Hardware migration and upgrade from 6.3 to 8.0 advice

[Achilleas Mantzios]

			Hello,

i am facing this situation, where i need to upgrade from my 6.3 i386
system, used as my main workstation, to a new hardware based on amd64
(phenom II x4).



My current system is alive since 2005, so is full of code, scripts,
configurations,look&feel,ssh keys etc.. that i would like to keep
handy in my new system.

Also, currently i run gmirror, i am mentioning it, in case it affects something.



Since 2005, dealing with programming/support/etc.. i haven't done any
upgrade task in FreeBSD, so i dont feel that confident in this regard.



I could:

a) install a brand new 8.0-RELEASE in the new hardware and then

 a1) just mount the old disks to the new system or

 a2) migrate /home user data directly to the new home dirs

b) migrate all current data to the new hardware, kernel/system
included, and then try to upgrade to 8.0 (by sysinstall or
makeworld/makekernel)



So, its a trade-off between pain, correctness, effectiveness, and ease of use.



What would you guys recommend? Which way to go? Any other options?

Thanx in advance!

Please include me in your CC, as i am not subscribed to the list.

Achilleas Mantzios