What to look out for when changing old servers.

Last week I replied to a post from Marko Sutic on the oracle-l mailing list (Here's the thread on the mailing list archives). Apperently it was worth it as he wrote back saying « I'm astonished with the quality of your reply! » (thanks Marco, it's a good ego booster! :)

He suggested that this post should be shared because it can be useful to many people. And not just as an Oracle specific issue. He also asked if he could post it on his blog. Not a bad idea, I thought. So here it is. But first, let's see Marco's original question: