4.x or 5.x Migration with DSMaint

If you are upgrading your server's hardware without upgrading your operating system, Novell has a terrific TID describing how to do it with DSMaint and a tape backup. I just did this procedure yesterday, and it does make make a carbon-copy of your server, removing the necessity to alter login scripts to reflect the change. The TID for anyone interested is 2934033, and can be found on Novell's web site in their knowledgebase.

A word of caution: Make sure that the tape you make the backup of the original server on can be read by a tape drive on the new server. Otherwise, use the old tape drive to restore your backup tape. I am speaking from experience on this one! (-: However, if you follow these instructions to the letter, it's a very clean hardware upgrade with very few headaches.

Good luck!

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R. Bret Walker, CNE