Hey everyone! I've been using Linux for about six years now, and I'm gearing up to migrate my old workstation to a new machine with better specs and a newer GPU, courtesy of my PhD supervisor. My IT team has already rsynced the /home folder, but the rest is up to me. I've maintained my old workstation's packages, libraries, and services, and while I can reach out for help, I want to do this migration cleanly without just copying configs blindly. Here's where I'm at:
- Old OS license expired (RHEL)
- New OS (Rocky Linux) freshly installed with all users transferred
- Licensed software set up by my IT team
- User data has been rsynced over
- I haven't touched /etc, system directories, or service configs yet
- Old system is accessible for at least two weeks
- Running a GitLab server in Docker to track everything
- Many Python environments for my various open-source projects that involve databases
I aim to:
- Rebuild services cleanly, avoiding config transplantation
- Prevent breakages from version mismatches
- Improve folder structure
- Ensure permissions and ownership are spot on
- Set up solid backups before going live
I've got a few questions:
1. What order do you recommend for rebuilding the system?
2. Should I selectively copy configs from /etc, or is it better to rebuild from scratch?
3. For databases, do you favor logical dumps or copying raw directories if versions align?
4. What common pitfalls should I watch out for during this migration?
5. Would you choose to containerize during the rebuild or stick with traditional methods?
Thanks for any insights!
1 Answer
1. I don't have a specific order to recommend.
2. I wouldn't copy configs blindly. If you're not going from the exact same RHEL version to Rocky, you risk breaking things because the config directives might not apply anymore. Older configs could miss necessary lines introduced for security over the years.
3. Always use a logical dump (like mysqldump or pg_dump). Allow the database to handle its relationship with the filesystem.
4. Just be wary about the approaches in your second and third questions — those are red flags.
5. Clarify whether this setup is for a server or a powerful workstation since your title suggests one while your body implies another.
Haha, it's definitely a super powerful workstation! I appreciate your insight!
This makes total sense! I didn't think about missing security directives. Thanks for the clarification on dumps too.