planning for server upgrades

[Miles]

I am in the process of separating the data from the OS on my server. The data will go on a mirrored disk that I can then easily back up (without backing up extra OS stuff). In theory, I should then be able to install any new OS (tiger, for example) on another disk and set up symlinks to point to my data and all should be hunky dory. I could test, then just swap in the new drive and be done. Also, if there is ever a catastrophic failure, I should be able to do a clean install without worrying about my data.

Here’s what I’ve done so far: wesites – copy files and symlink from the original; users home dir – copy files and symlink from the original; MySQL – copy files and symlink from the original; mail – working on this one (see post in the mail forum)

My question is what else should I move across to the data drive? Can I move the directory info (including passwords) without breaking things? Should I symlink the /etc directory or perhaps specific files or sub dirs? Is this likely to work with a new system? Is there something I’m missing?

Thanks,
Miles

[Author]

Posts