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Date:      Tue, 26 Dec 2023 19:19:21 +0100
From:      Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz>
To:        Michael Grimm <trashcan@ellael.org>, freebsd-fs@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Howto migrate a FreeBSD cloud instance to another one without native FreeBSD support?
Message-ID:  <cd7491fd-aec6-4023-9e93-4de3f59f6bbe@quip.cz>
In-Reply-To: <4A6398FE-5DC1-45A1-85A9-7C5054CF5BF7@ellael.org>
References:  <4A6398FE-5DC1-45A1-85A9-7C5054CF5BF7@ellael.org>

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On 26/12/2023 15:22, Michael Grimm wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I do run FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE instances in OVH's public cloud for some years already. Now, I do need to migrate my FBSD instances to new instances (old ones are no longer supported).
> 
> In the past one could create new instances running FBSD from the start, but OVH has removed that option. I do have used Ubuntu rescue systems in the past for my FBSD instances, thus I am familiar in using Ubuntu's OpenZFS functionality.
> 
> Sadly, OVH doesn't offer Linux systems installed on ZFS pools. Thus I do have to stick to Linux systems without.
> 
> 
> Here are my questions regarding using Linux (Ubuntu) rescue systems:
> 
> # What would be the closest equivalent to FBSD's gpart tool?
> 	gdisk, …?

> # Would it be possible at all to go for legacy booting of FBSD?
> 	gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0
> 
> # Or, would it be better/easier to consider UEFI booting instead?
> 	rsync /boot/loader.efi to rescue system
> 
> # Are there other promising strategies for migrating feasible?

I know nothing about OVH and almost nothing about what kind of FreeBSD 
setup you want to migrate (partitions, UFS vs ZFS etc.) but one thing I 
can imagine in you situation is creating everything from Linux rescue 
(partitions, formatting to UFS or ZFS, boot sector, rsync old FreeBSD 
instance to newly created...)
And the second is: you can prepare small minimalistic FreeBSD image in 
Bhyve / VirtualBox etc. make a copy of it with dd and then write it by 
dd to your new instance's disk with the help of Linux rescue system. 
Then you can reboot to a minimalistic FreeBSD system, enlarge 
partition(s), use growfs or zpool / zfs enlargement and then finally 
move data from the old instance to this new instance by rsync, or zfs 
send, or whatever tool you prefer.

Kind regards
Miroslav Lachman





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