Moving a web site to a new server

[carvin5string]

I have a web server running FreeBSD-5.2.1/Apache-2.0.48/PHP-4.3.6/MySQL-3.23.49. The server itself is an old AMD-Athlon600 (slot A, socket A, whichever). And it is still using the original hard drive, etc. I am afraid that one of these days it will quit working.

So, I was thinking maybe attaching a second hard drive, running a Ghost floppy, copy the entire hard drive contents to the new drive, and place the new drive into a new computer.

But, I don't think that will work. Even if the Ghost copying does work, the OS may not run on a new machine so vastly different from the original.

I could install the latest versions of all the apps on a new box, then copy the web site files onto it and import the databases, but the web site will not load properly. Why? Becuase the vast difference between the versions of the apps running currently and the new versions that would be installed. I know for a fact that a large number of changes would have to be made to the web site to make it work on the new versions of those apps - PHP and MySQL specifically.

This is a corporate site, the server itself is co-located in our ISP's office.

What would you guys recommend?

[winged1]

try it. Most software revisions are backwards compatible. Your OS will likely require new hardware references but your cpu should have no effect, other than speed.

[sparq]

I dont see why your site wouldnt work just because the new server has NEWER versions of the software. I mean, HTML 1.0 pages didnt stop working when HTML 1.1 came out. Personally I would say get the new server up and running, then simply transfer over the website files. Its as simple as that...

[wheelerch]

Also, running old versions of php & mysql isnt very secure, as there will be many security issues. It shouldnt take much to get them working on the latest versions, the only major thing i can think of is php register globals, but if you set that to 'on' in the config that wont be a problem either...