# Question about migrating FreeBSD to different hardware.



## rommelx10 (Jun 24, 2011)

Hello, first post!

I'm still learning BSD/Linux/Unix, but I have a noob-ish type of question.

Here's the scenario.

I have an old PIII server running FreeBSD 4.5 (yes, that old) that I need to migrate to newer hardware, particularly an HP DL360 G4.  I was successful in getting a clonezilla image done but restoring it has been a challenge.  It seems that 4.5 doesn't recognize the HP disk controller driver because I tried to do a minimal install to do a filesystem restore with dump files (my other migration method) and it doesn't recognize the hd's I have there.  

Would I be better off installing a newer version then restoring my dump files onto there or try something else with clonezilla?

Thanks again for any feedback!

R.


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## phoenix (Jun 24, 2011)

You won't be able to get a 4.x release onto modern hardware.

You are better off installing FreeBSD 8.2 onto the new server, then installing the new versions of all the needed software, then copying the data files as needed off the old harddrive.


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## mix_room (Jun 24, 2011)

Also remember that with every reinstall you learn something new. All the mistakes you made the first time around are now gone, and you can start from scratch.


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## rommelx10 (Jun 25, 2011)

Thanks for the quick response.  

Just so I understand this correctly:

Install 8.2, plus any other packages then copy data files off the old hard drive.

I take it restoring these same files from a dump file would not matter?


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## rommelx10 (Jun 25, 2011)

Just for curiosity's sake, would I be able to pull this off from this doc?

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-doc/2005-May/007913.html


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## tingo (Jun 26, 2011)

rommelx10 said:
			
		

> Just for curiosity's sake, would I be able to pull this off from this doc?
> 
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-doc/2005-May/007913.html



Not by following it to the letter - that posting explains how to restore the complete backup, including the operating system. This is not what you want, if you want to upgrade to a newer version of the os.


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## wblock@ (Jun 26, 2011)

Restore into temporary directories, then just copy the data needed.  restore(8) has an interactive mode, but it's not as convenient.

Background, with lots of examples: Backup Options For FreeBSD


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## phoenix (Jun 27, 2011)

rommelx10 said:
			
		

> Thanks for the quick response.
> 
> Just so I understand this correctly:
> 
> ...



From backups, not from a dump, unless you play around with the options to restore() to only extract the data files.

You do *NOT* want to restore everything.  Just the configuration and data files used by the software.


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