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Date:      Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:27:35 -0400
From:      Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com>
To:        Christopher Schulte <christopher@schulte.org>, "Nuno Teixeira" <nuno.mailinglists@pt-quorum.com>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Major upgrade: 4.3R -> 4.4R - Any problem?
Message-ID:  <01101711273502.00327@proxy.the-i-pa.com>
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20011017093645.03ca8e30@pop.schulte.org>
References:  <5.1.0.14.0.20011017093645.03ca8e30@pop.schulte.org>

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You forgot one very important step, which I've added below

On Wednesday 17 October 2001 11:01, Christopher Schulte wrote:
> At 11:30 AM 10/17/2001 +0100, Nuno Teixeira wrote:
> >In my server I only use releases and I'm using 4.3R for now. I'd like to
> >know if any of you have made a major upgrade directly from 4.3R to 4.4R in
> >a multiuser enviorment, i.e., do all process (buildworld, buildkernel,
> >installkernel, installworld and mergemaster) in multiuser mode and via
> > SSH.

<SNIP>

> Offhand:
>
> Before you start, make sure kern.securelevel is set to a negative number:
>
> # sysctl -a | grep -i secu
> kern.securelevel: -1
>
> You don't want to get half way through the install and have some bits fail
> because of file ACLs like schg.
>
> Now, log all users off.  Kill all their processes.  Kill off all processes
> you possibly can (all services like web/ftp/pop/smtp/dns/etc, inetd, cron,
> syslog, and even the listening sshd (your connection will not be lost as
> long as you don't kill the process which your session is using)) before
> doing the actual installworld and installkernel.

Backup, and VERIFY your backup!

> Check to make sure your network card will be supported by your new kernel,
> with the config unchanged.
>
> Read /usr/src/UPDATING
>
> Read /usr/src/UPDATING again.
>
> Cross your fingers. :p
>
> I've upgraded boxes remotely like this many times with no problems.  You
> should have a backup plan in case it fails.  Telephone call to the NOC your
> box is in, ability to drive to the location if possible, or whatever is
> within reason.

I recently did an upgrade and botched the order of the upgrade and ended
up with a vinum kernel module that wasn't in sync with the vinum userland,
or _something_ messed up with vinum ... it simply couldn't mount the volumes.
Overall result, a system with only the / partition available - obviously a bad
thing.
It was my fault, obviously hadn't had enough coffee yet, but luckily I had a
backup of everything that I could restore from.  Unfortunatley, 48G of data
took about 2 hours to restore ... bleah.
I guess step one should be "make sure you've had enough coffee before
starting"
I would also notify users that "the system will be undergoing maintenance
during the hours of x:xx to x:xx and some services may be temporarily
unavailable."

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technology technical services
(412) 793-4257

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