[OpenAFS] Re: dbserver, cloning

[Andrew Deason]

On Wed, 15 May 2013 09:40:50 +0200
Christian <chanlists@googlemail.com> wrote:

> we plan to upgrade one of our dbservers (scientific linux 5.3) to
> debian by rsyncing the installation of our other dbserver, which
> already runs debian (both systems x64). WRT openafs, I think I need
> to:

Do you mean "dbserver" as in, afs dbserver? That is, a machine running
ptserver, vlserver, etc.

I'm not sure I'm completely clear on what you're doing. It sounds like
you're taking all of the openafs-related files from an existing openafs
dbserver, and just copying them all to the machine you're upgrading.
Wouldn't you rather just install openafs on the box, and copy over the
configuration bits that need copying?

> * make sure NetInfo and NetRestrict are correct
> * make sure all partitions (/vicep? and /var/cache/openafs) are mounted 
> correctly before I start the server
> 
> How about the vldb and the list of volumes on the server? Do I need to 
> do anything here? Thanks,

For a fileserver hosting volumes, the "proper" way to migrate it is to
bring up a new fileserver, and 'vos move' all of the volumes to it. But
that can take a lot of unnecessary time if you're not physically moving
the volume data.

If you're reinstalling the OS, but keeping the /vicep* partitions around
(these are separate disks? or SAN or something?), this is also possible.
The conceptual fileserver "identity" is kept in a file called
/usr/afs/local/sysid (RHEL/SL) or /var/lib/openafs/local/sysid (Debian).
If you're destroying the old fileserver installation, configuration,
etc, you want to move that file from the old (scientific linux)
installation to the new (Debian) installation. Do NOT copy the 'sysid'
file from the other existing Debian dbserver.

Or maybe to be more generally proper, don't copy the contents of
/usr/afs/local (or /var/lib/openafs/local) between server instances at
all. Just move the sysid file from the scientific linux server, and
create anew any required configuration in there. As you say, if you use
NetInfo/NetRestrict, you'll need those in there. And you can put a
BosConfig in there, though the more 'proper' way is to generate it using
commands like 'bos create'.


For dbserver database files, you shouldn't need to copy anything over.
They will be synced from the existing dbserver(s). It can be faster to
copy them yourself, but just not doing that can reduce steps.

-- 
Andrew Deason
adeason@sinenomine.net