OVERVIEW: I am dealing with a combination of 3 servers (1 Web server, 1 NS, 1 DB server, all RH 6.x); they have something like 10 GB hard drives. Another box is sitting in the corner that should become a backup in case one of the three fails (a manual swap, though not ideal, would be acceptable for the extreme case). NFS is disabled, but ftp works (the person who did the installation vanished...) This is a production system where downtime should be minimal and scheduled. Footnote: my background is more in developing applications rather than system programming or administration (so please, be nice and not too much 'slang') APPROACH: Foremost - I don't want to change any of the three installations (RAID, etc.) because if something breaks there I am screwed! Instead - Get two 30 GB HDs with many partitions and prepare for multi- boots into any of the three services (I could have a 4th, small installation running to handle a remote request for changing LILO to what is needed for a soft swap) Now the QUESTIONs: A) Does my approach sound feasible ? B) How to 'transplant' ? 1) Given the minimumDowntime/keepingCurrent conditions, opening the boxes, installing the extra HD and dd'ing the partitions should be avoided, if possible. 2) Is tar able to handle the more delicate things, like symbolic links, device driver (pointers?) in /dev/ , if let's say /boot=hda1 is now hdb6 (assuming I did massage the fstab of each installation). I played around a bit by using fd0 as a target and things looked OK at the surface. If so I would tar up things - ftp to the backup - untar into a new partition of similar size. 3) What else needs work, in addition to lilo and fstab to make a 'transplant' work ? C) All 3+1 boxes have only basic devices that should be recognized at boot. However, if there are fundamental differences in the motherboard I would not know how to predict the outcome. The series of options regarding that issue may be the subject of another thread ... ... instead, I am now leaving for the TechBrew at the WildDuck and hope to see you all there so you don't have to email me :-( - Horst
