs
configure Affa (eventually use the Include directive to add non standard path as /opt subfolders)
follow the howto

your're done..

used many, many times.. also to move form SME6 to 7 or form 7 to 8..

[janet]

damjan

You might also read
http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_server_config
for answers about Backup & Restore concepts, what is included, what is not & so on.
The backup solutions in SME run OK and have been improved on those from years ago.

[damjan]

Here is the quick feedback for anyone who may be interested :

Doing vmware image of existing SME 7.5.1. via VMware vCenter Converter can't be made straightforward (do image on the disk) since it demand also ESX solution.

Doing backup via USB device was not been able since external USB drive was not recognised by SME 7.5.1.
Probably it has to be something with already reported bug:

http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6596

So I focused on made server transfer with affa:

http://wiki.contribs.org/Moving_SME_to_new_Hardware

The installation of SME 7.5.1 on Virtualbox 4.1.2 can't be straightforward.  In VB settings the storage controler for disk drive have to be set to IDE (usualy it is set to SATA).
All RPMs and updates runs ok.

Following the instruction on wiki  the transfer was really simple . In my case I have to add  /opt directory :

db affa setprop prodserv Include[0] '/opt/'

and now I have smooth running SME 7.5.1 in VB. Thank you all for your answers.

Damjan

[guest22]

Thanks for the feedback Damjan. Congrats!