[FX.php List] [Off-ish] Advice on FMS8A -> FMS9A migration strategy

[Troy Meyers]

I've got FX.php and FMS8A working well on a one-machine setup with the DB server / web server being a Mac Mini Intel dual core running MacOS 10.4.10.

I've been putting off switching to FMS9A until the dust settled regarding possible bugs, etc. and now that the FMS 9.0v2 update is out I feel more confident doing this. I had thought that I'd purchase another Mini and install FMS9A on that... and since I've heard that it's now important that the web server be on a different machine than the database server, I thought I'd use the earlier Mac Mini as the web server with all the PHP, FX.php, etc. stuff on it.

I just purchased the new Mac Mini (did it quickly so that it'd ship with Tiger, not Leopard) and started installing FMS9A, but now I realize I don't know what would be the best strategy to take. It's important that the down-time for the site is an absolute minimum, and I'm not sure which of two approaches would be better.

Here are the two choices I think I have:

1) Install FMS9A _and_ all the web stuff as a one-machine setup on the new Mini. This way I can test it before switching the public to the new setup. Once I'm sure it's working, switch the public to the new server, and THEN set up the older machine as the web server, and reconfigure the whole thing so that it's a two-machine setup.

2) Do the FMS9A install as DB server only on the new machine. When I'm ready to do the big switch, do the FMS9A web component install on the older machine, and link them up.

I've never done a 2-machine install and setup, nor have I tried installing FMS9 before. When I tried taking approach (2) I kind of hit a wall, it seems like I can't accomplish that on the DB machine unless the web-machine is already configured. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

Can anyone suggest what the best path to take is, and what pitfalls there might be?

-Troy