Migrating Red Hat to another server

[holyfrik]

We are currently running a Linux Server, that we need to migrate to another box. We first installed it onto a small hard drive, and we are running out of room fast. We want to upgrade to 7.3 ( I guess 8.0 is a little buggy at the moment), and migrate our server to a new box. This is a public server so we will need to minimize the downtime.

Any ideas on the best way to tackle this.?

 

[miblo]

First, determine WHY you need to upgrade. If diskspace is the only issue, installing an additional drive might be a solution.

Second, what is the server used for? Mail, web, proxy, firewall, database, what?

Third, Linux 7.3? Do you mean RedHat 7.3, or what? Current version is 9.0. 8.0 works OK for me...

 

[holyfrik]

Ya, sorry. Red Hat 7.3

It is a Mail, and Web Server. It is currently 7.0, and I want to get it to at least 7.3 or 8. I'm just wondering the best way to migrate the user accounts, and the password files, and all of the old mail. The Website will be no problem, I'm just worried about the mail.

Any help would be great.

 

[bcsi]

I recently set up redhat 8.0 on a new machine, and did this:

Vi /etc/passwd on new box, go to bottom of file, do :r /etc/theoldpasswdfile to read in the copied over /etc/passwd from the old box, and delete the system accounts duplications. Do the same for /etc/shadow. Copy /home directories and their contents.

I use bru for backups, so it copied the files with same owner and permissions. The passwords for users will work immediately on the new box.

Or, you can edit /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow and just add one account's record, matching the old computer, and create the account's home directory to test it.