Every few years or so I need to migrate this site (and others) to a new hosted server. Here is my checklist for what packages to install, and other stuff to do. At the moment, I'm using CentOS 5. So far, I haven't decided to go the virtualization route; even though virtual hosted servers are cheaper, they don't have the horsepower to run some of the bigger sites I host. (hint: not this blog.)
Packages (via yum):
emacs
postfix
mysql-devel
freetype-devel (for RRDtool)
libpng-devel
libart_lgpl-devel
Directories to tar/rsync over:
web document roots
/home dirs
/usr/local
Critical configs:
/etc/httpd/conf and conf.d
/etc/sysconfig/iptables
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group
/etc/sudoers
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
Misc tasks:
- disable hosting company account
- disable webmin or other security holes
- configure postfix for outbound
- recompile RRDtool
- dude, DON'T FORGET THE CRONTABS!!!!! including for users and /etc/crontab and .daily etc
- Time zone: cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Eastern /etc/localtime
