transfer problem (SOLVED?)

[Bill Tangren]

Bill Tangren wrote:
> I have the unhappy task of replacing an aging Linux box with a newer 
> one. The old one runs inn 2.4.1, and I am trying to get the new one to 
> do so as well. We have no external feed, but we do have several internal 
> groups with a few upwards of a few thousand postings each. I practiced 
> this transfer and wrote down what worked. The trouble is, when I made 
> the switch, it didn't work. This is what I did:
> 
> I set up the new server with the identical settings and configuration 
> files as the old (the new server will have the same name as the old).
> 
> I tarred the old posts (all of which fall under the usno directory):
> 
> # cd /var/spool/news/articles/
> # tar cf news.tar usno
> 
> I then ftp'ed them to the new server, and untarred them.
> 
> I then ftp's the contents of /news/db:
> 
> # cd /news/db
> # sftp aa
> sftp> cd /news/db
> sftp> get *
> sftp> bye
> # chown news:news *
> 
> Finally, I logged in as news and ran makehistory and makedbz:
> 
> # su - news
> -sh-3.00$ cd /news/db
> -sh-3.00$ /news/bin/makehistory -b -f history.n -O -l 30000 -I -T /tmp
> -sh-3.00$ /news/bin/makedbz -s `wc -l < history` -f history.n
> -sh-3.00$ mv history.n history
> -sh-3.00$ mv history.n.dir history.dir
> -sh-3.00$ mv history.n.index history.index
> -sh-3.00$ mv history.n.hash history.hash
> -sh-3.00$ exit
> 
> This worked before (on a test platform), but it did not this time. I 
> started the server, and then observed the logs as I used a news client 
> (mozilla mail) to see how everything turned out. I didn't see any posts 
> at all. The logs showed nothing out of the ordinary.
> 
> The /news/db/active file had funny numbers in it, like so:
> 
> usno.aa.questions 0000004808 00004905 y
> 
> There are 4808 posts in this newsgroup. And as I understand it, the 
> second number should be the lower limit (1, in this case). With the 
> server stopped, I adjusted these (by hand) to look like this:
> 
> usno.aa.questions 0000004808 00000001 y
> 
> What that did was allow me to see newer than about 2 weeks old. Nothing 
> older than that, though those older messages are still there.
> 
> Would someone please tell me what I am doing wrong?
> 
> Bill
> 

I decided to do a clean install, which meant doing a 'make clean', and 
starting over (deleting everything in /news and /var/spool/news). After 
I did that, I followed the steps above, and it worked. Go figure. If I 
live to be 100, I'll never figure out how this server works.

Sorry to bother everyone.

Bill