Quoting Chris Haulmark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Anyone used mfsbsd to do remote install of a dedicated server with
success?
Advertising
No, but..
Summary:
A dedicated server has FreeBSD 6.x running with / as the entire
partition of the entire disk. Hoping to find a solution to do reinstall
remotely.
That's unfortunate. Is it really the entire disk? If you even had, say,
a swap partition you could potentially use it to bootstrap the process--
1) Comment out swap line in /etc/fstab
2) Reboot
3) re-label and newfs the swap partition
4) dump/restore some or all of your existing setup to the new fs (or do
a manual minimal install using sysinstall, or do an installworld with
DESTDIR set to the new fs ...)
5) Change /etc/fstab on the ORIGINAL root partition (since that's still
what you'll be booting from for now) to mount root from the new fs
6) Reboot and cross your fingers
7) Observe that the new fs is mounted and the original one is not. Make
your partitioning changes. Move / restore / reinstall your directories
and mountpoints as needed.
8) Make sure the /etc/fstab on the NEW root (preferrably on partition
a) points to the right place.
9) Re-install the boot blocks on the disk and the slice for good
measure (using fdisk and bsdlabel respectively)
10) Reboot and cross your fingers and toes
11) Observe that your original swap area is NOT mounted and that
everything else is. Edit /etc/fstab to use your swap area for swap
again.
12) swapon -a
depenguinator seems incompatible with the current latest FreeBSD
releases.
Advices other than "DRAC, IPKM or hire a tech" are welcome.
Using mfsbsd, depenguinator, or an approach like the one above there is
at least one point in the process where you only get one chance to get
it right. Depending on your personality this might be an adrenaline
rush, but in any case you should have a backup plan such as DRAC, IPKM,
or an available tech. Or an IP KVM (Belkin makes one that will let you
use ISO images over the network as a USB CD). Or a serial console. etc.
etc.
JN
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