“best practice” for reinstalling Mac OS X Server

backupmac-osxosx-leopard

Since you can't "Archive And Install" on Leo Server the way you can on Leo Client – what's "best practice" for backing up/reinstalling without losing your data/ldap/service settings?

I'm aware of the Backup items in the Server Admin menu, Archive LDAP in Directory Service, mail store locations etc.. but haven't had to do the whole hog first-hand.

What I'm after is your worksheet here 🙂 A list of steps like:

  1. in Server Admin, archive LDAP || export users + groups in Workgroup Manager
  2. in Server Admin, export SA preferences
  3. copy /some/path/here to back up foo data
  4. copy /some/path/here to back up other foo data
  5. reinstall (NOTE: some warning about foo here)
  6. …etc

Best Answer

The short answer is, you're probably looking at rebuilding the machine from scratch if you feel you need to reinstall it.

I've always preferred to do a clean install (that is reformatting the root volume). If you've followed good practice, specifically

  • all your configuration is in source control, or under automatic management, then it is only a question of getting the machine up to the point your automated tools can bootstrap the rest
  • your data is stored on a separate volume, or you have a current backup in another location.

Then the rebuild should be pretty straight forward, however probably time consuming.

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