DA server to server transfer

S

S2S-Robert

Verified User
Joined
Jun 24, 2003
Messages
415
Location
The Netherlands
We're going to order a new server because of connectivity problems with the current one, now we will still be using DA so I'd like to transfer all the accounts from the first server to the second. My main question is : how do I do it? I should mention that I'm currently running redhat 7.3 and will be going to redhat 9.

I've been reading up on tarring /home with the -P option and then untarring them on the new server. I don't know however if the chown is correct afterwards if I use the root login. Then I'd need to recreate the accounts on the new server, will I have to do this by hand or can I just tar /usr/local/directadmin ? If I do that, I'll have to recreate every other directory as well (mail, named etc.). I was thinking of manually adding each user and then untarring his home directory. This will ensure everything is properly set up from within DA and I've not forgotten anything.

Or I could just create the backup file from within the control panel and transfer it to the new server. This would be nasty if the number of accounts was enormous, but luckily (?) it's doable.

Then the last part is concerned with the DNS. Should I just change the primary nameservers ip addresses from my registrar and then everything automatically changes as well? (this is ofcourse after I've recreated the accounts on the new server).
 
As you mentioned its pretty much tarring everything wget'ing the file and unpacking, you may also want to look at the backup guide i put up which provides basically the important files - including dns.

Chris
 
So I would just run the backup program, all the necesarry files will get backed up and I put it on the new server. There I somehow restore the backup?
 
How many accounts are you looking to transfer?

I wrote a DA to DA set of scripts that is makes the process much easier. But you should not use it until 1.206 is released, since John and I found a few bugs.
 
My script will work fine for what you're looking to do, but 120 accounts is going to take you forever. There's a number of things you need to do in order to transfer an account with my program:

1) Manually create a site backup through DA (for each site)
2) Turn of MySQL via DA
3) Manually type out a batch file (a bash script that excecutes my transfer script with two parameters (username and domain)

Then, you simply execute the bash script and it automatically modifies each domain's dns record to point to your new ip, and changes the refresh and retry rates to 60 seconds (to minimize down time).

Once this is done, you need to go to your new server and create a batch file again, this time with one parameter (username). And manually recreate each account in DA (must have the same username as on the old machine). Then you execute the batch file and it will fetch all the old data and put it back in place.

From here, you need to go back on the old server and suspend all the accounts, so no updates are made while dns is updating.

For 120 accounts, you'll be doing this for days.

You're better off waiting until...hmm...oops...

I know something you don't know...I know something you don't know...:p.
 
What will your script include with the transfer if i may ask?

The backup guide i posted in the forum basically iincludes everything and anything.... from mysql binarys to to exim configs all users data mysql db's email directadmin itself etc.... and the only thing that should really slow you down with the move would probably be transferring the backups...... since they probably wouldnt be to small :p

Chris
 
loopforever said:
You're better off waiting until...hmm...oops...

I know something you don't know...I know something you don't know...:p.
Click to expand...
OK. How about telling us *when* instead of what? :D
 
Well if the *when* would be within say 2 weeks I'm happy to wait!

If not then I think I'll go for the entire backup system, the only problem being the 'feature' of including mysql binaries. I'm going to red hat 9, and I don't know if binaries will run on different version numbers. I'm pretty sure they don't, since the DA file downloads always have OS version systems.
 
I just finished a server migration solely from the backup function and I can surely welcome this. It's very hard doing it the way I did.

May I suggest creating resellers from a bacup as well? I see users can be created using the backup but why not do the reseller as well...
 
Yes, the Reseller should have the same functionality for a future version.. although, that might be one big backup file! :) (won't be able to upload that through DA at it's current size.. might have to be placed in a directory first).

John
 
I think that's the least of the worries to be honest. I take it the admin does have SSH access whether or not the resellers do.

Even for resellers this might pose a problem, but hopefully they can upload it through FTP then.
 
ProWebUK said:
As you mentioned its pretty much tarring everything wget'ing the file and unpacking, you may also want to look at the backup guide i put up which provides basically the important files - including dns.

Chris
Click to expand...

So where is this guide?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top