Need tips for minimizing downtime of hardware migration

A

Aprogas

My homeserver (enki) is suffering an unknown hardware-failure that causes it to freeze (even numlock does not respond) and have trouble booting (freezes during loading of kernel, sometimes garbles text on screen). The hardware is 10+ years old so I am replacing most of it (mainboard, CPU, harddisks). My old disk is a 320 GB IDE-disk, the new disk is a 1 TB SATA-disk. My new mainboard does not support IDE, only SATA. I have another system (ninlil) with a mainboard that supports both IDE and SATA and runs Windows. enki's new CPU will be an Athlon X2 II 270; ninlil's CPU is a Core 2 Duo E8200. I would like to minimize the downtime of enki, while preparing the new system. The new hardware does not include a power supply and in total I have only two power supplies available.

My current plan is as follows but I would like input on whether this would work and what I can improve.
  • assemble mainboard, CPU, fan, etc.
  • shutdown ninlil
  • insert SATA harddisk into ninlil
  • install FreeBSD 9.0 amd64 from USB/CD on SATA harddisk in ninlil
  • install software that will be needed and prepare configuration (copy config-files over network)
  • shutdown enki
  • put old IDE harddisk into ninlil and copy data using dump/restore, pax, rsync or some such
  • while data is copying, remove old hardware from enki's chassis and put in assembled mainboard
  • when data is finished copying, put SATA harddisk with FreeBSD from ninlil in enki and hope that amd64 is amd64 and everything works
 
I don't think you really need to put this third computer called "ninlil" into the process.

1. Install new system on new machine (new enki).
2. Copy data from old machine's HDD (320GB) using USB->IDE Adaptor into the fresh machine (new enki).
 
The easiest way to accomplish what you need would be....

-- Assemble new server and install FreeBSD and configure it for network access.

-- Temorarily disconnect hard drives on other machine (ninlil) and put old IDE drive in that machine (Set IDE jumpers for master, slave, or CS as needed).

-- Boot up ninlil machine with Live FreeBSD CD and mount the IDE hard drive.

-- Copy your data over network (via rsync or scp) to new machine.

When done, disconnect old IDE hard drive and reconnect the original hard drive for ninlil.

Your data is copied. All that might be left would be to adjust owner permissions for whatever user or users is going to own the data.
 
I would do what JimW suggests, and do a preparatory rsync over the network to copy the files while the system is up. If the machine has data changing, just make sure you shutdown all services before a final rsync and shut down the machine. You may also be able to save some time by pulling some screws beforehand, but I'm not sure how much time you're looking to save here. With the screws, mainboard, and drives, banging out the back metal template for connectors, you should be able to have it done in about 10 minutes or so.

The big problem is that your mainboard may require some tuning to ensure proper booting. It's a pain to do, but you might be better off setting up the new mainboard in your Windows PC case before the final switchover, just to verify everything.
 
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