# Hardware migration and upgrade from 6.3 to 8.0 advice



## achix (Dec 4, 2009)

Hello,
i am facing this situation, where i need to upgrade from my 6.3 i386 system, used as my main workstation, to a new hardware based on amd64 (phenom II x4).

My current system is alive since 2005, so is full of code, scripts, configurations,look&feel,ssh keys etc.. that i would like to keep handy in my new system.
Also, currently i run gmirror, i am mentioning it, in case it affects something.

Since 2005, dealing with programming/support/etc.. i haven't done any upgrade task in FreeBSD, so i dont feel that confident in this regard.

I could:
a) install a brand new 8.0-RELEASE in the new hardware and then
 a1) just mount the old disks to the new system or
 a2) migrate /home user data directly to the new home dirs
b) migrate all current data to the new hardware, kernel/system included, and then try to upgrade to 8.0 (by sysinstall or makeworld/makekernel)

So, its a trade-off between pain, correctness, effectiveness, and ease of use.

What would you guys recommend? Which way to go? Any other options?
Thanx in advance!


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## phoenix (Dec 4, 2009)

Since it's a new system, install 8.0 on it.  A nice, fresh, clean install.  Install whatever apps you had on the old system ([cmd=]pkg_add -r[/cmd] is good for this, to get you up and running right away).

Then just copy over your data.

Finally, copy over the settings and config files, but don't just [cmd=]cp /olddisk/*.conf /newdisk/[/cmd], edit each file and paste in the relevant bits.  After checking the man pages and defaults files for what's changed.


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## achix (Dec 5, 2009)

thanx...
thats what i am gonna do.
I'll keep the old system for maintenance/development/support
and build all the new stuff in the new beast!


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