Currently the server computer is at opensuse v11.4.
Updating workstations from 11.4 to v12.1 has met with poor results so far; I have had to start from a clean install with two of four computers (and I really should do the other two).
The server is more complicated. I do not want to re-enter user information (native and samba), printers, server, runlevels, network, DHCP, DNS, squid, etc.
One possibility is to backup /etc/ and restore it after the clean install. I suspect this is naive.
What is a recommended way to restore a server after a clean install? What should be backed up first?
I understand your concerns. Good system management starts of course with good documentation. Thus you should allready have a list of configuration changes (I talk about the system level, not about the Desktop, that is the end users responsibility and most probably will survive when /home survives).
A backup of /etc does help enormous when you read in your list that you configured e.g. NTP. The case then being that you do not forget to configure it anew (because it is in the list) and when you are not sure what your NTP server was, you can find it in the old /etc (the details). The new configuration can then be done by YaST or manual editing, but gain you can compaire the two /etc/ … files. In some cases you can even do a straight copy, but be carefull with that.
To make this easy, I allways have an extra partition of the same size as the running root partition. That is where I install the new system. I can then boot both (for testing) and can allways mount (read-only to be save) the other one and thus have the other /etc (and the rest) available on-line. Even when I definitely switch to booting the new system, I still have the old configs available for some monthes. After that I can use that partition for a new level (yes, life goes on).
On 2012-03-24 21:06, jimoe666 wrote:
>
> Currently the server computer is at opensuse v11.4.
>
> Updating workstations from 11.4 to v12.1 has met with poor results so
> far;