Moving Dedicated Servers

Keeping the pain to an bearable minimum

[PhraSEOlogy]

Is there an easy way to migrate all of the sites on my old server to the new one?

I could just dump the whole drive and migrate to the new machine but I know there will be problems.

Can anyone provide any insight or assistance with this?

[mack]

Are you moving to a server running the same operating system or is it a more tricky move such as Windows to Linux or vice versa.

To be honest you can move most of your sites and data using what ever method of backup you use. For example taring the entire /home directory will enable to to move all the web content from one server to the other. Just place the tar archive on the server and untar.

You could then move over your configuration files such as httpd.conf to bring all your virtual host info over.

Mack.

[LifeinAsia]

It depends on the OS & web server. I found a program for IIS that will backup all the settings for all the sites, including virtual directories, and copy them to the new server.

[PhraSEOlogy]

Moving from a redhat linux to fedora linux. Guess they should be compatible.

[StupidScript]

You're right ... they should be close to compatible.

Check for variations on the basic software installed, like PHP, MySQL, Apache, PERL, Sendmail, and so forth. If there are substantial differences (as is likely) and you use those apps and others like them extensively, you'll need to verify any special coding you used on the old box so it will run on the new box.

As a quick example, the old box probably has PHPv4.x on it and the new one has probably got PHPv5.x. You'll need to check your scripts for any code that has been deprecated in the new version, and ensure that the versions of MySQL and whatnot will be able to use your old code successfully. PHP's

register_globals

and MySQL's

max_connections

come to mind.

Also look closely at any software you use that uses those apps, like bulletin board software and GD processes in PHP.

Check with the various app manufacturers for any warnings about old code, and check your code for those potential issues.

Lastly, keep the old box running until the new one has been running long enough to detect any problems. If you've been trouble-free for a week or so of aggressive experimenting, go ahead and make the switch.

[PhraSEOlogy]

I have a mass of perl scripts, cron jobs, shell scripts mysql dbs and who knows what else to carry across.

Maybe I should just keep my old server - fear is setting in!

[StupidScript]

If the new server is not on a long-term contract ... give it a try! What the heck? The worst that would happen is that you would spend a little to learn a lot and still have your previous system functioning. Go for it!

[BananaFish]

If you can get a shell to your current host, it would be easy to tar and zip and everything up, including your mysql databases. If not your web host maybe good enough to tar and zip your mysql data directories and your webspace and send them to you or make them available for ftp.

To make the transition smooth, what you'd do first is to replicate your databases on the new server, then configure the scripts on your current server to connect to the new server. That way you'd have no data overlap when change the dns from your old to new server.