Advanced migration of Provider-1 R7x

Check Point listens, guys.

One of the most demanded features for years was an ability to migrate Provider-1 systems not only between different pieces of hardware but also between OS platforms.

It became quite hot when decent SPLAT was out. Once upon a time it was only possible with CMA migration. It was a painful and long procedure. And you could not do this if you had VSX managed.

This is not the case anymore. With new Multi-domain systems of R7x you can do it fast and easy.

First, insert Provider-1 target version installation CD to your MDS. Mount cdrom and go to linux folder on it. Run the usual mds_setup script from there.

You will have 4 options, and the last one is to export your existing MDS configuration. Choose it and continue. As a result you will get MDS export file.

On the target machine install the desired version from the CD. Pre-configure it as required (Primary MDS, etc).

Copy the export file to it.

To import go to $MDSDIR/system/install and run mds_import script from there pointing to your export file.

Say, your export file is placed in /var/tmp and called export_mds_12345.tgz. Then your import command will look ./mds_import /var/tmp/export_mds_12345.tgz.

The script will re-build your MDS on the new machine and will upgrade database, if necessary.

In about  ten to twenty minutes you will have new migrated and upgraded system. No more mds_backup and mds_restore hassle, no more upgrade in place and disk space wasted by old versions. You can easily use it with VSX, you can finally change your old Solaris MDS to a shiny new SPLAT box without spending 10 days migrating CMAs with stopped production management operations.

Hooray! Check Point, thanks a lot!