From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 6 21:50:11 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 858FB1065674 for ; Thu, 6 Jan 2011 21:50:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dteske@vicor.com) Received: from postoffice.vicor.com (postoffice.vicor.com [69.26.56.53]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6FFD78FC21 for ; Thu, 6 Jan 2011 21:50:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [208.206.78.30] (port=52809 helo=dt.vicor.com) by postoffice.vicor.com with esmtpsa (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Paxii-0002Hu-F0; Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:50:10 -0800 From: Devin Teske To: grarpamp In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Vicor, Inc Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:50:08 -0800 Message-Id: <1294350608.19428.61.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.0.2 (2.0.2-41.el4) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Scan-Signature: 192eb18ea76f745c09fff0a19cc4b1ce X-Scan-Host: postoffice.vicor.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upgrading from FreeBSD 4.10 to 8.1? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:50:11 -0000 Sharing some of our experiences here at VICOR. On Thu, 2011-01-06 at 15:55 -0500, grarpamp wrote: > I know I'll take heat from everyone else who responded saying to > effectively ship a new box. But maybe this user has significant > costs involved with that. Along with any other reasons... Our company is in that situation. In fact, we have: >1000 systems still running FreeBSD-4.11 >200 systems still running FreeBSD-4.8 >1 system still running FreeBSD-4.4 and 1 system still running FreeBSD-2.2.2 The >200 4.8 systems are actually in the process of upgrading to 4.11 this year (go ahead... roflmao your heart out). Later this year, we plan to migrate ~500 systems from 4.11 to 8.1 and we plan to do it with a binary upgrade package (of our own design). > > v4 to v8 can be done. I've done it entirely live over the net. > Nothing crazy about it. Confirmed. We've done it too. Nothing special. > > The basic idea is that there are too many changes and tools involved > to fart around with build/install world, mergemaster, CD's, sysinstall, > etc. And they're just not aware of such a jump. And you can't trust > the idiots on the other end to get it right even if they would work. > You are the SA, free your mind. To the initiate, it would be > harrowing. To the seasoned SA, it's logical cake. > It takes time to be thorough, but if you're thorough there's no reason to fear a binary upgrade. In fact, you can logistically break it down into the following procedure: - Take vanilla 4.x host-one - Take vanilla 8.x host-two - Diff host-one to host-two - Build binary differential package - Package pre-install regresses the machine by uninstalling all packages - Package post-install builds the 8.x box back up with new packages > So backup your entire 4.x box over the wire, there will be no return. > In our 4.x->8.x binary upgrade, we have a back-out strategy because we've been doing binary upgrades for years. In essence, our company started on FreeBSD-2.2.2, then did binary upgrade to 4.4. Then binary upgrade to 4.8. Then binary upgrade to 4.11. Now binary upgrade to 8.1. The backout strategy is essentially to re-install the "4.11 upgrade" package (downgrading from 8.1 back to 4.11). But really... in over 10 years, we've never had to "back out" a binary upgrade (the procedure to do so has been documented and there, but in the tens-of-thousands of binary upgrades we've done, we've never had to back it out... not even once). > Go find a box and install v8 however you want it. If you fail, this > one goes to the shipper asap. You can use a vm but that will take > longer to ship. You are very wise to also install a v4 box and > overlay your backup on it first for testing the entire process. If > you failed to heed SA wisdom about separating / /usr /usr/local > /var /home /boot, free space, etc on the original v4 box, your life > will be much harder. But if you have a ton of unpartitioned free > space on it, you can fix that one at a time too ;) > > Be very aware of boot sectors, loaders, partitions, slices, fstab, > sizes, /dev, ifconfig, packet filters, kernel config, etc. That > kills most people. Also, since all your apps will be pristine v8 > vers, you need to sort out their use of the old data and config. > > If you have space, rsync -Haxi upload your v8 mountpoints to separate > staging dirs on the v4 box. It helps narrow your power fail window :) > > Get on the v4 box. If you've got console, re boot -s. If not, take > it down till only init, sh and sshd remain. If you have space, rsync > your current v4 mountpoints to some backup dirs. > > You're going to need static versions of rsync, openssh, sh, su, and > any other tools. You'll need to kill and run the static sshd... re: > fstat, umount, libs, etc. If you want, truncate /etc/rc to load > only static sshd from /root. This gives you some chance at recovery. > Again, do a local trial run to figure out what, where and when you > want or need all the tricks and in what order. > > Mount everything read-write and rsync -Haxi --delete from your v8 > staging dirs (whether local or remote) over top of the live but now > library freed v4 mountpoints. > > Reboot ;) > > Don't forget to lay down new boot sectors etc as and when needed > during or after the above. > > It works, don't complain to me or this list if you break it :) > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" -- Cheers, Devin Teske -> CONTACT INFORMATION <- Business Solutions Consultant II FIS - fisglobal.com 510-735-5650 Mobile 510-621-2038 Office 510-621-2020 Office Fax 909-477-4578 Home/Fax devin.teske@fisglobal.com -> LEGAL DISCLAIMER <- This message contains confidential and proprietary information of the sender, and is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. 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