Reloading Embedded Image

EddieA

I currently have the embedded image of 1.2.3 loaded on a 512M DOM, which I'm planning on replacing with a 2G unit, and I was wondering if this would work:

Boot from a USB key, and copy off the entire CF slice. Replace the DOM. Boot from the USB key again, flash the DOM with the 2G image, and then replace the CF slice with the one I saved earlier.

Is there anything else I need to do. I seem to remember reading something about a file, or maybe more than one, that pfSense used to determine that this was the first time it had been booted, and to do some initialisation. But I couldn't find the right search words to find it again.

Or would it be safer to just dig up my null serial cable, do a clean install of the 2G image, and then reload my configuration. Except this way, I'd lose all the historical data.

I know I could just dd off the 512M image, and restore it to the 2G DOM and it would still work, but I really don't want to do it that way.

Cheers.

jimp

You don't need to copy the cf slice directly. Here is what you could do:

Backup your config
Install the backup package, point it to your RRD data and then download it (this example is actually given in the book, pg 89, section 5.6)
Swap new CF
When prompted with the wizard, just click the logo at the top of the screen to bypass it
Restore config (which should also reinstall the backup pkg)
Restore RRD data

Now you could do the same deal by booting another pfSense or FreeBSD install, reading the data off the old drive, writing it to the new drive, etc, but it's a bit more involved than the above and doesn't also give you the ability to periodically pull off RRD backups as well. (Side note: RRD data can be backed up in config.xml backups on 2.0 so this is a non-issue there)

EddieA

Cool, thanks.

But this still means I need to find my null modem cable, because one of my NICs isn't one that's pre-configured in the image.

Cheers.

jimp

Yeah either way can be tricky in that situation. If you can't find your null modem cable you can still go the other route.