The new server is installed and working.

Ok, the new server is ready to go. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

We’re still looking at installation at the end of the month (unless, heaven forbid, something happens before then).

Ok, the new server is almost 100% ready.

I have managed to script the starting of the virtual machines; no need to have the rather annoying VMware GUI to turn VM’s on and off. Yay.

All of the interfaces are mapped and ready to go; we shouldn’t have any binding problems with regards to network interfaces.

I did manage to fix the CMOS battery issue. It turns out the battery that came with it was a dud, and the new battery I bought at Central Computer in San Francisco was also a dud. Radio Shack to the rescue.

One final bonus: the new, virtual machine is 65% – 100% faster than the old, physical one.

Final tasks:

• Figuring out what sections of the filesystem need to be synced (mailstore & web, home directories, database backups, etc.)
• Scripting this so it is as foolproof as possible
• Scheduling a visit to the colo
• Bringing down the old server, doing one final backup and syncing that with the new virtual server
• Plugging in the new hardware and bringing it up

Well, the 3rd attempt at virtualizing the Alienminds server worked. I’m able to boot it, log into it, etc. The databases even came up, which surprised me. I don’t back them while quiet, I expected corruption.

Still, all good news. The only things standing in the way of installation at the colo are some minor hardware configuration issues. I expect to have those resolved soon.

Well, the first attempt to virtualize the Alienminds server – the very machine you are getting this from right now – failed.

It seems that old builds Linux do not appreciate ext3 filesystems with 256 bit inode sizes. So, I get to rebuild all of the filesystems tomorrow, and re-sync all of the files. Wee!

Oh well… at least it is pretty much all scripted now.