# hardware migration and network errors



## Bashar (May 11, 2014)

I have an old server running 5.4 of which *I* wish to upgrade its hardware. *T*he datacenter was able to clone the main disk (an old 120 GB IDE) to a newer 120 GB SSD and the server is up and running*. T*he network cards they have on for the new server are:

Intel EXPI9301CTBLK
StarTech ST1000SPEX2L
Rosewill RC-411

*N*one of them was being picked up by the OS to configure the network and get the server online for my slow migration to freebsd FreeBSD's latest version before we make it a live server due to the software we have on it for operations*.* So *I*'m guessing since they're PCI-express network cards, they were not there in the old kernel or so*. W*hat are my options to bring the server back online? *I*_s it_ possible to get some files/drivers to put them online so we can configure any of the cards above?

Best *r*egards,

Bashar


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## SirDice (May 11, 2014)

Stop using FreeBSD 5.4, it went end-of-life in October 2006 (that's almost six years ago!) and is not supported any more.

Migrate your data to a supported 9 or 10 version. Install on a brand new disk and stick the SSD with the data in the server to copy the data. No need for networking. You don't want to upgrade to a recent version, you'll want a new install. Too much stuff has changed in the meantime.


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## wblock@ (May 12, 2014)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Stop using FreeBSD 5.4, it went end-of-life in October 2006 (that's almost six years ago!) and is not supported any more.



Um... for large values of 6?


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## SirDice (May 13, 2014)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Um... for large values of 6?


I blame pocket calculators. Ok, so it's even more :e


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## Bashar (May 21, 2014)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Stop using FreeBSD 5.4, it went end-of-life in October 2006 (that's almost six years ago!) and is not supported any more.
> 
> Migrate your data to a supported 9 or 10 version. Install on a brand new disk and stick the SSD with the data in the server to copy the data. No need for networking. You don't want to upgrade to a recent version, you'll want a new install. Too much stuff has changed in the meantime.



Thanks for your advice @SirDice I definitely plan to do this but its very riskly to migrate all software immediately with the recent upgrade with FreeBSD, the idea is to clone the OS, then upgrade slowly, as its not only the OS is old, even everything else like Python (which the applications running on the server runs on such as Zope etc..) so I wanted to do it step by step.

back to my original question, not possible to make any of the cards below work on FreeBSD 5.4 then upgrade slowly?


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## kpa (May 21, 2014)

Try to find an old 10/100Mb card that uses an Intel, VIA or Realtek chip. Those should work out of the box and give you network connectivity until you can perform the upgrade to a supported version. Later on switch to one of the better quality NICs that should be supported by newer versions of FreeBSD.


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