Upgrading Hardware Or Replacing A Server; Planned Hardware Or Storage Device Upgrade Without Replacing The Server - Novell EDIRECTORY 8.8 SP5 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

19.5 Upgrading Hardware or Replacing a Server

This section provides information about transferring or safeguarding eDirectory on a specific server
when you upgrade or replace hardware. It is based on information in
Novell eDirectory" on page
The Backup eDirectory Management Tool allows you to prepare eDirectory information on a server
for
"Planned Hardware or Storage Device Upgrade without Replacing the Server" on page 532
"Planned Replacement of a Server" on page 536
19.5.1 Planned Hardware or Storage Device Upgrade without
Replacing the Server
If you are planning to upgrade hardware such as a storage device or RAM, you prepare by doing a
cold backup of eDirectory using the Backup eMTool, as well as a file system backup. This will let
you safeguard the server's eDirectory identity and file system data, which has the following benefits:
If you are replacing storage devices, the backups let you transfer information from the old
storage devices to the new.
If you are replacing the storage device that includes the disk partition/volume containing
eDirectory, having this backup information lets you use the restore process to re-create the
eDirectory database on the new storage device.
Doing a cold backup of eDirectory and keeping the database closed afterward means you can
upgrade hardware and transfer the database without worrying that the database has changed
since the backup.
If anything goes wrong, you have backups you can use to recover.
For the eDirectory cold backup, you must use the options to lock and disable eDirectory on the
server, preventing any data change after the backup is made. To other servers that communicate with
this server, the server appears to be down. Any eDirectory information that is normally sent to the
server is stored by other servers in the tree until they can communicate with the server again. The
stored information is used to synchronize the server when you bring it back online.
NOTE: Because other servers in the eDirectory tree expect the server to come back online quickly,
you should complete the upgrade promptly and open the eDirectory database on the server as soon
as possible.
To perform a planned hardware upgrade:
1 If you are concerned that the upgrade might cause a problem for your server, you might want to
prepare another machine to use if necessary.
See "1. Preparing for a Server Replacement" on page
2 Use an Client command like the following to do a cold backup of the eDirectory database and
keep the database closed and locked when finished. If you use NICI, make sure to back up the
security files too.
backup -f backup_filename_and_path
-l log_filename_and_path -t -c -o -d
532 Novell eDirectory 8.8 Administration Guide
421.
"Backing Up and Restoring
536.