Does anyone out there have any practical experience in migrating a live server running Red Hat 9.0 over to Gentoo? I don't mind a short amount of downtime but don't want to have to back up the entire server and then try and rebuild it. I would like to convert it "in-place" if I can. Any help or suggestions are welcome!
I've heard of someone migrating a Slackware system over to Gentoo over a period of about a month, but I'm pretty sure this person knew what they were doing. In your cause, I'd do what I did migrating from Slackware. First, I added a second HD to the server. I followed the Gentoo Install Guide to start the install on the second drive. This box has dual Athlon MP 2200+s, so all that compiling in the background didn't affect it that much. If you can't afford the server to be slowed down while Gentoo is building, I would recommend doing the install on another computer and then bringing the HD over. Once you have all the programs installed under Gentoo that you were using under RH, take the machine down. Reboot from a Gentoo LiveCD or similar. Copy your data (db's, mail, /home, web files, etc.) over to the Gentoo installation. Switch the HDs do the machine boots from the Gentoo drive. Test. If all doesn't work immediately (or with minimal coaxing) switch the HDs back.
-- Andrew Gaffney
-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
