Restore from desktop to vmware

Restore smeX in vmware using a desktop backup and winscp

This method is usefull for a restore or upgrading a version (I used it to upgrade from 7.51 to 8.0 in vmware esxi 4.1). In this mini-howto I will show howto restore a backup made to the desktop into a new SME server. In stead of using an USB-stick we will transport the backup using SSH (scp or secure copy). Since many sme-servers run in vmware, and using usb or iso-files can be complicated or impossible on ESX servers using SSH is a good alternative to transport the backup to the server.

Step 1. Make backup from original server to desktop in the server-manager

go the http://ip/server-manager and backup to desktop

Step 2. install new SME server (sme8.x) from iso in vmware. Give it a temporary IP-adddress. When restoring it will get the ip-adresses from the server that was backed-up - do not use vmx network cards, but use e1000 nic's instead, see http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7197 - log in via web-management console http://ip/server-manager and change remote acces so you can log in via ssh as root from internal network

Step 3. install vmware tools in the newly installed sme-server, see http://wiki.contribs.org/VMware_Tools#SME_Server_8.0_Guest_on_ESXi_4.0_Update_1 in my case: SME Server 8.0 Guest on ESXi 4.0 Update 1

Download the required packages

log into the new  via ssh
cd /root
mkdir vmtools
cd vmtools
wget http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.0u1/rhel5/i686/vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-8.0.2-208167.el5.i686.rpm
wget http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.0u1/rhel5/i686/vmware-open-vm-tools-common-8.0.2-208167.el5.i686.rpm
wget http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.0u1/rhel5/i686/vmware-open-vm-tools-nox-8.0.2-208167.el5.i686.rpm

Install the downloaded packages and dependencies (some dependencies might be downloaded, click Y)

/usr/bin/yum localinstall \
vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-8.0.2-208167.el5.i686.rpm \
vmware-open-vm-tools-common-8.0.2-208167.el5.i686.rpm \
vmware-open-vm-tools-nox-8.0.2-208167.el5.i686.rpm

Link the start script to run level 7

ln -fs /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware-tools /etc/rc7.d/S90vmware-tools

Start the service

service vmware-tools start

(((((((((((((((((((( oeps, there is something wrong, must see into this later. Errors are:

1. service vmware-tools start
2. Checking acpi hot plug [ OK ]
3. Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
4. Switching to guest configuration: [ OK ]
5. Paravirtual SCSI module: [FAILED]
6. Guest memory manager: [FAILED]
7. VM communication interface: [FAILED]
8. VM communication interface socket family: [FAILED]
9. Guest operating system daemon: [ OK ]

((((((((((((((((((((

Step 4. update the new SME server to latest packages before restoring from backup - before update set yum straight check if this is still needed here: http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,49362.0.html

yum clean all
rpm -Uhv \
http://mirror.canada.pialasse.com/releases/\
/8.0/smeupdates/i386/RPMS/smeserver-yum-2.2.0-20.el5.sme.noarch.rpm

signal-event yum-update

- update

yum update
it will make a list, say Y

wait while downloading lots of stuff & installing

signal-event post-upgrade; signal-event reboot

Step 5. restore with the backup file - first make a snapshot in vmware, so you have a snapshot with updated packages (in case something goes wrong) - copy sme.tzg to / directory new sme server (for instance form windows desktop with [winscp]http://winscp.net/eng/index.php (= cp via ssh) )

log into new SME-server with winscp
copy sme.tgz to / directory

- log into the new SME server via SSH and run commands below

log into the new SME-server with ssh
cd /
signal-event pre-restore
tar -C / -xzvf smeserver.tgz

If you are replacing an original SME-server that is still running, shut it down NOW before rebooting the new restored server! The ip-addresses will be the same and that will cause troubles on the network

After unpacking the backup with tar now signal the new SME-server to devour the backup

/sbin/e-smith/signal-event post-upgrade
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event reboot

After reboot login to admin-console to change IPs to suit network

login to the restored server as admin and choose configure this server
Save & Reboot

Delete backup file

cd /
rm smeserver.tgz

System should now be online & operational, Run tests if all works:

- check email (send & retrieve)
- check connections & websites
- in Vmware make sure the new server boots after a shutdown of the vmware host