It took some blood, sweat, tears and a lot of gasoline; but we're back on the air, and we're cruising on FreeBSD
After postponing, delaying and deferring the issue for quite a bit of time; it was getting kind of embarrassing to put off the migration, and the worst part was that I didn't have an excuse not to do it. I had picked a date in my agenda to do the actual migration; which was on a Friday. But on Thursday I was bored, and decided to do it one day earlier. That decision may or may not have been rushed by the fact that my server was having yet another issue with the virus scanning software.
I downloaded FreeBSD-8.2-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso, made a final backup of my server data and got ready to make my way to the datacenter where the server is hosted. You can enter the datacenter 24/7, but they do require you to register on a website so they know who is coming. While trying to register I got an error on the website. I emailed the hosting company that I was unable to register on the website, but that I was en-route and would need access to the datacenter.
When I got to the datacenter and tried to log in, the system said there was no registration for me and therefore it could not let me in. I called the hosting company's helpdesk to ask why they hadn't arranged for access. The guy on the phone said that they had fixed the problem that was preventing me from registering, and that I should be able to register now. I told him that I was already at the datacenter, and asked if he could register access for me. He told me that they're not allowed to do that, and suggested that I use my smart phone to register. I told him that I had already tried that, but the website didn't work because it redirected to some kind of status page as soon as it detected that I was using a smart phone instead of a desktop pc. After some arguing with the helpdesk about how I would get access to the server without having to drive back to my home or harass Daniel at work, the security guard of the datacenter offered me use of his private laptop to register for access. Some bro-fists were exchanged and I was finally able to go inside.
I hooked up my USB CD-ROM player to the server, and made it boot from CD... or so I thought! While trying to boot, it got stuck halfway in loading the kernel. Switching USB ports, rubbing the CD; none of it seemed to help. Man, I was pissed! But I also facepalmed, because I neglected to check if the CD was working before driving off to the datacenter. I bro-fisted the security guard again, told him I would be back in a bit, and drove back home grumpy and hungry.Back home I downloaded FreeBSD-8.2-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso to save some time. I double and triple checked that the CD was booting and working properly. A quick bite later I was on my way back to the datacenter. I hooked up the CD-ROM player to the server again and... it got stuck halfway in loading the kernel again! Needless to say, a small mushroom cloud would have manifested itself above the datacenter. I looked around the datacenter to see if someone else was there. I got lucky; some American guy was working on a couple of servers and had a CD-ROM with him that I was able to lend for a few minutes. Unfortunately, it gave the same result as with my own CD-ROM.
After cooling down a bit, I decided to bring the server home to figure out what the deal was. the brand of CD-R's, a driver issue, a BIOS configuration issue, the ISO's being broken... It could be a lot of different things. Back at home I decided to download FreeBSD-8.2-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img and try to boot from an USB memory stick instead; which worked perfect the first time; man I was relieved! Since it was already late I decided to continue the next morning.
The next day, everything went as planned. I installed FreeBSD on the server, did some minimal configuration so that I would at least be able to receive some email, compiled a custom kernel and drove back to the datacenter to shove the server back in the rack. The rest of the weekend I spent tweaking the configuration and debugging some PHP scripts to fix case sensitive pathnames, etc..
Over the next few days or weeks I will probably need to do some minor tweaks, but right now I have everything running pretty much the way I wanted, and couldn't be more happy with it. It's so nice when everything works out the way you had it in mind.