help me to retain the data while OS upgrade

aq_mishu · 06-25-2011, 03:09 AM

hi guys, after a long time...

well, I have a redhat 9 server. it has a separate hdd mounted as /backup where I always used to take the backup tar files. Now I am planning to upgrade it to CentOS 5.5 Easy job. except that I want to keep the hdd same way for backup. And ofcourse without loosing any of my existing data.

Means, the current hdd i want to again use with keeping the data because I have to restore the whole thing just from that HDD and again that will be used for the backup also like before...

so advice on adding a new HDD without loosing data. And opps, the current backup HDD is accessible through /backup and I want to keep that too... but it is not a symbolic link...
here is my current /etc/fstab

Code:

LABEL=/                 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
LABEL=/backup           /backup                 ext3    defaults        1 2
LABEL=/boot             /boot                   ext3    defaults        1 2
none                    /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
none                    /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
/dev/hdb2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/cdrom              /mnt/cdrom              udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0                /mnt/floppy             auto    noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0

Help me guys... (because i can add HDD with only loosing data...)

John VV · 06-25-2011, 04:02 AM

some things you will lose
there is such a GREAT difference from rh9 to CentOS 5.6 ( think win 98 to vista)
However I would use RHEL6.1 if the hardware will support it ( or ScientificLinux6.1)

I do not think that any program settings will move over , so reset everything .

/dev/fd0 is not auto mounted ( at lease in RHEL6 ) by the kernel ( deprecated )
- you can manually mount it .
As long as the backup drive is a labeled partition
cent or rhel6 will auto detect it and set it in mtab and fstab

aq_mishu · 06-25-2011, 12:16 PM

sir,
the first thing is HW will support the contos5.5 that i'm sure (i mean the hw i have now)...
next is as i'm planning to make a fresh os installation, not upgrade, then i know i will loose everything in my say like windows, C drive. But as I used D as my backup drive where a crontab dumped various conf and data files in that D drive, now I just want to keep those data (as that is my only thing for restore) while re os installation (in windows, we can keep the D after even formatting the C and reloading the OS).

So the same way, i just need to keep the D drive (i mean the second HDD) intact with existing data as those are only dumped data... ideas??

Mishu~

honeybadger · 06-25-2011, 01:56 PM

First thing reinstallation != upgrade.
And yes the reinstallation will work just like the way it works with winduhs.
After you have have backed up all the files in the /home folders to a different drive also backup the /etc.
While reinstalling make sure that you are only formatting / partition. Do not format any other partition. This should do the trick.

John VV · 06-25-2011, 03:24 PM

Quote:

the first thing is HW will support the contos5.5

centos5.6 is the only supported version in the 5 series

If 5.5 dvd is used then upgrade to 5.6 , however using the 5.6 dvd would be best.

aq_mishu · 06-27-2011, 03:02 PM

guys, i think there is a little miss understanding...

firstly, i am now on rh9. planning to go to centos 5.5 or 5.6.

this is my mail, database, dns server.

Now i have taken backup of everything, including some config files in the /backup, which is a different harddrive. So at this point, things are fine... now when i will do the re install, infact a fresh install of new os, I either can remove the /backup hdd before installation... then after installation, i need the /backup again as it was..., with data and accessible through /backup.

or I can keep the hdd plugged and tell the installer to install... but i think it will format the /backup (as it happened earlier) or if i deselect to format, it will just skip it... thus it finally will not be there...

So i need a fresh installation, where the partitions will be changed due to some other reasons... and i need that /backup same old thing, with data and with same way to access...

Mishu~