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Date:      Sat, 6 Jan 2001 18:12:42 -0800
From:      "Crist J. Clark" <cjclark@reflexnet.net>
To:        Cliff Sarginson <cliff@raggedclown.net>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Moving from one machine to another.
Message-ID:  <20010106181242.S95729@rfx-64-6-211-149.users.reflexco>
In-Reply-To: <20010106171112.A968@buffy.raggedclown.net>; from cliff@raggedclown.net on Sat, Jan 06, 2001 at 05:11:12PM %2B0100
References:  <20010106171112.A968@buffy.raggedclown.net>

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On Sat, Jan 06, 2001 at 05:11:12PM +0100, Cliff Sarginson wrote:
> Hello
> I have been setting up a gateway machine using FBSD.
> While it is far from perfect (questions .. questions)
> I want to move it from my test machine to the final
> destination.
> I can do what I like to the destination machine and/or
> the test machine in order to achieve this.
> The significant differences between the machines are:
> 
> 1 - They have different NIC cards, but both are supported.
>     The test machine has 3 NIC's all configured (there is
>     a reason for this !) the destination only one.
> 2 - The IP address and hostname will change change
> 3 - The destination machine is a P90/48MB instead of a
>     P120/64 MB (but I can hardly imagine this matters much)
> 4 - They have different makes and sizes of hard disk, that
>     on the detsination is much smaller so I cannot just
>     copy the lot over. It is big enough for the function
>     it will be used for though.
> 
> I have made no kernel changes from GENERIC 4.0.
> 
> I can do this by hand of course, install 4.0 on the destination
> and update the configuration a file at a time.
> 
> Or is there a cute way to do this ?

There are some 'cute' things to make the job easier. But I think this
is the best approach if this is just a onesies-twosies kind of task,

  (1) The easiest thing will be to start with a "regular" install on
      the new box, but don't do any configuration that you don't have
      to do get the install done.

  (2) Make a tarball of /etc on the existing machine. Move it to the
      new box and make whatever changes (hostname, interfaces, etc.)
      that are required in the rc.* files of the new box.

  (3) Restart the new box so it is running under the new configs.

  (4) If you installed packages and ports on the test machine, move
      them to the new machine (tarring up and copying over /usr/local
      and /var/db/pkg should handle that if you used default FreeBSD 
      installations, and any other stuff you added needs to be moved
      too).

The reason I separated steps (2) and (4) is that if you are doing step
(1) off of a CDROM you may not necesarily have networking up until
after (3). You can move a tarball of /etc between machines on a
floppy.

Another thing to consider. You can try doing a straight dump to
the new machine using dump(8)-restore(8), but you'll still need a
minimal install of FreeBSD on the new machine to bootstrap the
process. If you are installing off of a CD or fast network link, I
wouldn't bother and do the above. However, if you are doing an ftp
install over a slow network link, doing the bare-bones install and
then copying most of the OS from the test system, it might be
worthwhile.
-- 
Crist J. Clark                           cjclark@alum.mit.edu


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