Production server running from USB stilck with /var on HD ? - finished email!

[Philip Rhoades]

People,

Sorry, I accidentally sent the previous note before it was finished . 
.:

I have been using RH and Fedora since the beginning and love it!  I 
like to keep up with the latest version of Fedora on my production 
server and although the install of the OS itself from a LiveCD/USB is 
very fast, restoring all the other stuff (web sites, mailing lists etc) 
takes quite a while.  To reduce downtime of the server, what I did last 
time was to install to a virtual machine which used a physical HD and 
then to reboot the real server on the new HD when it was ready to go.  
Now I am thinking of installing to a USB stick on a workstation, getting 
it all working and then moving the USB stick to the server but having 
all the changeable files on /var (or anywhwere else) symlinked to a dir 
on the server HD for speed.  What are the potential problems with this 
idea?  I can see:

- slower bootup

- less reliable media for critical files

Are there other reasons why this approach might not be a good idea?

Thanks,

Phil.
-- 
Philip Rhoades

GPO Box 3411
Sydney NSW	2001
Australia
E-mail:  phil at pricom.com.au