rsync as root for mail servers?

[Bill Moran]

In response to Chris Maness <chris at chrismaness.com>:

> I plan on cutting over a server to new hardware, and I was wondering if 
> I can add cert based login for root (how do I do this)?  This is so that 
> I can use rsync as root to sync the mail spool and home directories.  
> Will this work?  I am using sendmail and wu-imapd.

Follow the instructions for setting up ssh keys (there are dozens of
howtos all over the 'net) then tweak /etc/ssh/sshd_config to allow
root login (the config paramter is pretty obvious).  Ensure that you
either have a very strong root password, or that password auth for
root is disabled first.

Then, rsync you stuff using ssh as the connection mechanism (there's
a command line switch for this in rsync, don't remember the details)

Once you've got things rsynced the first time (while running) shut
down all the services on the active machine and rsync again.  This
second rsync should be very fast so you'll have little downtime.

-- 
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com