Moving from 32 to 64 bit FreeBSD7.x

HMTKSteve

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I am currently running the 32-bit version of FreeBSD 6.4. I would like to run FreeBSD 7.x 64-bit.

I currently have a Dell T105 server (Opteron 1212 4GB RAM) and several spare SATA drives. I have the OS on one drive (250GB) and /home on a second (320GB).

What is my best course of action to move to 64 bit FreeBSD with directadmin?
 
Email directadmin support to change your license.
 
Steve, I sense that your asking weather you'd be able to install 64-bit FreeBSD over the current 32-bit instalation whilst keeping the /home/ partition intact? If so then I'd be interested to see the result. Aside from users having to re-compile programs such as IRCDs/eggdrops I can't see why DA wouldn't just drop right in and begin working just as it did before, providing you choose exactly the same setup in terms of versions of services and that you specify the location of your /home/ partition.

If this is the route your planning on taking I'd recommending posting the same sort of message on a FreeBSD support forum such as daemonforums to see if there's anything else you need to be aware of when swapping from 32-bit to 64-bit.

Good luck, keep us posted.
 
IRC is still fairly popular, there are a lot of small networks out there that are out of sight. Bittraffic, the company I help run houses quite a few non-botnet irc server daemons, bouncers and eggdrops on specific servers.
 
I am currently running the 32-bit version of FreeBSD 6.4. I would like to run FreeBSD 7.x 64-bit.
What is my best course of action to move to 64 bit FreeBSD with directadmin?
Backup stuff first ;)
get a recent source tree with cvs
compile a kernel from /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf
reboot
email DA to change license to 64bit version
run /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/getLicense.sh if needed
don't forget to 'build world' & install
use da's ./build update and ./build all

or ( the much Much MUCH safer way)

backup stuff
reinstall server completely with 64bit os and install da
restore stuff

Good luck!

(Ow, IRC rulez!)
 
Rather than run the risk of something horrible happening I picked up 3 500GB drives and I will be putting two in in a RAID1 configuration using gmirror.

I'll be doing a clean install of FreeBSD and directadmin. After that I'll mount my old home drive and restore from backups on that drive. Just to be sure everything is current I will likely also copy everything from /home/mysql off of the old drive onto the new install.

I looked into cross-compiling the kernel and goign from there but... Why bring on a headache that I can avoid? I have direct access to the server so I don't need to do anything remotely.
 
All done and it went smooth with only a few minor issues.

1. Custombuild faild the first pass through complaining about security issues with wget (FreeBSD uses fetch). This error vanished on the second pass through custombuild.

2. When restoring from admin level backups be sure to chown and chgrp the files to admin or else the restore will fail.

3. Prior to shutting down the old machine I suggest killing apache and then doing your backups. This may not be possible for you depending on how many sites you host but it worked well for me to insure the most up to date backups were created.

4. Make a copy of your configuration files on a different computer that you can reference quickly after the upgrade is complete.

5. Make a list of all extra software you have installed that you will need to install again. This includes items such as mtop or apcupsd as the case may be.

6. If using gmirror set it up before your first post install reboot but don't add the second drive until after you complete your OS and DA install.

Some things were easier for me because I have physical access to the server.
 
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