Moving Freebsd to a new Server
Hi, We were in a rush to install a freebsd server without proper hardware on hand, so we used Microsoft Virtual Server and install Freebsd on it. I would like to move the freebsd installation to a real server and was wondering how to do so. I searched around and the solution seems to be to dump the hard drive content and restore it on the new server. Does anyone knows a good walkthrough of the entire process, I didn't find anything in the handbook beside moving freebsd to a new harddrive which I cannot do from the same machine. Basically, I need a way to dump the hd to file, transfer the file over whatever media (dvd, network, etc) and restore on the new machine. I'm not even sure if I need to install freebsd on the new machine or not since I guess I cannot overwrite the partition on which freebsd is running :-) Any help/reference would be appreciated Thanks in advance ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Moving Freebsd to a new Server
Ian, There's an article on geomirror on www.daemonnews.org that I use as a guide on working with dump. I do exactly the same sort of thing moving my FreeBSD machines between instance and physical on VMWare. I've done it in both directions many times using a USB drive as the medium. I have a move coming up soon, so I shall try to document it for the future. Let me know how this works for you. Cheers, Mikel King CIO, Tech Alliance, INC Senior Editor, Daemon News 39 West Fourteenth Street Second Floor New York, NY 10011 http://www.techally.com http://www.daemonnews.org t: 212.727.2100x132 +--+ How do you spell cooperation? Pessimists use each other, but optimists help each other. Collaboration feeds your spirit, while competition only stokes your ego. You'll find the best way to get along. +--+ On Jun 7, 2007, at 3:38 AM, Ian Lord wrote: Hi, We were in a rush to install a freebsd server without proper hardware on hand, so we used Microsoft Virtual Server and install Freebsd on it. I would like to move the freebsd installation to a real server and was wondering how to do so. I searched around and the solution seems to be to dump the hard drive content and restore it on the new server. Does anyone knows a good walkthrough of the entire process, I didn't find anything in the handbook beside moving freebsd to a new harddrive which I cannot do from the same machine. Basically, I need a way to dump the hd to file, transfer the file over whatever media (dvd, network, etc) and restore on the new machine. I'm not even sure if I need to install freebsd on the new machine or not since I guess I cannot overwrite the partition on which freebsd is running :-) Any help/reference would be appreciated Thanks in advance ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Moving Freebsd to a new Server
On Thu, 7 Jun 2007, Ian Lord wrote: Basically, I need a way to dump the hd to file, transfer the file over whatever media (dvd, network, etc) and restore on the new machine. Personally, I do a minimal install of FreeBSD on the target machine first. That lets you set the partitions the way you want and gives you a complete set of tools. As always, back up the source machine before starting. Dump the /, /var, and /usr filesystems from the source machine into files, and any others with contents you need. For example: dump -0af /tmp/slash.dump / Of course, the output should be on a different filesystem than the one being dumped, and ideally a separate disk to avoid head thrashing (/tmp shown below, but most people don't have enough space in /tmp to do it. You can use NFS or ssh or other methods to use remote files.) On later versions of FreeBSD, you should give dump the -L option to use a snapshot of the filesystem. Giving dump more memory with -C can also help, although it runs multiple instances, so too much will cause swapping. Ultimately, for a typical FreeBSD 6.2 machine: dump -C8 -L -0af /tmp/slash.dump / dump -C8 -L -0af /tmp/var.dump /var dump -C8 -L -0af /tmp/usr.dump /usr Get those files onto the target machine, again in an unused filesystem or separate disk, and restore: cd /usr restore -ruf /tmp/usr.dump cd /var restore -ruf /tmp/var.dump cd / restore -ruf /tmp/slash.dump Now is a good time to fix anything that will be different in /etc/fstab, like references to ad0 that should be ad2. Reboot and fix anything else that needs to be changed. -Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Moving Freebsd to a new Server
On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 03:38:01AM -0400, Ian Lord wrote: Hi, We were in a rush to install a freebsd server without proper hardware on hand, so we used Microsoft Virtual Server and install Freebsd on it. I would like to move the freebsd installation to a real server and was wondering how to do so. I searched around and the solution seems to be to dump the hard drive content and restore it on the new server. Yes, I have written this essential thing with slight variations several times in the questions list. You might want to search in the archives. Does anyone knows a good walkthrough of the entire process, I didn't find anything in the handbook beside moving freebsd to a new harddrive which I cannot do from the same machine. Basically, I need a way to dump the hd to file, transfer the file over whatever media (dvd, network, etc) and restore on the new machine. I'm not even sure if I need to install freebsd on the new machine or not since I guess I cannot overwrite the partition on which freebsd is running :-) Hmmm. I am not sure what you are implying here. Do you mean that the new server already has (the latest) FreeBSD installed on it? If so, and your data and such are conveniently organized, then you can just make sure the needed ports are [freshly] installed and then merely transfer over the data you need. That would be best. But, if you really need to move everything from the old system over to the new server systemr, then yes dump/restore is the best. First, build the Disk structure on the new server. You can do that by using the install CD to do a minimal install or just use the fixit and run fdisk, bsdlabel and newfs from it to create the slice, partitions and file systems respectively. Neither is more difficult, but using the installer does some of the keeping track for you while you are doing things whereas doing the fdisk,bsdlabel,newfs gives you a little more direct control. Under either path, you must get the disk prepared and write the FreeBSD MBR make a slice for FreeBSD, make it bootable and make at least one partition for root (preferably divide things a little better, but...) and one partition for swap (I suggest making root, swap, /tmp, /usr, /var /home). In this case, you probably want to divide it according to the older machine's pattern, using updated sizes based on the new disk. Then, you want to transfer things. For each filesystem on the old system --- skip swap and /tmp write the filesystem out using dump(8) to some media where there is enough room and that can be reached by the new machine in some way. dump 0aLf /directory_or_device_name_rootdump / dump 0aLf /directory_or_device_name_usrdump /usr dump 0aLf /directory_or_device_name_vardump /var dump 0aLf /directory_or_device_name_homedump /home etc (NOTE, make those directory_or_device_name things something reasonable, like the directory or device where you are writing the stuff) Then boot the fixit on the install CD on the new server and use it to restore those filesystems in place. If there is room, you can just copy the dump file to a big space on the new server (such as to /newhome) using whatever is appropriate - ftp/scp probably and restore from there. You will need to create mount points and mount the new filesystems. So, do something like this while in fixit. mkdir /newroot mount /dev/ad0s1a /newroot mkdir /newusr mount /dev/ad0s1e /newusr mkdir /newvar mount /dev/ad0s1f /newvar mkdir /newhome mount /dev/ad0s1g /newhome (Here I am presuming the partition names e, f, g. root has to be 'a') If you really wrote these to something like a CD, then you will also have to mount that. Probably the /cdrom mountpoint will already exist but if not, then make it. Then mount it. mount_cd9660 /dev/acd0 /cdrom So, lets assume you have copied the dump[s] to /home on the new machine. You could do it directly from the CD if that is where it is. (You may need to do each filesystem one at a time to have enough room to do it, especially for /home if it is large) Then do: cd /newroot restore rf /newhome/rootdump rm /newhome/rootdump cd /newusr restore rf /newhome/usrdump rm /newhome/usrdump cd /newvar restore rf /newhome/usrdump rm /hewhome/vardump cd /newhome restore rf homedump rm /newhome/homedump (if there is plenty of room, done worry that you are restoring to the same directory /newhome, that you are reading from. It will work just right. But the /newhome filesystem will have to be double the size of the homedump file If you are reading directly from the CD, then it would look like cd /newroot restore rf /cdrom/rootdump (providing you used my name conventions) Then try rebooting and hopefully it will all be happy. jerry Any help/reference would be appreciated Thanks in advance
