Can you transfer a relay to a new device using the same IP?

Question

I’ve got a Debian VM with a relay running, however, I’d like to transfer it to another VM with minimal Debian installed. If I assign the new machine with the same IP and configurations, can it run the same relay? I would also delete the first VM.

Answer 1

You can transfer a relay to another machine, even if it has a different IP address.

1. Stop the Tor process at the old computer.
2. Install your operating system on the new machine.
3. Install Tor on you Debian system. Best is to follow the instructions from the Tor Project.
4. Stop the Tor process: systemctl stop tor.
5. Copy the torrc from your old system to the new system.
6. Copy the files from /var/lib/tor/keys to the new system into the same directory. Check that they have the same permissions.
7. Start the Tor process: systemctl start tor.
8. Check the logs for errors, warnings etc.
9. If everything works smooth, you can delete the files at the old system.

Now your new system has the same configurations, identity, etc. as the old system.