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Eugene Yarmash
Asked: 2010-05-15 05:44:12 +0800 CST

FreeBSD 32bit to 64bit migration

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I need to transfer my FreeBSD 7.0 i386 server to another hosting. I would like to also upgrade to the 64bit version (to eliminate 4GB memory limit). The server has common open source software: apache2, mod_perl, mysql51, perl5, python26.

I wonder if it will transfer smoothly to the 64bit server. Are there any known gotchas/limitations on the 64bit FreeBSD ?

freebsd 64-bit i386

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    All the configuration and data files are the same on i386 and amd64. The same procedure for transferring the site to another server would work just fine here.

    Make sure you backup the existing system. Verify that backup! Making two backups isn't a bad idea either. Exporting a list of the ports you have installed is a good idea too (pkg_info -ao | grep "/" > PkgList.txt or similar).

    Depending on what version you're running now, and exactly what software, you may be able to in place upgrade to the new version; just install the base and kernel. Sometimes that's enough, usually you have to rebuild the ports for the new libraries (portupgrade -af after installing the portupgrade port). If you want to try this route, I highly suggest using one of your backup copies to try this on another machine before doing it on the live server.

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  2. I think all you need is to perform backup for configuration files like /etc and /usr/local/etc, also backup /usr/ports and /usr/src to save bandwidth usage later, and don't forget to back also /var. In FreeBSD 64Bit I face some ports work only in i386 architecture.

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