Hey all,

Ok, here's the situation:

Box 1: Running Redhat, as a java app server. IDE hard drive, various partitions. Kernel is 2.4.2x.

Box 2: Shiny and new box. SATA hard drives with all the trimmings.

I need to get everything on the first box over to the second box. I don't care about partition sizes or time/date stamps, but everything needs to be preserved. Essentially I need to get box 1 running on box 2.

Backups and restores are not my strong point. I'm *fairly* good with linux (ie: I know basics, and at least know how to research and adaptively follow directions)

I don't think I can do a block transfer due to different hd types/sizes. Is there any way to pull this off? DD? PartImage? Prayer? Ritual sacrifice?

I need a plan of attack, or at least a theory of how to approach this.


Any help appreciated.

Ignoring issues like getting the new system to boot, a simple way to duplicate a system through a LAN is by using rsync.

There are lots of ways to do it, but a simple one is to (1) boot both systems using the latest Knoppix CD, (2) mount the old filesystems, (3) mount the new filesystems, (4) start ssh on both ends, (5) change the receiving end Knoppix root password (i.e., so that you know what it is) and (6) start the rsync transfer. Obviously, you need to manually set up/format the filesystems on the receiving end beforehand.

It would be a good idea to build initrd images for the new system before you do the transfer, but you can always do that from rescue mode after the transfer.