Migrate OS and Machine

rickylim · 06-19-2007, 01:59 AM

Hi all,

Currently i have an application running on RedHat 7.2 DELL PowerEdge server and would like to migrate the whole application to new IBM Server.

The challenge now are, the person who setup the server as well as the application owner are no longer here and with no documentation pass on.

I was given tasks to migrate all to new server and as i know the current server has lots of configuration which i am not familiar with.

What i have now is OLD DELL SERVER running on REDHAT 7.2 that need to migrate to NEW IBM MACHINE but i do have subscription for RHEL 4.

My plan is, to install the REDHAT 7.2 on the new machine, tar from old machine and restore to new machine. Then update it.

But i am not sure that i am doing right.

Please advice

Thanks

rgds.
Lim

Randux · 06-19-2007, 09:47 AM

tar and restore is always a safe bet, it should work fine. The only problem is sometimes the files are too big to fit on a CD or DVD and you have to start splitting them up, and then you may run out of working disk space or screwup while you're splitting archives or burning discs. To get around this you can do a semi-live changeover if you rsync everything from one box to the next if they're on the same LAN. I have done that a few times and it works great.

Either way the only thing you'll have to do is partition the target machine, set up your bootloader and edit your fstab and your system should be fine.

rickylim · 06-19-2007, 08:34 PM

Hi Randux,

Really appreciate that, thanks.

I'll try it out.

nhydra · 06-20-2007, 03:14 AM

You will try to tar and put the redhat installation to the IBM server?
what about the new hardware and configuration?
you should know that you have to create the same partitions and bootloader configuration because you can not boot on the new machine only with tar archive.
and the other thing is that you probably will not run redhat linux at all on this new machine. the reason for this is the new hardware.
new hardware > new drivers. so, if your redhat installation run on the ibm server successfully you will not have the necessary drivers.
your hardware and linux can run but not in the right way and the right drivers but you can try.
i suggest you to tar the configuration files and then place them on the new server but you have to see what exactly the config do and how to import this config on the server.