Determining What To Back Up

You should create a list of the SunOS release 4 files and file systems that you want to back up and restore after installing Solaris 7 software.

Making a List of System Components to Back Up

Make a list of all the system components in the existing SunOS release 4 environment and decide which are critical to the user's system. Consider:

• Locally developed applications

• Any unbundled software products

• Third-party applications

• Third-party peripheral devices and drivers (8 mm tape drives and SBus cards, for example)

Making a List of Files and File Systems to Back Up

Use the following guidelines to make the list of file systems to save:

• As a general rule, do not transfer entire file systems containing "system" files (for example, the /usr or / file systems).

• Do not save temporary file systems, such as /tmp.

• Do extract and transfer the data files that have changed locally or those on which the server depends for administrative data, such as some /etc files (for example, /etc/hosts), exported file systems (use the exportfs command to list them), and /tftpboot directory, which you should save as a safety precaution.

• Do completely preserve file systems containing only locally generated data, such as spool and user home directories.

• Save file systems that contain information about clients if you are migrating a server for SunOS release 4 clients. Typically, /export is such a file.

Making a List of SunOS System Configuration Files to Back Up

There are a number of SunOS release 4 system configuration files that can be merged or converted for the Solaris platform. Use the example list that follows to help select the system configuration files you want to back up.

The list contains suggestions. You should study the items in the list carefully and add or delete files depending on the configuration at your site. For example, if you have special files in directories from third-party software vendors, you may need to save them.

If the system is a NIS master server, you should save all the files that reside in the NIS master directory (for example, /etc). Additionally, save any other master files that you added to NIS. Examples of files to back up include:

• ./.cshrc

• ./.profile

• ./.login

• ./.logout

• ./.rhosts

• ./etc (if the system is a NIS client or has no name service)

• ./var/spool/calendar

• ./var/spool/cron

• ./var/spool/uucp

• ./var/nis (if the system is a NIS master server)

• Boot programs in./tftpboot